7.11.14 Adam News and Info

More Houston Reviews



Queen with Adam Lambert brought glam spectacle, cherished songs to the south

By Kara Martinez Bachman, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

Arena-rock patriarchs Queen, along with front man Adam Lambert, brought an evening of glitzy rock spectacle during their Wednesday (July 9) performance at a packed Toyota Center in Houston – the only southern stop of Queen's summer tour.

Since Freddie Mercury's death in 1991, finding someone with the vocal acumen and similar over-the-top sensibility to fill his legendary shoes has been difficult.

For the first few numbers, the crowd seemed slow to warm. But minutes in, it was clear Lambert would not have trouble defending his platform-booted, leather-clad theatricality, his tongue-in-cheek attitude, or his wide-ranging vocal ability. By the time he wrapped up "Somebody to Love" with its well-placed, just-the-right-amount runs, the crowd was sold.

With as many costume changes as one might expect of Cher, Lambert hammed it up glam rock style with everything from leather to fringe to a leopardskin suit he dared to pair with a gold crown.

The 23-song set list included hits "Another One Bites the Dust," the Queen/David Bowie duet "Under Pressure," which Lambert performed with drummer Roger Taylor, and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," ending in its own crazy, frenetic, rockabilly jam. The goosebump-inducing ballads "Love Kills" and "Who Wants to Live Forever" were where Lambert truly showcased his chops: a huge vocal range, especially when climbing deftly into the upper registers.

There was a moment of recognition -- a standing ovation -- for guitar virtuoso Brian May, who, along with Taylor, are among the two remaining original members (bassist John Deacon retired from performing in the late 1990s). The applause was just before a quiet segment in which May performed alone at the end of the long stage catwalk and chatted with the audience. May – who, in addition to playing a mean guitar, has a doctorate in astrophysics – talked of having spent the day touring Houston's Johnson Space Center. In another nod to the local audience, May then introduced the band, with each musician soon sporting NASA logo baseball caps.

he band pays tribute to Mercury throughout the show, including a particularly poignant moment when video is shown of a vulnerable Mercury, onstage wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt and trying – clearly, toward his later days – to sing on, despite the ravages of HIV/AIDS. But the tribute comes to its true expected climax for "Bohemian Rhapsody," when Lambert starts the vocals, but cedes it to Mercury, who sings Queen's weird and wonderful bombastic rock ballad from a video screen behind the stage.

Climbing onto Mercury's shoes is no small feat, but Lambert found a balance, somehow making each song his, while paying adequate homage. For the Toyota Center audience, it seemed to work.

No, Lambert is no Mercury. There was only one of those. While Mercury was all rock, almost feral in his playful abandon, Lambert brings something perhaps more controlled, more practiced. But both share a similar spirit – a brazen, in-your-face vanity, coupled with the sense that rock does not have to just be music, it can be theater. Lambert straddled a thin line, with one shiny boot on the rocker side, the other planted firmly Vegas-style showmanship.

By the time Queen went into its encore -- the iconic sports anthems, "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions," naturally -- the audience was all-in.
www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2014/07/queen_with_adam_lambert_brough.html



HOUSTON PRESS
Queen + Adam Lambert Doesn't Add Up for Either Party
10 July, 2014 by Cory Garcia

Queen + Adam Lambert
Toyota Center
July 9, 2014

Put yourself in these two situations:

A. You're a member of a Hall of Fame-level band who wrote some of the most famous, popular songs in rock music. Your lead singer was perhaps the greatest of all time, but he's no longer with us. You can still play and, more importantly, you still want to play, but no matter what you do, the shadow of your fallen front man will always be there.

B. You're a singer with an amazing voice, good looks, and a charming personality. You should be a megastar, but you just haven't found the right songs yet. You have fans, but you need something to push you over the hump that separates pop act and legit star.

If you look at these two situations and think, "Well, why not put A and B together?", congratulations for picking the path of least resistance. The good news is that this solution will make both parties some serious money.

That's pretty much where the good news ends for Queen and Adam Lambert.

