I'm going to try and do a recap of my DC concert and St. Paul. Not great at this but will try and share.
My adventures to the St. Paul concert were eventful, not in a good way. My car (transmission) broke down on the way to the airport to pick up a friend from PA to join me at the concert. I waited for 2 hours at an Enterprise to get a rental car. They didn't have any because the X Games were going on in the Twin Cities...finally got a car, got her and made it to the concert; we even had time for some drinks at a bar outside the Xcel center to talk with other concert attendees.
Our seats in St. Paul were absolutely amazing. We were in-line with the end of the catwalk and only 5 rows up, we could see all the emotions on their faces without having to look at the jumbotron. My friend Patti goes to a lot of concerts and right after it started she said it was amazing! I will say right away, the sound at the Xcel Center was that best I've ever heard at any large venue. I'll get the only negative comment out of the way. I don't think Adam's new song goes at all with the Queen set. People still stood at the St. Paul concert but a lot of people sat down during this song in DC; the clapping and the response was very luke warm. The concert lost momentum and it took a whole song for the audience to be charged up again. I took my son to the DC concert and he really hated the song and thought it sounded like bubblegum pop and just didn't go with the set, he liked the lyrics though.
I really loved the opening, the production is so, so good. We had an amazing crowd around us in St. Paul. No one in the arena ever sat down. Most of the fans were Queen fans, I only saw a couple Adam fans. Adam was kind of fierce and sexy in St. Paul, a little more camp and flamboyant at Verizon. My friend loved everything, she didn't have a favorite song. Patti thought Adam was excellent, she loved the leather outfits and thought he was so much better since Idol. She hadn't heard anything about him since Idol. Not too many people in St. Paul knew how to do the Radio Gaga clap which surprised me since they were mostly Queen fans.
On to Verizon with my son. We had drinks at a great place next door to the venue. We met people that said they were Queen and Adam fans and a lot of Queen fans. There were 4 diehard Queen fans in our section from England who were seeing the tour in several places in the US and planning to follow them to Europe too; they were hilarious. Our seats at Verizon were on the left but almost to the end of the floor section up a few rows. The sound was off for the first two songs but they corrected it right away. We really got to experience the incredible production, set design, lasers, etc. from these seats...it was unbelievable and I'm sure extremely expensive.
We both liked that they opened with a bit of WWRY and SCC. Hammer to fall was just ok for me but my son loved Brian's guitar on it. I really loved SCC.
My son absolutely loved Fat Bottom Girls. He liked Adam sitting on top of Frank, thought it was pretty funny. Bicycle Race was pretty fun too. He thought that Somebody to Love introduction was a bit too cheesy. I like the new version of STL but my son wished they had stuck to the one from the last tour. I honestly wish Adam paid homage without the whole I'm not Freddie thing, I'm so sick of it. Adam is amazing and I'm so sick of every review starting with He's no Freddie. I think if he didn't spend so much time addressing it maybe every review wouldn't start that way...I don't know, I just think it takes away from Adam's own amazing voice, which I prefer to Freddie's voice. But I do get the love many have of the rock edge in Freddie's voice.
We both absolutely LOVED Roger's I'm In Love With My Car. Brian's production and guitar solo were literally out of this world. I've never seen or heard anything like it, it was truly other-worldly. I wish there was a video to capture just how amazing the lasers and stage production were for this part of the show. We really loved the audience reaction to Love of My Life also. We loved the cell phone flashlights!
We both thought Get Down Make Love, the riff with Brian and I Want It All were definite highlights of the show. All pretty amazing.
I thought Adam's vocals were spectacular on I want to break free & Who wants to live Forever. Radio Gaga was really fun, lots of participation in DC. I think Adam being showcased more in Bohemian Rhapsody is a great addition although it's really still a Freddie moment, as it should be.
In conclusion, I loved seeing the relationships between Adam, Brian and Roger. It was so caring and respectful and you could really see the chemistry between them. The encores were spectacularly amazing in both St. Paul and DC but I think DC definitely won for the unbelievable run that Adam did at the end of We are the Champions!
Just breathtaking shows that I am so grateful to have experienced with my dear friend Patti and especially with my son Dave.