6.15.16 QAL in Brussels+More QAL Dates
Jun 15, 2016 9:58:38 GMT -5
Post by shimoli710 on Jun 15, 2016 9:58:38 GMT -5
ETA: This is just my opinion, my reflections, not facts or declarations. Scroll if you wish.
First, let me preface this by saying I was not a Queen fan back in the day. I was not against them, and I enjoyed some of the big hits, but I never bought any of their records. I was pretty straight laced back then, and I think Freddie was a little too weird for me.
So recently, I decided to watch some of the old Queen concerts on YouTube in order to try and understand better what the mania about Freddie was all about. I was surprised to see that Freddie's performance and Adam's were actually quite different. I hadn't thought that Adam was in any way copying Freddie of course, but the whole feeling was different. And because Freddie's performance was so different from Adam's, the whole Queen performance felt different as well.
The classic Queen performances were raw and gritty and in your face. Forgive me for a uttering sacrilege, but they looked to me to be Freddie Mercury performances with some really good guys as a backing band. I did not notice Freddie interacting with the other band members much, nor the other band members interacting with the audience. Freddie's performance was high intensity, even manic. Despite him sometimes wearing ballet costumes, his movements were far from graceful. He was like a peacock, and he totally consumed that stage. Freddie's voice was powerful and in your face, but I wouldn't call it either pretty or refined. It was certainly all stadium rock and roll.
Queen + Adam Lambert looks, sounds, and feels like a different animal. It is a theatrical production, a spectacle. Classy. Royal. Regal. Polished. Like Freddie, Adam is compelling to watch, but for different reasons. His costume choices are more edgy high fashion than quirky individualism. Adam and Freddie can both stalk a stage, but Adam is a graceful panther as opposed to Freddie's strutting peacock.
Queen + Adam is visibly a collaborative effort. Adam, true to his musical theater training, shares the stage with Brian and Roger as equally important characters in the show. Brian and Roger have stepped out of the background, and embrace the spotlight comfortably and happily.
As for Adam's voice, it is highly trained, highly controlled, perhaps even calculated. He has considerable power like Freddie, but his tone is refined and pure, not raw and risky. I can see and hear his classical background. Whereas Freddie throws his songs out to the audience with abandon, Adam performs the songs as he would on a musical theater stage. Adam assumes different characters to tell the songs' stories in three acts.
Freddie and Adam both transparently love performing for and with a crowd. But I think Adam smiles a lot more, glowing with joy. In fact, the whole Queen + Adam experience seems infused with delight and joy that they are still out there, doing what they love more than anything, after all these years.
I now see why some fans feel obligated to say these new shows are not really Queen, and Adam can never be Freddie. How could he be? How could it be? It's a different time. In the world, in music, and in their lives. Adam is a different type of performer than Freddie. But, this iteration of QAL WORKS. On its own. Not as a recreation or as Karaoke or as only nostalgia. This is old, but new again. Classic Queen was great and unique. So is QAL.