Here are three facts:
1. Queen has an amazing collection of songs.
2. Brian May, guitarist and occasional astrophysicist, and Roger Taylor, drummer and occasional [insert hobby here], still know how to bring it onstage.
3. Adam Lambert has an amazing voice. Just flawless.

Now, admittedly, the decision to do this tour with Lambert is the one that in theory should make the most sense. And sometimes it actually makes more than sense; on songs like "Killer Queen" and "I Want It All" they actually do manage to make some magic, and it's quite impressive.

The problem is that these magic moments are few and far between.

Adam Lambert is probably the best choice to front Queen if you need a warm body to fill that position; he's miles ahead of Paul Rodgers and a much better contemporary choice than, say, Lady Gaga. The problem is that just because he's the best choice doesn't mean he's a good choice.

Again, there's no doubt that he can sing. Seeing him live will give you a greater appreciation of his skills as a singer; he is multitudes more impressive than he seems on TV. But while his voice may be amazing, it doesn't really fit into the type of music that Queen plays, even though all signs point toward the idea that he should.

Perhaps the best example of things not working is "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," which saw Lambert spend the entire track with a fake lip curl as if he was suddenly auditioning in a role for an Elvis musical. It just doesn't work, and no matter how many times he tried to add his own flair to the show, it rarely worked.

To his credit, however, it must be mentioned that at no time did it feel like he was trying to ape Freddie Mercury. Lambert may have the highest respect for Mercury, but he made the wise decision to not try and be Mercury. It's hard to say who he was trying to be -- he was certainly trying hard to be somebody -- but Mercury it was not.
Here's the real mind-bender for you though: Lambert is the one that's getting the short end of the stick here.

All the people who believe the problem here is that Lambert can fill Mercury's shoes have it all wrong; the problem is that Adam Lambert is too talented to vamp on stage while Brian May works his way through yet another (admittedly impressive) guitar solo.

This show was actually best when it was just the Queen guys doing their thing. Brian May knows how to control a crowd, even when his guitar solo goes about three minutes too long. He's funny, engaging, and seemingly sincere even when he's repeating the same lines he does at every show. Roger Taylor can still carry a tune, and it was cute to see him have a drum solo battle with his son.

The Queen guys still have it. They can still play. They're just going about things the wrong way.

In the end, the show didn't show enough reverence toward Mercury (which is weird to say, given that he "sang" a good chunk of "Bohemian Rhapsody") to be considered a tribute and the combination of Queen/Lambert aren't releasing any new music, so you can't consider them relevant. Nostalgia is nice, but it only gets you so far, which might explain why a large chunk of the crowd sat the entire time and the fanfare for one of the greatest songs of all time was pretty damn muted.
If this was a one-off attraction, a major show in Wembley Stadium for instance, that was being recorded and sold on DVD and CD and whatever digital format the kids use these days, it would make perfect sense. It would be something special. But this isn't special: it's just a couple of guys rocking out onstage together but not making anything even approaching art.

Adam Lambert needs to find someone the right song that shows off his voice and his charisma. Queen needs to give up the ghost and just fucking use Mercury's vocal tracks for all the songs that need them if they're going to tour.

Those may not be the simple solutions either party is hoping for, but being a champion isn't easy.

Personal Bias: If you've made it this far, you may not be surprised to learn that I once wrote a blog that mentioned this combination specifically.
The Crowd: Mostly older folks who were into it enough to clap their hands but not so in to it they felt the need to stand, with a sprinkling of folks who were clearly born after Freddie Mercury passed away.

Overheard In the Crowd: "If this little cog in the wheel can help make him successful then I'll do what I can." The lady sitting next to me and my +1 was a moderator for the official Adam Lambert fan forums, and I must say that her excitement and passion make me feel real bad about basically everything I wrote about this.
Random Notebook Dump: If my +1's unofficial Instagram experiment is any indication, Adam Lambert is huge on social media.
blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2014/07/queen_adam_lambert_doesnt_add.php




Concert Previews



Stepping In, Out in Front

By JON CARAMANICAJULY 10, 2014



Brian May, left, of Queen and Adam Lambert will rock you. Credit Barry Brecheisen/Invision, via Associated Press


It used to be called the Sammy Hagar Conundrum and lately has been rebranded as the Arnel Pineda Provocation: What to do when your favorite band takes to the road, and the recording studio, with a new person out front singing? This is an especially perplexing circumstance for fans of Queen, whose frontman, Freddie Mercury, died in 1991, and left a long shadow — in voice and attitude — that few would even try to fill.

