I think it also gave the Q2K songs a bit of a kick in the ass too.
Live Evolution absolutely did do that. I really liked the Q2k material live. I saw something like 11 shows on that tour, and the songs were much better live. A bigger energy. I was at the Seattle 1999 fan club show which marked Kelly's debut. The tunes were actually a LOT more energetic then. If you can track em down, the demos the guys debuted on the radio the day before that show (Breakdown Room, Sacred Ground, and Liquid Sky) are all much more energetic than the finished, polished versions. It was a bit of a bummer, honestly.
I actually had no major issues with Kelly's playing on that, although I know I am in the minority.
One of the standout songs on that set was the downtuned The Lady Wore Black. I love the original arrangement of that song, but I feel like the changes make it even more dark and brooding, which fits that song well.
His use of the wah really bothered me on Live Evolution. I could be mistaken, but his usage of it increased as the Q2k tour got longer.
I fully agree with you on TLWB. If memory serves, there are a few different versions of that song -- the one on the EP, the one they played live on the Empire tour, the unplugged version, the Q2k-Live Evolution version, and then it was changed again I think for Cabaret tour (? maybe, I didn't pay much attention to that).
Out of all of them, the Q2k/Live Evolution era one is probably my favorite.
I like the version of Hit the Black on Live Evolution.
That's a great live album btw. I think Geoff's vocals work well on that one.
I've never heard that album.
Tim -- you should pick it up. Or at least YouTube it. You'll cringe a bit at the wah pedal use by Kelly, but it is really a good DVD. The picture quality (for 2001) alone is worth the money.
Live Evolution was a very good release, I quite like it and I don't mind Kelly's playing. But I'm the one, the only one that thinks Q2K is a really strong record.
They did a good job of presenting their whole career on Live Evolution and Geoff sounds surprisingly good, I always wonder if there was much tempering in the studio afterwards.
I like Q2k. I think it was moving in the right direction after Hear in the Now Frontier. I've always said I would have liked to have heard what the band would have done with a second record with that lineup. People bag on Kelly (and IMO, rightfully so) for his wah pedal usage in Queensryche, but the guy is a good songwriter. I've always loved his work with Slave to the System, and to a minor extent, Brother Cane (Wishpool record). He just was a curious fit for Queensryche that didn't really sound "right."
But Q2k...got a bad rap. Before Dedicated to Crap..err...Chaos, Q2k was pretty much universally accepted by fans as the "worst" QR record. And I guess I would agree? But there are a lot of songs on it (and some that came later, such as HOWL, which is awesome) that I really loved. And I'm not ashamed to say I really enjoyed that whole era of the band. It didn't sound like classic Ryche, but I enjoyed it immensely.
Favs on Q2k (in order) - Howl (on the re-release), When the Rain Comes (such a great solo by Whip), Right Side of My Mind, Liquid Sky.
They did a good job of presenting their whole career on Live Evolution and Geoff sounds surprisingly good, I always wonder if there was much tempering in the studio afterwards.
Well, he did sound decent back then. I was at the second night of taping, and can say pretty confidently that there was fairly minimal touching up of the vocals in post-production, if any. I mean, listen to London if you doubt me. If ever there was a spot that desperately NEEDED touching up, it's the part in London right after the solo. I literally cringed at the show when he sang that and thought to myself, "I know they're going to re-do that in the studio before they release this show on disk." I was very surprised when they didn't. But what is deceptive about the vocals during that show is that they had piped in a ton of backup vocals to prop Geoff up. So although he is sing decently, it isn't all him. And that isn't post-production studio work. That is just what they piped in. I remember a few times at that show where, similar to watching the DVD afterward, Geoff did not have the mic up to his mouth, but you could hear "Geoff" singing.
I wasn't there, but I had another friend agree with you, bosk1, who was there for both shows. Very minimal vocal overdubs if any. There were background vocals being piped in, but they had been doing that the entire tour. You can clearly hear his live singing over it, it was just to beef up the overall sound. Chris' vocals were very engaged by the time HITNF rolled around, and Kelly and Ed really couldn't replicate that. So I guess they just took the backing vocal tracks and synced them up to make the vocals more powerful.
But yeah, the lead vocals were live. Geoff had some snafus for sure (London -- whoah), but overall, I thought he sounded very good.