8.19.19 Ft Lauderdale and Tampa reviews
Aug 19, 2019 1:15:24 GMT -5
Post by Q3 on Aug 19, 2019 1:15:24 GMT -5
Review: Queen and Adam Lambert delight sold-out Amalie Arena in blockbuster Tampa debut
Freddie Mercury may be gone, but longtime Queen fans had plenty to celebrate.
By Jay Cridlin
Published Yesterday (8.18.19)
It was almost like a disclaimer, a bit of legalese Adam Lambert had to get out of the way before a show nearly 50 years in the making could begin.
"Every time I take the stage with these guys, I realize what an honor this is," the singer told a sold-out crowd Sunday night in Tampa. "I am so lucky that I’ve been given this chance to carry a torch for one of my all-time heroes. Let’s hear it for the irreplaceable, one and only Freddie Mercury!"
You can only imagine the roar. Nearly three decades after Mercury’s death, even cities he never played are still unimaginably desperate to celebrate him, judging from Sunday’s blockbuster, 2-plus-hour show by Queen and Adam Lambert at Amalie Arena.
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This was the first Tampa Bay concert by any version of Queen, down these days to guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor (bassist John Deacon is long retired). They never came closer than the old Lakeland Civic Center, and even then, not since 1978.
Not that it mattered to the impassioned Tampa crowd, who sang and danced and showered as much love upon Lambert as they might have on Mercury himself.
Timing’s everything, isn’t it? With last year’s biopic Bohemian Rhapsody racking up more than $900 million globally, plus a handful of Oscars to boot, it’s a grand time to be in the Queen business – which, let’s face it, was probably the whole point of Bohemian Rhapsody in the first place. It was an okay film, but a hell of a Queen commercial, celebrating the band and its brand as much as it did Mercury. In the end, the show must go on, and they’ve still got find a way to sell it.
And boy, are they good at doing so live.
“You sound amazing,” May told the crowd. “I never thought I would be doing this at this point in time. That’s the truth.”
At 72, with his same silver mane poofing up around his noggin, May is still plenty spry on his fretboard, taking center stage as he let solo after solo fly like meteors across the sky. Late in the set, he uncorked a nine-minute guitar solo as daring as it was virtuosic, drifting from atmospheric post-rock to chugging, almost droning tones. When he stomped up the stage for the double-time breakdown in I Want It All, or the roaring-chainsaw finale of Fat Bottomed Girls, it’s a wonder the greybeards down front didn’t crack open a circle pit.
As for Lambert, while he’s a gifted rock vocalist, he doesn’t exactly sound like Freddie Mercury -- and that’s likely precisely the point. Unlike Journey’s Steve Perry sound-alike Arnel Pineda, Lambert’s got his own thing going, borrowed and hodgepodged from all kinds of sources, from Elvis Presley to Mick Jagger to Rob Halford to MacPhisto-era Bono. And there’s some Freddie in there, of course, but it’s more in his sparkle, his snazz, his ineffable Adamness. The way he dangled his golden boots from a piano, fanning himself like a flirt, on Killer Queen. The sexy swirls and skitter-steps during Another One Bites the Dust, bringing a grin to May’s face. The way he straddled and humped a glitter-pocked Harley on Bicycle Race, punctuating the line “I don’t want to be the president of America” with a pointed slap of his rear.
As veteran artists go, Queen and Lambert are surprisingly resourceful, spreading stacks of harmonies across a relatively tight six-man operation. May unplugged to play a solo Love of My Life and '39 before being joined by Taylor and Lambert for Doing All Right. And Taylor held his own as a vocalist, filling in for David Bowie on Under Pressure and singing lead on the proggish, dystopian oddity I’m In Love With My Car.
But then, who needs a symphony when you’ve got an arena of fans at your disposal? They were clapping in sync to Radio Ga Ga, just like the crowd did at Live Aid. They screamed for Freddie’s pumped-in vocals at the start of Bohemian Rhapsody, creating what amounted to a surreal duet between Lambert and Mercury (for half the song, at least; they just let the middle “I see a little silhouette-o of a man” part play out via the song’s original video).
