War and Peace Queen StyleOtherwise titled as one long ass review - so grab a coffee and settle in. I’ll try to make it worth your while... I have a tendency to get a bit snarky so beware.
Short version for those time constrained... We came. We danced. We sang. We stood with our mouths open. We found common ground. We cheered. We were adamazed and queenified. The end.I won’t bore you with the whole getting there stuff which went something like this. Husband running late. Dog fed. No Traffic. Brisk walk from city. There early and so went in and wandered around to our entry door. Stopped on the way to buy a program which my husband (from here on to be called S) asked for a clean one out of the box... yep he’s that guy. Didn’t want any other merch but they were moving plenty. Australians are used to paying high prices for things so $50 for t-shirt no problem.
We grabbed an overpriced glass of vino for me and beer for S and settled in for some truly spectacular people watching. There wasn’t a specific demographic but lots of 50+ year old guys who need to do a lot more physical activity and take better care of themselves if they want to see 60 - if you know what I mean. Also quite a few questionable fashion choices (yep I really did want to wear those spotted black and white bows in my hair with pink knee high socks...no I’m not 10). I really must need to get out more because the amount of junk food and sugary beverages being consumed by all in sunder just floored me - I mean you just drank 20 teaspoons of sugar and you’re headed back for another one. But I digress.
Our friends missed their train and so were running late but S and I ran into another couple we know. She works for a radio station and had gotten tickets the day before for the show and was going to be interviewed later that night after show was over for her review. I of course pumped up Adam and we had a little “discussion” about the Freddie elephant. Didn’t see her after so will have to look up and see if they podcast that show.
Doors open and after the initial rush - which just to back up for a minute - this is a ticketed show with numbered seats. #wtf (there will be many of those through out the night). Anyway we wandered in and I was DELIGHTED with our seats. About 5 rows up on the lower side tier just slightly past the end of the thrust. Perfect... but wait, there’s someone sitting in one of our seats. Actually no he’s in his seat and half of one of ours. He’s a double wide person. Let me say these are not huge seats but this was a seriously very large man. S isn’t small but agreed to sit next to the guy and scooch into part of my seat (sigh my guy). Well after a few minutes we realized this wasn’t going to work. I’ll just pause here for a minute to note that S has run security for big events for years and knows the drill but it hadn’t occurred to him to go ask to be reseated, so after suggestion and a couple of prods off he went. Apparently when he went up to the nice Rod Laver person and as soon as he mentioned our seat numbers they just handed us new tickets with a knowing smile. So we ended up slightly further forward a couple of rows higher up on the aisle - worth the trade for the enjoyment of the night.
So we settled in and were surrounded by hard core Queen fans. Not sure they were ready to suspend their disbelief but they had come to see Queen and if they had to endure the new guy to do that then so be it. People were slow to get to their seats and were still coming in when processional music had started.
Start. What a ride. The floor were on their feet straight away and for most of the night. The sides not so much but that would eventually change.
NIH through to FBG was pretty much a blur. I remember the kick and thought at the time man I hope someone got a photo of that. Floorbert. Camera cam. Stalking the stage. Trusty. Grinning like a madman (that last one was me). His voice was on and don’t need to tell anyone here who’s been to a show the way it just surrounds you, burrows down inside and radiates back through a smile on your face you didn’t even know you had til your cheeks hurt. S had earplugs in due to damage he already has from too many shows but said he could still hear the voice just perfectly. The chipmunks were on holidays at least where I was. Was up and dancing for FBG with some other random people in my section. One extremely proud fat bottomed girl was pointing to her ass and shaking it - made me laugh.
And just like that we were up to INTLOTG which he did some amazing improvisational vocal shit to, singing around over and into the melody - never heard him do it that way before. The Q came to life and lowered then went back up. No one was quite sure why except that it can. Alright then SSOR leading into THE COUCH.
Because of our slightly moved forward position I couldn’t really see him on the couch much so watched the screens mostly. Crowd was loving it and the Queen boys (QBs) seemed to be having a fine old time - they were about to be amazed. Hi Melbourne. You having fun. Adam fountain. Talk yada yada... and finally STL. One of my favorites. It honestly felt a bit more “subdued” than some of the others I’ve seen on vid but I was not disappointed in the least. His voice soared. He pranced. And waltzed. And twirled. And then we were coming up to the long “tooooooo” note. The QBs start muttering and hear them say “bet he doesn’t do the note” and then to be silenced in their tracks when he nails it and then some. I turned half way around giving them an I told you so side eye (yep i’d love to have a smiley of that) and said “with room to spare and then some”... they laughed and agreed and it was all good. We were pals for the rest of the night.
