Geoff Tate's "Operation: Mindcrime" (not Queensryche)

[Samsara]

Both Todd and the interviewer here are way out of order.  Shut the fuck up, both of you.

Agree. 

and it goes for QR too.  It's not like Todd looks good saying these things either. 

Perhaps that's because Todd isn't the guy he's painted himself to be all these years. Just food for thought.

Anyway, disappointing about Tate. But TAC -- I wasn't criticizing your criticism. I agree with you. You can tell Tate's heart isn't into the performance on Sweet Oblivion. It's on the same technical level, singing-wise, as his Avantasia spots, but lacks the same sort of passion. Which now is not a surprise, given what we know from Simone.

[Stadler]

It's funny how all I ever heard about him was how he's an ass etc and then I see him with Avantasia and Tobi always posts pics of him with Geoff making it look like they are happy, Geoff sounds good.  I go see Geoff's show, he looks happy he smiles gives m a high five, I start to wonder, maybe he aint such a bad dude..... and then this.  All of this drama is a major turn off for me wanting to check out more of his work, and it goes for QR too.  It's not like Todd looks good saying these things either.

I don't know anything about Tate really, but I have worked with dozens of singers in my day, and just other difficult people. Even the most difficult people in the world to work with have some people they click with very well anyway and things are good. Look at Axl Rose. Dude is, or at least historically, NOT been easy to work with, but Sebastian Bach is always happen to be with him, you know? Sometimes people can be difficult in 95% of the situations and great in the other 5%. Neither negates the other.

I'll bet every one of us has someone in our lives like that.   They are a douche on wheels the majority of the time, but either their spouse worships them, or their boss, or whatever.   

For my money, I can separate.  Tate is an ass from what I understand (I've never met him myself), but it's unassailable; the vocal performances from the EP through at least Empire are some of the best in prog metal/metal.  I saw him open for Kiss on the Warning tour, and he delivered the goods like few I've ever seen.   It's personality clashes, and I'm not one of the personalities involved, so it's not like I'm funding pedophilia by buying his records (though I've stayed clear since... Hear In The Now Frontier). 

[Grappler]

It's funny how all I ever heard about him was how he's an ass etc and then I see him with Avantasia and Tobi always posts pics of him with Geoff making it look like they are happy, Geoff sounds good.  I go see Geoff's show, he looks happy he smiles gives m a high five, I start to wonder, maybe he aint such a bad dude..... and then this.  All of this drama is a major turn off for me wanting to check out more of his work, and it goes for QR too.  It's not like Todd looks good saying these things either.

Tobi's also a GT fanboy.  He loooooves him.  He probably also pays Geoff really well, so Geoff is more courteous to him because he's getting his ego stroked every night in addition to a pretty good payday, since Avantasia is HUGE.

[Art]

TLT came out looking really bad with these kind of comments...

[MirrorMask]

It's funny how all I ever heard about him was how he's an ass etc and then I see him with Avantasia and Tobi always posts pics of him with Geoff making it look like they are happy, Geoff sounds good.  I go see Geoff's show, he looks happy he smiles gives m a high five, I start to wonder, maybe he aint such a bad dude..... and then this.  All of this drama is a major turn off for me wanting to check out more of his work, and it goes for QR too.  It's not like Todd looks good saying these things either.

Tobi's also a GT fanboy.  He loooooves him.  He probably also pays Geoff really well, so Geoff is more courteous to him because he's getting his ego stroked every night in addition to a pretty good payday, since Avantasia is HUGE.

Indeed. "Hey Geoff, I love you sooooo much, and I'll pay you acconrdingly, please come on tour with me to sing 5-6 songs every night in front of crowds you probably don't see since the Empire tour days".... he'd be a major fool to blow that.

[jingle.boy]

Indeed. "Hey Geoff, I love you sooooo much, and I'll pay you acconrdingly, please come on tour with me to sing 5-6 songs every night in front of crowds you probably don't see since the Empire tour days".... he'd be a major fool to blow that.