The clap-clap-stomp began well before the encore, so starved were Tampa fans to finally hear We Will Rock You live. But then, out of the dark, emerged a video image of a familiar figure in a regal yellow coat.
“Ayyyy-day-day-do!” he yelled.
“AYYYY-DAY-DAY-DO!” the delighted crowd yelled back.
“Ay-do-day-do-day-do-day-do-day!”
“AY-DO-DAY-DO-DAY-DO-DAY-DO-DAY!”
“Ay-oh!”
“AY-OH!”
“Ay-oh!”
“AY-OH!”
“Ayyyyyy-oh!”
“AYYYYYY-OH!”
“Ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy-oh!”
And there it was, sort of, Tampa’s long-awaited chance to sing with Freddie Mercury. Lambert was right: Even on film, there’s just no replacing him. His voice will always be worth the wait.
Contact Jay Cridlin at cridlin@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8336. Follow @jaycridlin.
Freddie Mercury may be gone, but longtime Queen fans had plenty to celebrate.
By Jay Cridlin
Published Yesterday (8.18.19)
It was almost like a disclaimer, a bit of legalese Adam Lambert had to get out of the way before a show nearly 50 years in the making could begin.
"Every time I take the stage with these guys, I realize what an honor this is," the singer told a sold-out crowd Sunday night in Tampa. "I am so lucky that I’ve been given this chance to carry a torch for one of my all-time heroes. Let’s hear it for the irreplaceable, one and only Freddie Mercury!"
You can only imagine the roar. Nearly three decades after Mercury’s death, even cities he never played are still unimaginably desperate to celebrate him, judging from Sunday’s blockbuster, 2-plus-hour show by Queen and Adam Lambert at Amalie Arena.
Advertisement
This was the first Tampa Bay concert by any version of Queen, down these days to guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor (bassist John Deacon is long retired). They never came closer than the old Lakeland Civic Center, and even then, not since 1978.
Not that it mattered to the impassioned Tampa crowd, who sang and danced and showered as much love upon Lambert as they might have on Mercury himself.
Timing’s everything, isn’t it? With last year’s biopic Bohemian Rhapsody racking up more than $900 million globally, plus a handful of Oscars to boot, it’s a grand time to be in the Queen business – which, let’s face it, was probably the whole point of Bohemian Rhapsody in the first place. It was an okay film, but a hell of a Queen commercial, celebrating the band and its brand as much as it did Mercury. In the end, the show must go on, and they’ve still got find a way to sell it.
And boy, are they good at doing so live.
“You sound amazing,” May told the crowd. “I never thought I would be doing this at this point in time. That’s the truth.”
At 72, with his same silver mane poofing up around his noggin, May is still plenty spry on his fretboard, taking center stage as he let solo after solo fly like meteors across the sky. Late in the set, he uncorked a nine-minute guitar solo as daring as it was virtuosic, drifting from atmospheric post-rock to chugging, almost droning tones. When he stomped up the stage for the double-time breakdown in I Want It All, or the roaring-chainsaw finale of Fat Bottomed Girls, it’s a wonder the greybeards down front didn’t crack open a circle pit.
As for Lambert, while he’s a gifted rock vocalist, he doesn’t exactly sound like Freddie Mercury -- and that’s likely precisely the point. Unlike Journey’s Steve Perry sound-alike Arnel Pineda, Lambert’s got his own thing going, borrowed and hodgepodged from all kinds of sources, from Elvis Presley to Mick Jagger to Rob Halford to MacPhisto-era Bono. And there’s some Freddie in there, of course, but it’s more in his sparkle, his snazz, his ineffable Adamness. The way he dangled his golden boots from a piano, fanning himself like a flirt, on Killer Queen. The sexy swirls and skitter-steps during Another One Bites the Dust, bringing a grin to May’s face. The way he straddled and humped a glitter-pocked Harley on Bicycle Race, punctuating the line “I don’t want to be the president of America” with a pointed slap of his rear.