IWIA got a huge cheer. Whole place just roared - who knew, don’t really remember much about it except everyone was having a blast including Adam and the guys.
I’m not going to talk about the middle section much. Love of my Life turned the place into a 15,000 person choir and Brian hardly had to sing at all. 39 was ok but didn’t get the same engagement. IAKOM was ok but you could tell Roger was feeling the push of trying to carry it. The drum and bass solos were cool. Hearing the bass riff of Under Pressure live was very cool and obvious fun Adam and Roger have singing together nice to see. The “new guy” got a huge roar from the whole place and a mostly standing ovation - such a proud moment to see.
And here for a minute I’m going to post something probably unpopular with most - Dr Bri’s solo is wayyyy too long. Even the Queen guy in front of me who was religiously recording every guitar solo bit Bri did all night long gave up about half way through. I don’t think the vids or stream gave me a sense of the the sheer force of personality that Adam has to use to bring the energy in the room back up. When he came back out for TYMD you could almost feel him picking the whole arena up on his shoulders to reenergise the place. YMMV. S and our other friends (huge Queen fans) found it super indulgent and though something more of the length of the drum solos would have been better - comment was yes you can have too many Brian May guitar solos (seeing he also has quite a few throughout a lot of the songs). OK onwards.
All through this first part of the show the couple behind us were having a running commentary about the venue, their friends, plans for the weekend - seriously I know more about their lives than people I’ve known for years (WTF) Finally couldn’t take it any more and leaned back half turned around and gave them a very annoyed “shhhhhhhh” which seemed to do the trick.
Also noticed that during instrumental part of the show a procession of people started going out to get drink refills etc. It’s a 2 hour show that you’ve paid hundreds of dollars to see and you decide no I need a coke more than I need to see the show. WTF in triplicate.
But by this time I was getting antsy WWTLF was just a song away - eek. The crowd seemed to really like DA and the lighting was stunning (well throughout but the punch of DA stood out). At this point Adam is throwing off super hard notes like they are confetti but everyone is about to be stunned rendered speechless.
I had decided that WWTLF was the one song I was going to record audio for so I hit my record button on my app and Spikes notes started. I got spontaneous body goosebumps. I was seriously trying to listen, take it in and embed in my mind all at once. Impossible as you all know. And then I totally forgot I was recording and let out a scream in the middle completely ruining it and then accidentally cut off the last notes of guitar at the end. Fuck what an idiot. But will post it to Soundcloud anyway (will post link when I do). It was gorgeous. Powerful. And my absolutely hands down favorite of the night (and also S by the way). I’d could have happily walked in heard that and walked out after paying $200+ for my ticket and been a happy camper.
Ok this is getting seriously wayyyyy too long so I’ll skip forward. The Gimme your Love call and response was great. Took a little bit to get going but once it did was all kinds of fun. LOL his vocal masturbation line (QBs laughed like lunatics). Somewhere in there was RGG which I am proud to say Melbourne handled the hand clap admirably. His doo woop ending is just so cool. His segue to CLTCL had my favorite line of the night when he asked if love makes us nuts people roared and his comeback of oh you like nuts I like nuts... pause for effect cue hysterical crowd laughter. GOLD.
CLTCL was fun as always. Bo Rhap was lovely and you could by this point almost feel audience wishing Adam had sung the whole thing (or that may be my projecting - ok probably my projecting). Then we were waiting for encore. A few people got up and left...a again WTF your need to beat the traffic outweighs seeing the show? Alrightly then. The QBs were all that can’t be it can it. I assured them there was more to come and they would be pleased... not sure they believed me then...
BOOM BOOM and whole place (even S) were instantly on their feet screaming like lunatics and stayed that way all the way to the end. Adam owned the crown by that point and judging by the happy faces filing out clutching confetti as a keepsake I’d say a good time was had by all. It certainly was by me.
So that’s it. My Queen show. Not going to go back for round 2 tonight - am completely happy and satisfied with the experience and memories of last night. I know I’ve missed a boat load of stuff and will probably have to do a stuff I forgot reprise in coming day or so, but that’s it. We walked out into a lovely misty evening and as we meandered along the river back to the city my friend who wasn’t familiar with Adam couldn’t stop talking about how amazing he was.
Based on tweets she wasn’t alone.