But the rest of the band members are mindful of the group’s legacy, and are always on the lookout for opportunities, though they may not have expected to find one on the “American Idol” stage. It was there in 2009 that they collaborated with Adam Lambert, the most theatrical contestant in the show’s history, and one of its most gifted vocalists, too. (They also played with the eventual winner, Kris Allen, a mouse next to Lambert’s cheetah.)

Five years later, Mr. Lambert is fronting Queen on tour — no Freddie Mercury, but an unexpected, worthy place holder. (Thursday, Madison Square Garden; thegarden.com.)
www.nytimes.com/2014/07/13/arts/music/stepping-in-out-in-front.html?_r=0





Adam Lambert's living real life and fantasy with Queen


Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor with Adam Lambert (center) backstage before their Queen + Adam Lambert North American tour announcement at Madison Square Garden on March 6, 2014, in New York City. Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImages

By Gary Graff, ggraff@digitalfirstmedia.com,, @graffonmusic on Twitter


If you go

• Queen + Adam Lambert

• 8 p.m. Saturday, July 12

• The Palace of Auburn Hills, Lapeer Road at I-75

• Some tickets are still available at $35-$85

• Call 248-377-0100 or visit www.palacenet.com

Adam Lambert was 10 years old when he heard Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” during the hilarious segment in the first “Wayne’s World” film.

“As a kid, I think that’s the first time hearing something and wanting to know more about it,” Lambert, 32, recalls. “I thought, ‘What is this song? It’s so cool.’ And my dad said, ‘Here, son, this is Queen’ and let Lambert hear even more from the band’s catalog.

More than two decades later Lambert is doing more than listening to Queen; he’s singing for the long-lived British group, using the multi-octave voice that made him “American Idol’s” 2009 runner-up (to Kris Allen) to rekindle the late Freddie Mercury on hits such as “Killer Queen,” “We Are the Champions,” “Another One Bites the Dust” and more with founding members Brian May and Roger Taylor. The association dates back to the “Idol” finale, when Lambert first sang with Queen, and continued for the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards and a handful of shows the following year in Britain and Europe and at the 2013 iHeartRadio Music Festival.

This year Queen + Adam Lambert are touring North America, which the singer — who’s released two Top 5 albums and landed a recurring role on “Glee” since his “Idol” stint — calls “so surreal.”

“If someone had said to me, ‘By the way, you’re gonna be on stage at Madison Square Garden with them in five years,’ I would’ve laughed in their face. ... It’s an honor. I’m very humbled and very lucky I get to do this.”

Queen + Adam Lambert is hardly May and Taylor’s first Queen venture since Mercury’s death in 1991 (bassist John Deacon remains an inactive partner in all things band-related). The two were full participants in the award-winning “We Will Rock You” stage musical that opened in 2002 and have also overseen a wealth of catalog releases during the past two decades, including an estimated 300 million albums sold worldwide. They toured and also recorded an album with former Bad Company and Free singer Paul Rodgers between 2004-2009, played at the closing ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and launched a tribute show called “The Queen Extravaganza” in 2013.

Playing with Lambert, however, ranks as one of — if not THE — favorite post-Mercury project May and Taylor have done.

“He’s sensational,” says Taylor, 64. “I describe him as almost a camp Elvis (Presley). He has this unbelievable range, ’cause Freddie had a great range. Adam can really cover it. He’s an extraordinary singer and a real talent. I feel he fits into our sort of theatricality. It was very comfortable.”

May, 66, adds that, “One of the greatest things about Adam is that he’s never an imitator.”

“He finds his own way with the songs, and that’s what we all want,” he says. “We want our music to be alive and dangerous and still open to change. Freddie in particular would hate to have things reproduced the way they were. We take it to different places — that’s exciting, and I don’t think we’d be doing it if we didn’t think we were actually going into new territory.”