As veteran artists go, Queen and Lambert are surprisingly resourceful, spreading stacks of harmonies across a relatively tight six-man operation. May unplugged to play a solo Love of My Life and '39 before being joined by Taylor and Lambert for Doing All Right. And Taylor held his own as a vocalist, filling in for David Bowie on Under Pressure and singing lead on the proggish, dystopian oddity I’m In Love With My Car.
But then, who needs a symphony when you’ve got an arena of fans at your disposal? They were clapping in sync to Radio Ga Ga, just like the crowd did at Live Aid. They screamed for Freddie’s pumped-in vocals at the start of Bohemian Rhapsody, creating what amounted to a surreal duet between Lambert and Mercury (for half the song, at least; they just let the middle “I see a little silhouette-o of a man” part play out via the song’s original video).
The clap-clap-stomp began well before the encore, so starved were Tampa fans to finally hear We Will Rock You live. But then, out of the dark, emerged a video image of a familiar figure in a regal yellow coat.
“Ayyyy-day-day-do!” he yelled.
“AYYYY-DAY-DAY-DO!” the delighted crowd yelled back.
“Ay-do-day-do-day-do-day-do-day!”
“AY-DO-DAY-DO-DAY-DO-DAY-DO-DAY!”
“Ay-oh!”
“AY-OH!”
“Ay-oh!”
“AY-OH!”
“Ayyyyyy-oh!”
“AYYYYYY-OH!”
“Ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy-oh!”
And there it was, sort of, Tampa’s long-awaited chance to sing with Freddie Mercury. Lambert was right: Even on film, there’s just no replacing him. His voice will always be worth the wait.
Contact Jay Cridlin at cridlin@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8336. Follow @jaycridlin.
See more photos from Queen + Adam Lambert at the BB&T Center here. Photo by Michele Eve Sandberg
Queen + Adam Lambert's BB&T Center Concert Celebrated Queen's Legacy
James Biagiotti | August 18, 2019 | 9:52am
It's been almost 30 years since Freddie Mercury died. When the superstar frontman of Queen passed in 1991, he left behind one of the greatest catalogs of hits in all of rock music. Filling his shoes is a truly impossible task. Despite this, surviving Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor have managed to sustain the brand of their music by touring with proxy singers for the last 15 years.
The first singer up to the task was Paul Rogers, the Bad Company frontman who played with Queen from 2004 through 2009. Now, that responsibility falls to former American Idol runner-up, Adam Lambert, who has been filling in on vocals for the group since 2011. Now in the eighth year of their collaboration, the band is enjoying a significant boost in prominence thanks to the runaway success of the 2018 Queen biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody. Queen + Adam Lambert performed for a sold-out crowd at Sunrise’s BB&T Center Saturday night.
James Biagiotti | August 18, 2019 | 9:52am
It's been almost 30 years since Freddie Mercury died. When the superstar frontman of Queen passed in 1991, he left behind one of the greatest catalogs of hits in all of rock music. Filling his shoes is a truly impossible task. Despite this, surviving Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor have managed to sustain the brand of their music by touring with proxy singers for the last 15 years.
The first singer up to the task was Paul Rogers, the Bad Company frontman who played with Queen from 2004 through 2009. Now, that responsibility falls to former American Idol runner-up, Adam Lambert, who has been filling in on vocals for the group since 2011. Now in the eighth year of their collaboration, the band is enjoying a significant boost in prominence thanks to the runaway success of the 2018 Queen biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody. Queen + Adam Lambert performed for a sold-out crowd at Sunrise’s BB&T Center Saturday night.
Photo by Michele Eve Sandberg
May and Taylor both displayed their bulletproof musicianship throughout the marathon set as well, and they showed genuine appreciation for the adoration they received. May made every lick and flourish on his signature Red Special guitar look effortless, and he wore true satisfaction on his face throughout the two-and-a-half-hour set.
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The three focal performers seemed to relish their collaboration and were backed by a solid group of musicians, all of whom shared amiable chemistry on stage. All of the band’s hits were represented, and the show had spectacle to spare. Costume changes, props, and lasers were all deployed throughout the course of the nearly thirty-song set, leaving nary a dull moment.
