Side Projects & Band Dysfunction (2001-2002)Spys4Darwin (2001)Vocals – Vin Dombrowski
Guitars and background vocals – Chris DeGarmo
Bass – Mike Inez
Drums – Sean Kinney
In 2001, Chris DeGarmo made news once again, this time for his new band, Spys4Darwin, with Sean Kinney and Mike Inez from Alice in Chains, and Vin Dombrowski of Sponge. The group self-released a six-song EP called
microfiche in 2001, and played a festival gig in Seattle. The music is hard rock, moody at times, alternative at times, with some cool vocal harmonies. DeGarmo and Kinney wrote most of the music, while Dombrowski handled most (could be all, not sure) of the lyrics. The band was looking to do a full-length record after that, but plans fizzled.
It had a mixed reception at the time, but it has aged well and developed a bit of a cult following over the years.
Samsara's top tracks – Insomnia Station, Dashboard Jesus, Chain Letter
Geoff Tate (2002)Lead vocals – Geoff Tate
Guitar – Jeff Carrell
Guitar – Scott Moughton
Drums – Evan Schiller
Keyboards – Howard Chillcott
Bass – Chris Fox
In 2002, Geoff Tate released his first solo album (self-titled). Instead of working with more high profile musicians like DeGarmo had on his project, Tate enlisted the help of local Seattle musicians to create a very eclectic record. Part hard rock, part pop, part prog and part soul, Tate went completely opposite of what most fans expected. Generally, while strikingly different (mostly) from Queensryche, many fans dug various songs on the album and still speak of it in high regard.
Tate toured in summer 2002 to support the album, playing most of the record, and a smattering of Queensryche rarities, including “Hero,” “spOOL,” “Gonna Get Close to You,” and “Della Brown.” The vibe was very laid back, and most of the Queensryche tracks received a tweak in arrangement, making the presentation pretty interesting.
The kick-off show for the tour was at the Experience Music Project (EMP) museum, in the “Sky Church” portion of the building. Michael Wilton's side project, Soulbender, opened the show, and Wilton and a couple of his new bandmates joined Tate for a cover of “Jet City Woman” to end the show. Alan White of YES was supposed to join them, and Tate called out “Alan, oh, Alan!” wondering where he got to. Turns out, White was in the bar, and...missed the appearance.
Samsara's top-tracks: Over Me, Passenger, Off the TV
Note: Soulbender's debut album wouldn't appear until 2004, and they did not go on the tour with Tate. So I am not going to do a write-up on it at this time. It's worth checking out if you like late 90s-era metal, and non-operatic, rougher vocal (Nick Pollock of My Sister's Machine and an early version of Alice in Chains).
Slave to the System (2002)Lead vocals & guitar – Damon Johnson
Guitar & vocals – Scott Heard
Guitar & vocals – Kelly Gray
Bass – Roman Glick
Drums – Scott Rockenfield
Slave to the System was billed as a “supergroup” at the time with the connection between Brother Cane (Johnson & Glick) and Queensryche. The result was an energetic self-titled album of modern hard rock with a slight southern bent, given Damon Johnson's influences. The band self-released its debut album in 2001, and then got an official label release on Spitfire Records in 2006 with a slightly different track listing (a track or two was added, and one was removed).
If memory serves, Slave to the System played a couple of shows in 2002 (showcases), and again in 2004 with Soulbender in the Seattle area (they did a co-headline at some West Seattle dive bar). But Slave to the System finally did their only proper tour in early 2006. It was notable (we'll mention it later) because at the time, Queensryche was readying another album, and Rockenfield was pulled off the road by Queensryche and the band (SttS) had a fill-in drummer for the later dates on the tour.
Samsara's top tracks – Slave to the System, Disinfected, Will You Be There
Summer 2002 Band DysfunctionOne of the low points (unfortunately) of Summer 2002 was while Tate was on tour with his solo band. Tate went live on WMMS radio to promote his solo album and tour, and essentially called the Queensryche situation a dysfunction, saying the members only spoke through lawyers. (I am paraphrasing here.) The backlash was so severe, that the members of Queensryche (who were working on songs for a new record back in Seattle) fired back at Tate and people wondered if the band would break up.
A short time later, a message was posted on Queensryche's website titled “Thank you WMMS,” claiming that the band had met and connected again and were on the same page. A lot of speculation was done online that it was...mostly BS. However, the band announced plans for a new album, including the fact that they would be using outside writers to assist (something that did not go over well) them.
At the time, I reached out to Michael Wilton to do an interview on the state of Queensryche and his new project, Soulbender. The article can be read here:
https://breakdownroom.net/wilton-fall2002.html For those that don't care to read it, in a nutshell, Wilton basically said that Tate was turning Queensryche into an adult contemporary band, and Wilton preferred a more aggressive and heavy approach and would continue pushing for that. Wilton's comments certainly created some tension as the band pushed forward with another album.
Next up:
Tribe (2002-2003)
p.s. This is a bit of an in-between. On Monday, we'll have a lengthier post on Tribe, and get back to a more standard once-a-week schedule. I just didn't think there was enough here to make a worthy "main" discography post, but it was needed to set up the Tribe era.