Give him time.

[cramx3]

Indeed. "Hey Geoff, I love you sooooo much, and I'll pay you acconrdingly, please come on tour with me to sing 5-6 songs every night in front of crowds you probably don't see since the Empire tour days".... he'd be a major fool to blow that.

Give him time.

 

[?]

Man, just when you think Tate has got his shit back together at least to some extent, he goes off the rails again.

seems there is more to the story from the All That Shreds interview....

per twitter...



Not sure it was a good idea for the interviewer to put that out there, but there it is.

Hey Todd, maybe you might be able to sing longer sets if you guys DID tune down.

And yeah, the journo comes across as unprofessional.

[Setzer]

So it seems Tate will not only perform 'Empire' in its entirety, but also 'Rage for Order' 
The first tour dates are also up. It'll be interesting.
http://blabbermouth.net/news/geoff-tate-to-perform-queensryches-entire-rage-for-order-and-empire-albums-on-2020-tour/

And it seems he modified the album covers...

[TAC]

And it seems he modified the album covers...

 

That is funny.

[bosk1]

Sad.  On many levels.

[bl5150]

Holy shit

[goo-goo]

Geoff beats QR again LOL. 

Wouldn't mind hearing RFO with the LaTorre QR.

[KevShmev]

As much as I'd love to see both of those albums performed in full, I would never give Tate any money again.  This isn't coming to St. Louis anyway.

[Setlist Scotty]

So it seems Tate will not only perform 'Empire' in its entirety, but also 'Rage for Order' 

So basically, the same thing QR did in 2009, except full albums, and nothing from American Soldier? If this were Tate circa 1990, I'd be interested. But Tater 2019? Pass.
 
 

And it seems he poorly modified the album covers...

FTFY
 
 

Geoff beats QR again LOL. 

Wouldn't mind hearing RFO with the LaTorre QR.

Ditto on both!

[bl5150]

I am going over to Blabbermouth to count how many vest jokes there are 

[TAC]

Maybe you could share some of the um..vest ones.

[Nick]

So it seems Tate will not only perform 'Empire' in its entirety, but also 'Rage for Order' 

So basically, the same thing QR did in 2009, except full albums, and nothing from American Soldier? If this were Tate circa 1990, I'd be interested. But Tater 2019? Pass.
 
 

And it seems he poorly modified the album covers...

FTFY
 
 

Geoff beats QR again LOL. 

Wouldn't mind hearing RFO with the LaTorre QR.

Ditto on both!

All of this, but man, I haven't seen Tateryche yet and the only reason I'm even remotely considering it is because although I finally got to see one of my two favorite songs (Prophecy) performed with Todd, I still long to see my other, which is Chemical Youth.

[wolfking]

I am going over to Blabbermouth to count how many vest jokes there are 

Don't get too invested on that website Brent

[IDontNotDoThings]

As much as I dislike Tate, I must admit that the redesign of the Empire cover art is actually much better than the original artwork. He actually fixed the stupid jpeg-compression thing around the logo.

[MirrorMask]

Apples and oranges but let's not forget that Ozzy did a whole live album of Black Sabbath "covers" (since technically he was out of the band).

I'm by no means a Tate supporter but if he thinks his original voice (as in original singer of the band) is a draw enough for people interested in those two albums why shouldn't he go for it? especially since he's not in the situation of "Queensryche themselves did it, I wish I had thought sooner about it".

[EPIC Outro]

I saw Tate play Mindcrime in its entirety a few years ago and had a great time. Between classic QR, Tate, and current QR, I've seen a lot of their material live, but there are still plenty of songs I've missed.

Seeing Rage and Empire in their entirety will fill in a lot of the gaps. And he is playing half an hour from me. I think I'll check it out next year.

[Ruba]

As much as I dislike Tate, I must admit that the redesign of the Empire cover art is actually much better than the original artwork. He actually fixed the stupid jpeg-compression thing around the logo.