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The three focal performers seemed to relish their collaboration and were backed by a solid group of musicians, all of whom shared amiable chemistry on stage. All of the band’s hits were represented, and the show had spectacle to spare. Costume changes, props, and lasers were all deployed throughout the course of the nearly thirty-song set, leaving nary a dull moment.
Not quite a cover band but incapable of true authenticity without Mercury, Queen + Adam Lambert was an exceptionally strange concert experience.
Lambert is certainly not the new Freddie Mercury, but the good news is that he’s not trying to be. In fact, the former American Idol contestant may just be the perfect candidate for the job, because he’s trying to live up to the legacy of his own idol. The singer took time early in the show to address this point by telling the crowd that he was there to celebrate the "irreplaceable rock god" with them as a fellow fan, effectively winning over the audience with his humility.
Lambert is certainly not the new Freddie Mercury, but the good news is that he’s not trying to be. In fact, the former American Idol contestant may just be the perfect candidate for the job, because he’s trying to live up to the legacy of his own idol. The singer took time early in the show to address this point by telling the crowd that he was there to celebrate the "irreplaceable rock god" with them as a fellow fan, effectively winning over the audience with his humility.
Lambert, in full grandiose costume, was theatrically emotive to the point of almost being a distraction, but his vocal endurance was remarkable. His renditions of Queen's well-loved songs were impeccable throughout the show and constituted a marathon vocal performance that spoke to his truly rare talent as a singer.
One of the show’s most intriguing moments came in the form of Brian May's extended guitar solo, in which he was elevated high above the stage and appeared to be floating in space. Though the solo itself could have been more interesting, it was yet another highlight of the robust production.
Of course, the highlight of the show was main set closer, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which lost none of its sheen as one of the greatest rock anthems of all time, and proved to be the most substantial sing-along moment of the night. It served as the perfect distillation of what Queen + Adam Lambert could offer fans: A sing-along. When viewed as a celebration of Queen’s legacy as unparalleled hitmakers rather than a full-fledged Queen show, Q+AL was a truly entertaining, though particularly low-stakes experience.
James Biagiotti is a freelance music writer based in South Florida. He spends his time listening to and playing music and watching Dolphins and Marlins games.
QAL North American Tour 2019
12 Jul Tacoma, WA Tacoma Dome
14 Jul San Jose, CA SAP Center
16 Jul Phoenix, AZ Talking Stick Resort Arena
19 Jul Los Angeles, CA The Forum
20 Jul Los Angeles, CA The Forum
23 Jul Dallas, TX American Airlines Center
24 Jul Houston, TX Toyota Center
27 Jul Detroit, MI Little Caesars Arena
28 Jul Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena
30 Jul Washington, DC Capital One Arena
31 Jul Pittsburgh, PA PPG Paints Arena
03 Aug Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center
04 Aug Boston, MA Xfinity Center
06 Aug New York, NY Madison Square Garden
07 Aug New York, NY Madison Square Garden
09 Aug Chicago, IL United Center
10 Aug St. Paul, MN Xcel Energy Center
13 Aug Columbus, OH Nationwide Arena
15 Aug Nashville, TN Bridgestone Arena
17 Aug Ft. Lauderdale, FL BB&T Center
20 Aug New Orleans, LA Smoothie King Center
22 Aug Atlanta, GA State Farm Arena
23 Aug Charlotte, NC Spectrum Center
4 Sept Adam Lambert, “SuperPower” single releases
27 Sept VELVET Side A releases - Pre-order now! empire.lnk.to/VELVETsideA
28 Sept QAL - Global Citizen Festival Performance, Central Park, NYC
How to earn a free ticket: globalcitizenfestival.com.
Air live on MSNBC; Comcast NBCUniversal; plus, iHeartMedia will broadcast the event live across the country on its radio stations, as well as stream it on iHeartRadio.
VIP tickets are available from Ticketmaster.com (they appear to be sold out).
TBD Velvet Side B