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Post by pi on Jul 25, 2019 1:04:44 GMT -5
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Post by ladyM :) on Jul 25, 2019 1:17:08 GMT -5
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Post by ladyM :) on Jul 25, 2019 1:18:42 GMT -5
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Post by ladyM :) on Jul 25, 2019 1:20:08 GMT -5
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Post by pi on Jul 25, 2019 1:21:08 GMT -5
twitter.com/HoustonChron/status/1154260050061475840
HOUSTON CHRONICLEQueen + Adam Lambert take a curtain call at Toyota CenterHonestly, if I found myself inside a burning building and Queen's Brian May stood there playing guitar, I'm not entirely sure I'd flee. And even if he didn't have a guitar with him, I still might enjoy a quiet moment with this singular rock 'n roll oddity. "So," I might say, "want to talk about space?"
As a rare guitarist-songwriter-singer-astrophysicist, May occupies a planet of his own. And while his band is best known for its late, great quicksilver frontman, May remains a celestial entity worthy of orbitig. He proved it throughout the two hours Queen + Adam Lambert played to a packed Toyota Center, perhaps most when he sat at the center of the arena with an acoustic guitar and sang "Love of My Life" and "'39," the latter prompting May to comment on Houston's status as Space City, with a nearby space center that May has visited multiple times.
It was the quietest spell of the show, but also strangely intimate, with May's 12-string guitar still offering that tone that only he gets when he plays.
He and drummer Roger Taylor – the other remaining remnant of Queen – reminded throughout the night how good the band's vocalists were -- beyond the departed Freddie Mercury, who died nearly 30 years ago. It seems obvious to me now, but I'd missed how much the band took inspiration from the Beach Boys, vocally at least.
Musically, Queen found a space of its own by fusing the muscle of hard rock with the flamboyance of musical theater. May's guitar playing mapped out that sound. If I can be afforded one last space travel metaphor, his riffs are the rocket fuel that offers ample propulsion and his solos have a dreamier quality. He played an extended solo atop a projection of an asteroid this night, surrounded by a light show with stars and planets. May's playing was exploratory before finding its way back to Earth with "Tie Your Mother Down" and "Fat Bottomed Girls."
This is a band that could've simply played its "Greatest Hits" album and collected a paycheck. That's how ubiquitous the hits are, and how well they play in an arena. But the mix was intriguing and generous. I particularly enjoyed "Seven Seas of Rhye" and "I Want It All."
As has become the routine, the part of frontman was played by "American Idol" discovery Adam Lambert, who plays that part with ample enthusiasm and a voice that finds its way to all nooks of an arena. Lambert gets out in front of the comparisons, knowing it would be a losing battle if he chose to fight it. So instead he rolls with the role, dealing with what he called "the pink elephant in the room . . . I'm not Freddie."
He's not. And that's fine. Their voices are both dynamic but distinctive. Mercury also moved around the stage with a liquid ease that fit the stage name he chose for himself. Lambert is fearless up there, and unafraid to camp it up, but he doesn't quite become part of the music the same way.
But Queen's songs are so Broadway theatrical that they don't necessarily require one man to sing them. Sure, Mercury's voice stamped them indelibly. But his death shouldn't take the songs with him. They just require somebody with a little operatic panache willing to lean into them a bit. And Lambert has proved not just able, but also game. Tallying the great and the serviceable in the set almost seems beside the point. That said, I thought "Another One Bites the Dust" felt a little flat.
More.. www.houstonchronicle.com/entertainment/music/article/Queen-Adam-Lambert-take-a-curtain-call-at-14127498.php?
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Post by ladyM :) on Jul 25, 2019 1:26:36 GMT -5
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Post by pi on Jul 25, 2019 1:30:27 GMT -5
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Post by pi on Jul 25, 2019 1:33:22 GMT -5
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Post by pi on Jul 25, 2019 1:38:17 GMT -5
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Post by pi on Jul 25, 2019 1:41:12 GMT -5
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