Yeah, I can't understand why they released the album with that crap quality cover.

[Cruithne]

I hope he does a better job of singing the Empire songs than he did on the re-recordings for FU... Oof.

Also, kinda weird to hear that he's going to play R4O in full given what he said about it in the past...

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/queensr-che-singer-it-would-be-great-if-chris-degarmo-wanted-to-rejoin-the-band/

Regarding whether he would ever consider performing the 1986 QUEENSRŸCHE "Rage For Order" in its entirety on a full tour, Tate said, "Probably not. We played the 'Rage For Order' album [as a one-off] in New York [last year], and that was really, really… How should I put it? It wasn't very satisfying. I'll put it that way. It's not a record that has a lot of passion in it; it's kind of cold and clinical. It was a record of its time. It's not an album that has songs on it that resonate with me anymore as a person. So it's not something that I would work very hard to put together.

Still, the Empire stuff might be just about still worth the price of a ticket. That era's about the only one he sings better than Todd just because of how those songs fuck with the passaggio and whilst I far prefer Todd's voice these days he's not exactly the technician Tate was/is.

[pg1067]

So it seems Tate will not only perform 'Empire' in its entirety, but also 'Rage for Order' 
The first tour dates are also up. It'll be interesting.
http://blabbermouth.net/news/geoff-tate-to-perform-queensryches-entire-rage-for-order-and-empire-albums-on-2020-tour/

If he can pull off Neue Regel, that would be worth the price of admission by itself!  I will seriously consider this if he does a show near me on a good night.

[EPICVIEW]

to me ...anytime one can see a star like Geoff , who really is QR at this point, its a gift, like seeing Tyler, Ozzy or Sir Paul, to me the shows will be fun and could be the last time these songs are played.  I hate Tods voice hes a total butcher and the band of QR to me has no star power and you couldnt pay me to see Toddryche period, they have no stage presence and no star power live

[T-ski]

to me ...anytime one can see a star like Geoff , who really is QR at this point, its a gift, like seeing Tyler, Ozzy or Sir Paul, to me the shows will be fun and could be the last time these songs are played.  I hate Tods voice hes a total butcher and the band of QR to me has no star power and you couldnt pay me to see Toddryche period, they have no stage presence and no start power live

 

[Ben_Jamin]

If this comes here, I'll go check it out. He will likely do what the current Queensryche never does...The build-up spoken section in Empire, which is the best part of that song. Also, Geoff's voice is way warmer than Todd's. The best thing of Geoff's voice, to me, is his warm lower register tone. Then hitting the highs are just an added bonus.

I've been to the current Queensryche, and it's just missing something. They still sound good, though. I'll still see them whenever they come. But, it does feel the band lost it once Chris left.

[goo-goo]

to me ...anytime one can see a star like Geoff , who really is QR at this point, its a gift, like seeing Tyler, Ozzy or Sir Paul, to me the shows will be fun and could be the last time these songs are played.  I hate Tods voice hes a total butcher and the band of QR to me has no star power and you couldnt pay me to see Toddryche period, they have no stage presence and no start power live

Geoff, is that you?

[EPICVIEW]

If this comes here, I'll go check it out. He will likely do what the current Queensryche never does...The build-up spoken section in Empire, which is the best part of that song. Also, Geoff's voice is way warmer than Todd's. The best thing of Geoff's voice, to me, is his warm lower register tone. Then hitting the highs are just an added bonus.

I've been to the current Queensryche, and it's just missing something. They still sound good, though. I'll still see them whenever they come. But, it does feel the band lost it once Chris left.

I agree , you said that very well

[Stadler]

to me ...anytime one can see a star like Geoff , who really is QR at this point, its a gift, like seeing Tyler, Ozzy or Sir Paul, to me the shows will be fun and could be the last time these songs are played.  I hate Tods voice hes a total butcher and the band of QR to me has no star power and you couldnt pay me to see Toddryche period, they have no stage presence and no start power live

Geoff, is that you?