The guitarist — who also holds a Ph.D. in astrophysics (and is, therefore, a bona fide rocket scientist) — acknowledges there are those who ask, “Is this really Queen without Freddie?” but says this incarnation of the group is serving a demand.

“People want to hear Queen music,” he explains. “They want to hear it done great, and they want to have Roger and I play and we love to play. Neither Roger or I are desperate to go out and do what we did, because we did it. It’s not like we’re always looking for someone to sing for us. Organically, this happened with Adam. We just felt good about it, and we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t feel it was right and natural.

“So having this opportunity is great for me. We’re still alive, thank God, and we’re still healthy enough to go out and tread the boards one more time.”

Neither May and Taylor nor Lambert are speculating about their future beyond the summer; the North American tour wraps July 28 in Toronto, and the group will play four shows in Australia at the end of the summer. Lambert is working on his third solo album, while, May and Taylor are also involved in a Mercury biopic and a possible film adaptation of the “We Will Rock You” musical, as well as “Queen Forever,” an album of unreleased material with Mercury that’s due out this fall.

But they’re happy to be playing together for the moment — and so is Lambert’s father, who introduced him to Queen’s music more than two decades ago.

“He’s like, ‘Holy s***! You’re on stage with Queen! I can’t believe it!’ “ Lambert says with a laugh.

Link: www.dailytribune.com/arts-and-entertainment/20140710/adam-lamberts-living-real-life-and-fantasy-with-queen




Queen teams up with Adam Lambert
CHL 12:08 a.m. EDT July 10, 2014


(Photo: GETTY IMAGES )

When it comes to reality television shows, I can be a little bit of a hater. I assume the role of the armchair quarterback while scrutinizing the credentials of these alleged nationwide talent hunts.

Like, don’t you think they’d occasionally get it right? Isn’t it lame I can only recall a handful of winners? Is the cream actually rising to the top?

Oh, wait — Adam Lambert, runner-up in the eighth season of “American Idol,” is currently touring as the lead singer of the reunited, reinvigorated Queen. And the new Queen is playing to hugely supportive audiences and injecting new life into one of the greatest song-by-song rock catalogs of all time.

Tickets are going to be scarce Wednesday night at the Wells Fargo Center, but try and scoop up a couple if you can. Prices run from $35 to $125. For more information, visit wellsfargocenterphilly.com.

— Matt Chimento

Link: www.courierpostonline.com/story/entertainment/2014/07/10/queen-teams-adam-lambert/12435883/




Other News




ADAM LAMBERT PERFORMS IN VERSACE IN CALIFORNIA

Posted on July 10, 2014

BREAKING: ADAM LAMBERT TO JOIN THE VILLAGE PEOPLE.



(Lots more pics of Adam in Versace)




Gotta say, that’s some seriously hot shit.

We’re just old enough to be a little freaked out by how much what used to pass for gay male subculture has passed into the mainstream, from drag to the gay leather scene. Sure, America got introduced to leatherboy getups when the Village People hit the big time, but most people remained oblivious at the time as to what those costumes represented for gay men. Adam’s out, proud, and sashaying that leather-clad ass for the world to see. It’s not a big deal, but there was a time not that long ago when something like this would have been considered a big deal – and time before that when the reference would have gone over most people’s heads.
tomandlorenzo.com/2014/07/adam-lambert-perfoms-in-versace-in-california/





Share your concert story or review!!
6.28.14 by Q3

Everyone wants to read about your concert experience. So, if you are inclined to share, please do. It is fun to read them even if you attended the same concert. Everyone has a different experience and sees different things.

If you do want to share a review, please post it in the CONCERT thread. Then, so we don’t miss it, post a short note with a link to your review in the current Daily News thread.

If you already posted it in both places, that fine. Just leave it as it is. If you did not post it in the concert thread, please post a copy in the concert thread so we can include it in the concert archive.

Thanks to all who have shared. And I hope/expect to read hundreds more! So post away!

2014 Queen + Adam Lambert Tour Dates




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