7.14.14 Adam News & Info -- North to Montreal

DALLAS REVIEW

EAGLE 106.3 - TEXARKANA'S ROCK STATION
Queen with Adam Lambert Concert Review [Photos]

Last Thursday I had a chance to see Queen one more time in my life at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, TX. The question on my mind was how well Adam Lambert would do in the lead vocal role, because let’s face it, no one can ever replace Freddie Mercury.

The answer is simple, he did a great job.

Adam’s vocal register is actually higher than Freddie’s and he doesn’t have that strong rock & roll growl in it that Freddie did, but again finding someone who is well-known and can run up and down the vocal range that Freddie possessed to perform those amazing Queen songs is no easy task. Adam did an admirable job indeed. Lambert also posses a significant flare and showmanship that needs to be a part of a Queen show. Maybe a little over the top at times, but I would frankly rather have a little too much than not enough.

There was also a few points in the show where Freddie was doing the vocal work on the big screen and much homage was paid to the long-departed frontman for the band. Probably not a dry eye in the house either. Yes, including mine! I’m getting more sentimental the older I get.

Drummer Roger Taylor and legendary guitarist Brian May pulled the sound of Queen together and rocked the Double A Center in Dallas that night. I can’t imagine anyone left feeling let down by the effort, it was in fact a fantastic show.

kygl.com/queen-with-adam-lambert-concert-review-photos/?trackback=twitter

Michelle ‏@dragonfly194 1h
PLEASE RETWEET-Near the front you TOTALLY miss Adam-Brian-Roger at end of catwalk-I have 1 ticket section B row 19 seat 12 W/great views MSG

NATIONAL POST
Concert Review: Queen and Adam Lambert did Freddie proud at the Air Canada Centre

Rebecca Tucker | July 14, 2014 | Last Updated: Jul 14 2:44 PM ET




Let’s just get this out of the way: Adam Lambert is no Freddie Mercury.

That’s not a jab. Nobody will come close to holding a candle to the iconic Queen frontman, which is precisely what makes seeing Queen in 2014 somewhat of an oddity. The British rock group’s defining feature — with apologies to Brian May’s hair — was the vocal prowess and onstage charisma of its late singer, which, on paper, makes the idea of mounting a world tour at this stage in the game seem like an exercise in futility at best; one likely to fail at worst. Bassist John Deacon knew it: that’s why he’s only joined former bandmates Brian May and Roger Taylor onstage twice since Mercury’s death in 1991.

So, really, in 2014 what you’re getting is 50% of Queen, minus Freddie, plus support. Kind of a tough sell.

Fortunately for the support (again, not a jab), the remaining members of Queen not quite ready to hang up their hats are in as fine form as you could expect from a pair of sexegenarians — and they know we all miss Freddie. That is why the best (and most touching) parts of Queen and Adam Lambert’s Sunday night show at the Air Canada Centre involved Mercury — or at least the spectre of him.

It happened first when May stepped out to the front of the stage to perform Love Of My Life, a song that, when Mercury was around, the pair would perform together. And so it was that on the second verse, the large Q-shaped screen above May faded to Mercury performing the song as the iconic guitarist continued to pick away onstage below him. And then later, rather than struggle through the lightning-paced harmonic arrangements of Bohemian Rhapsody, the group deferred to the track’s music video, closing the song with Mercury trading the song’s final pair of “nothing really matters” with Lambert.

Incorporating Mercury into the show was a brilliant move, not least of all in execution — if you happened to have been watching the screen rather than the stage, he may as well have actually been there. But it was smart mostly because, without Freddie, Queen would have just been another rock group with a particularly good guitarist. With him — because of him — they became legends.

Lambert, meanwhile, is a talented vocalist with impressive range, deeply powerful pipes and a taste for the flamboyant not unlike Mercury’s (though, it’s unlikely you’d have seen the Queen frontman sporting Lambert’s spiked bolero). He did the songs justice, adding his particular brand of vocal flair to May and Taylor’s impeccable musicianship. Lambert’s voice isn’t Freddie’s — the American Idol vet’s loose modern-pop warble is in many ways the opposite of Mercury’s tightly controlled delivery — but it’s tough to hold that against him, considering. And where he legitimately faltered — in stage presence, mostly, which all too often amounted to standing idly until his next vocal cue — May and Taylor stepped in, with the former in particular taking any and all opportunity to prove that, as an axe-man, he’s still got it. (Having said that, a 15-minute distorted guitar solo interlude midway through the night was … a bit much.)

Aside from a fumbled Under Pressure and rendition of Crazy Little Thing Called Love that seemed to have had all the wind knocked out of it, the performance was tight, the setlist was an expertly crafted mix of glam-rock bombast and down-tempo sentimentalism and the staging itself was old-school rock and roll decadence, dry ice and all. The only thing missing was Freddie — but, as May said ahead of Love Of My Life, when a lot of good people get together and sing, sometimes magic happens. So he was there after all, wasn’t he?

More with set list.. 


arts.nationalpost.com/2014/07/14/concert-review-queen-and-adam-lambert-did-freddie-proud-at-the-air-canada-centre/

Gelly ‏@14gelly 2h
She has some pretty cool pics from Toronto instagram.com/casslloydmua
I love these two
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instagram.com/p/qa6jidAwF3/?modal=true …