Word.   I respect his opinion, and I'm all for sticking up for a guy you like, but let's get real.  Paul McCartney has pieces of Geoff Tate in his stool.   It's not a comparison on any level (and while Tyler is no McCartney either, even he's closer than Geoff Tate). 

[Samsara]

Interesting tour. As someone said above, a partial re-hash of the 2009 American Soldier tour, except instead of suites of songs, he's omitting one album entirely (American Soldier) and playing two albums in full (Empire and RFO). If you assume a 10-minute encore, you're looking at just about a two-hour show.

In all honesty, Tate really out-maneuvered QR on this one. He's cornered the market for 2020 and 2021 most likely, on the performance of two full albums, and the current QR CANNOT play more than a couple of Mindcrime songs in a row, otherwise they violate the terms of their settlement agreement (not sure how many in a row, but at last count, I think they've only done two consecutive in a set since the agreement). In essence, Tate has the power to market to promoters, three full records of classic Queensryche (RFO, Mindcrime, Empire), and has gotten ahead of QR in announcing the 2020 dates, which makes it, theoretically, more difficult for QR to book shows. Of course, current QR can play their current thing, and play tracks from Empire and RFO, and their current set differs enough to make it viable. But I have to imagine, if Tate is the road dog he always seems to be, promoters are going to be wary of booking two acts playing classic Queensryche material, throughout the U.S.

Don't get me wrong, I think both acts will get booked. But Tate getting out in front of QR in terms of announcing tour dates, announcing two full classic album performances, and holding the exclusive right to perform Mindcrime...that could cause promoters to hit the pause button if current QR looks to tour in the same cities/venues in the same general timeframe. My guess is, Tate has a lot more dates booked for this, just not announcing yet. For example, he's playing the Western U.S. again doing Mindcrime this fall (I'm not attending, since I saw the same show last year). So, he wouldn't announce booked dates yet out here until those shows are done. But I fully expect that he's already deep in talks or has in fact booked a lot more dates for this Empire 30th tour. It'll get bigger once the Empire box set celebrating 30 years is announced too.

I'm guessing West Coast for this will be Fall 2020. I'm looking forward to attending. I am sure he is going to have to drop all the RFO stuff AT LEAST a half-step, if not a full step. Which could be disappointing, but they've dropped Walk in the Shadows a half-step for 15 years, and it sounded fine. And Empire is not easy either. When I saw QR do the American Soldier tour in 2009 out here, Tate had difficulty staying up in his high register for "Resistance" for the first half of the song. He was able to get there and keep it there after Wilton's solo, but it was rough to say the least.

But I'm looking forward to Tate's show regardless. I hope he does an encore of a couple of PL cuts too. I don't think we'll really ever see the current QR pull out something like "One More Time," or "Out of Mind" again.

Anyway, fun looking tour. Excited to check it out when it rolls through.

[EPICVIEW]

to me ...anytime one can see a star like Geoff , who really is QR at this point, its a gift, like seeing Tyler, Ozzy or Sir Paul, to me the shows will be fun and could be the last time these songs are played.  I hate Tods voice hes a total butcher and the band of QR to me has no star power and you couldnt pay me to see Toddryche period, they have no stage presence and no start power live

Geoff, is that you?

Word.   I respect his opinion, and I'm all for sticking up for a guy you like, but let's get real.  Paul McCartney has pieces of Geoff Tate in his stool.   It's not a comparison on any level (and while Tyler is no McCartney either, even he's closer than Geoff Tate).

I was only making the macro point that " see a star singer while they can stiil perform"  Im not saying Goeff is Tyler or Paul etc. but Geoff is one of the greatest metal singers in history and if one hasnt seen him Id say go see him and have fun and forget about the drama

[Grappler]

to me ...anytime one can see a star like Geoff , who really is QR at this point, its a gift, like seeing Tyler, Ozzy or Sir Paul, to me the shows will be fun and could be the last time these songs are played.  I hate Tods voice hes a total butcher and the band of QR to me has no star power and you couldnt pay me to see Toddryche period, they have no stage presence and no start power live

Geoff, is that you?

