Operation: LIVEcrime & Building Empires (1991-1992)
Lead vocals/keyboards: Geoff Tate
Lead & rhythm guitars, background vocals: Chris DeGarmo
Lead & rhythm guitars, background vocals: Michael Wilton
Bass guitar, background vocals: Eddie Jackson
Drums: Scott Rockenfield
Additional vocals on “Suite Sister Mary” - Pamela Moore
I had previously written up something on the Building Empires tour (which is what these two releases capture) on my website. So the below quote is from
www.anybodylistening.net/tourdates.html:
With approximately 190 shows and promotional appearances across 18 months, the Building Empires tour was the longest-running album support run in Queensryche's history. Empire was the band's commercial and touring peak, with Queensryche reaching arena status in areas across the United States. It also marked the first time that the band would perform Operation: Mindcrime in its entirety, sandwiched between cuts from Empire and the back catalog. The show would typically last from 120-140 minutes each night.
During this timeframe, a Queensryche concert wasn't just a gig -- it was a full-on multimedia spectacle. The band had dual video screens and animations running behind them to accompany songs, an elaborate stage that included various ramps (including a basketball hoop Tate would take a shot on during "Best I Can"), and at times, guest appearances from Pamela Moore, aka "Suite Sister Mary." For headline appearances, Queensryche took out Lynch Mob, Warrior Soul and Suicidal Tendencies at different points in time. Queensryche also appeared at various European festivals doing an abbreviated set. The tour formally ended in Jan. 1992, but the band played a number of award shows and other events following it. Of note is Queensryche's MTV Unplugged appearance on April 27, 1992, and a final festival show at the Rock the Environment benefit on June 6, 1992, in George, Wash., to close out support of Empire.
Queensryche's setlist was very static during this period, with only minor changes, depending on the leg they were on. Songs performed periodically that differ from the example below, included "Hand on Heart" (first month of the tour at various gigs), "The Lady Wore Black" (made sporadic appearances as an additional encore), "Another Rainy Night (Without You)" (became a setlist staple in Oct. 1991 for the remainder of the tour), "Della Brown," "Last Time in Paris," and "Anybody Listening?"
The only significant deviations from the main set was the MTV Unplugged performance and the Rock the Environment gig. At the former, Queensryche did acoustic renditions of "I Will Remember" and "The Killing Words." The band also did acoustic covers of "Scarborough Fair" by Simon and Garfunkel and "Rockin' in the Free World," by Neil Young. During the Rock the Environment show, Queensryche dusted off "No Sanctuary," played "The Killing Words" again, and then participated in a jam session with Alice in Chains and Heart that included covers of "Revolution" by The Beatles and "Gimme Shelter" from the Rolling Stones. The only song from Empire not performed live by the band on the Building Empires tour was "One and Only." Coincidentally, the original lineup of Queensryche never played it live. It was only performed in soundcheck during the band's first few shows in October/November 1990, according to Michael Wilton. A typical setlist on this tour looked like this:
Resistance
Walk In The Shadows
Best I Can
Empire
The Thin Line
Jet City Woman
Roads To Madness
I Remember Now
Anarchy-X
Revolution Calling
Operation: Mindcrime
Speak
Spreading the Disease
The Mission
Suite Sister Mary
The Needle Lies
Electric Requiem
Breaking the Silence
I Don't Believe in Love
Waiting for 22
My Empty Room
Eyes of a Stranger
Take Hold Of The Flame
Silent Lucidity
Queensryche documented their worldwide success with two separate releases:
Operation: LIVEcrime, which captured the band's performance of
Operation: Mindcrime in its entirety, and
Building Empires, a home video that provided fans with all the band's music videos to that point in time (except for the videos found on the
Video: Mindcrime release), and a bunch of live videos of
Empire songs and other tracks from the Building Empires tour.
Operation: LIVEcrime was originally released on Oct. 28 and Nov. 5, 1991 as a box set documenting Queensryche's complete performance of
Operation: Mindcrime on its tour in support of Empire. The recordings were taken from three shows: May 10, 1991 - Madison, Wis.; May 11, 1991 - Milwaukee, Wis.; and May 12, 1991 - LaCrosse, Wis. The original release contained a VHS and either a cassette or CD. The box set also featured a 44-page libretto with the basic storyline and photos of the band performing, and some snapshots of the animation used on tour.
Operation: LIVEcrime was subsequently remastered and released on DVD in 2001. The re-release did not include the libretto, but did contain bonus tracks of other tunes ("The Lady Wore Black" and "Roads to Madness" if memory serves).
Interesting fact: In interviews following the release of
Operation: LIVEcrime, the members of Queensryche stated that there were only two mistakes made by the band over the three-nights they recorded: Tate flubbed the lyrics once, and Wilton broke a string. Otherwise, any of the three nights could have been released outright in its entirety.
Building Empires was released in 1992 on VHS, and was released on DVD in 2002. It has an approximate running time of 100 minutes, which includes commentary by DeGarmo, Tate and Wilton. The trio walk around the streets of Seattle, giving viewers a bit of exposure to the city in-between various videos. Essentially, it is an
Empire-based video compilation of both the videos shot for the record, live videos from the tour, and other videos from throughout the band's career. Unfortunately, there's not much more to tell about the two releases, other than they were immensely popular among fans, and helped bridge the gap between Empire and the band's next studio effort, which wouldn't surface until 1994.
Interesting fact: Back in spring 2001, I was contacted by someone at Capitol Records who was searching for a pristine copy of the Unplugged Sessions. Apparently they (the band and label) had misplaced the master reels the show was captured on, and they needed the audio to fix a few things in the DVD re-release they were doing. They ultimately found the masters, which were located in Canada.
Click below for some images of the original box set, 2001 remaster, and 2001 remaster promo editions of Operation: LIVEcrime
https://anybodylistening.net/operationlivecrime.htmlBuilding Empires:
Next up...
Promised Land.