Word.   I respect his opinion, and I'm all for sticking up for a guy you like, but let's get real.  Paul McCartney has pieces of Geoff Tate in his stool.   It's not a comparison on any level (and while Tyler is no McCartney either, even he's closer than Geoff Tate).

Id say go see him and have fun and forget about the drama

That's the one thing that I do agree with you on.  It's like when Dream Theater hired Derek to replace Kevin.  Selingering resentments in the fanbases just go on and on.  After a number of years, the drama just doesn't matter anymore. 

[EPICVIEW]

Interesting tour. As someone said above, a partial re-hash of the 2009 American Soldier tour, except instead of suites of songs, he's omitting one album entirely (American Soldier) and playing two albums in full (Empire and RFO). If you assume a 10-minute encore, you're looking at just about a two-hour show.

In all honesty, Tate really out-maneuvered QR on this one. He's cornered the market for 2020 and 2021 most likely, on the performance of two full albums, and the current QR CANNOT play more than a couple of Mindcrime songs in a row, otherwise they violate the terms of their settlement agreement (not sure how many in a row, but at last count, I think they've only done two consecutive in a set since the agreement). In essence, Tate has the power to market to promoters, three full records of classic Queensryche (RFO, Mindcrime, Empire), and has gotten ahead of QR in announcing the 2020 dates, which makes it, theoretically, more difficult for QR to book shows. Of course, current QR can play their current thing, and play tracks from Empire and RFO, and their current set differs enough to make it viable. But I have to imagine, if Tate is the road dog he always seems to be, promoters are going to be wary of booking two acts playing classic Queensryche material, throughout the U.S.

Don't get me wrong, I think both acts will get booked. But Tate getting out in front of QR in terms of announcing tour dates, announcing two full classic album performances, and holding the exclusive right to perform Mindcrime...that could cause promoters to hit the pause button if current QR looks to tour in the same cities/venues in the same general timeframe. My guess is, Tate has a lot more dates booked for this, just not announcing yet. For example, he's playing the Western U.S. again doing Mindcrime this fall (I'm not attending, since I saw the same show last year). So, he wouldn't announce booked dates yet out here until those shows are done. But I fully expect that he's already deep in talks or has in fact booked a lot more dates for this Empire 30th tour. It'll get bigger once the Empire box set celebrating 30 years is announced too.

I'm guessing West Coast for this will be Fall 2020. I'm looking forward to attending. I am sure he is going to have to drop all the RFO stuff AT LEAST a half-step, if not a full step. Which could be disappointing, but they've dropped Walk in the Shadows a half-step for 15 years, and it sounded fine. And Empire is not easy either. When I saw QR do the American Soldier tour in 2009 out here, Tate had difficulty staying up in his high register for "Resistance" for the first half of the song. He was able to get there and keep it there after Wilton's solo, but it was rough to say the least.

But I'm looking forward to Tate's show regardless. I hope he does an encore of a couple of PL cuts too. I don't think we'll really ever see the current QR pull out something like "One More Time," or "Out of Mind" again.

Anyway, fun looking tour. Excited to check it out when it rolls through.

Its weird  to me, my opinion only, the drop down a half step etc live never bothers me, and at times it makes it sound a bit more modern and less "80s" sounding, and I go to have fun and see a "star" and rock out. To me the live show is about "seeing" a star ( Judas, Aero, Ozzy et etc etc) the show itself as long as its quality is, I dont expect it to sound like the album or "note for note" and with the older bands in their final years its about "seeing"  if I want to hear the song on the album sound like the album I can play the album.  Todd to me was way off base with his "note for note" bluster, and to me hes a hot a mess live and has no star power like the rest in QR, but thats just my opinion