www.post-gazette.com/ae/music/2019/08/01/Queen-Adam-Lambert-concert-review-Pittsburgh-PPG-Paints-Arena-Rhapsody-Tour/stories/201908010096?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_PittsburghPG
Rami Malek, with some extra overbite, grabbed the Oscar for portraying Freddie Mercury in “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and while they don’t hand out awards for concert performances, by the end of the night Wednesday, Adam Lambert clearly earned the velvet cloak and crown he donned for “We Are The Champions.”
And remember, the guy didn’t even win “American Idol.”
But that’s a whole other story. He’s a champion now in the eyes of millions of fans worldwide for bringing Queen back to majestic new life as a high-end tribute act with the two remaining members.
Queen + Adam Lambert, the successful sequel to Queen + Paul Rodgers, launched its first world tour in 2014 and finally made its Pittsburgh debut Wednesday at a sold-out PPG Paints Arena in a dazzling, deep dive into one of rock’s quirkier catalogs.
The stage, appropriately, was dressed with operatic touches like a Greek theater facade, crimson curtains and theater boxes for some fortunate fans. Queen guitar hero Brian May appeared in silhouette on screen, and in a clever throwback to the band’s ’70s shows, Lambert popped up in a few places at once before stepping out in an ornate black-and-gold suit with “Now I’m Here.”
The dramatic entrance and May’s first solo were undercut by a flat sound mix that persisted through “Seven Seas of Rhye” and “Keep Yourself Alive” before brightening for “Hammer to Fall” and “Killer Queen,” which began with Lambert fanning himself on the piano and climaxed with one of May’s signature liquid solos.
Playing stand-in for Freddie Mercury requires an impossible balance of humility and flamboyance that Lambert, with glitter on his eyelids, somehow managed to strike by just being himself.
“I feel so lucky and so fortunate to be taking the stage with these gentlemen night after night,” he said, addressing the audience. “It is a HUUUGE honor to be carrying a torch for one of my all-time musical heroes: the irreplaceable, one and only rock god Freddie Mercury!
“You miss Freddie?” he said over the cheers. “See, that’s what’s so cool, is I’m just like all of you guys. I’m a fan as well. I’m just up here in this really gay suit.”
Actually, it would get even gayer, with a silvery fringe number and the studded biker gear for “Bicycle Race,” sung while kicking back on a rotating motorcycle. He didn’t do the classic white tank top, but wardrobes aside, the important thing is that he has rare pipes to soar like Mercury without ever falling into imitation or parody.
He didn’t have to carry it all. Midway through, the show moved to the foot of the runway where May sat down on acoustic for a fragile, tender reading of “Love of My Life” joined beautifully by Mercury on video. “Recognizing the fact that that’s impossible to follow,” as he said, he did anyway with the jangly folk-rock song “‘39,” one of his rare studio lead vocals (from “A Night At the Opera”) that turned out to be a show highlight.
Original drummer Roger Taylor (apologies for just getting to him) took the lead on “I'm in Love With My Car,” as he did on that same album, and “Doing All Right” and then filled the Bowie role nicely on “Under Pressure.” Also done on the runaway was club banger “Another One Bites the Dust,” now rendered hard to listen to without hearing “Another Rides the Bus.”
As the show wore on, Queen enhanced the art-rock visuals, including a disco ball for “I Want to Break Free” and dynamite on the laser beams for “Who Wants to Live Forever,” the kind of power ballad made for “American Idol.” In the show’s most Pink Floyd moment, May — guitarist and astrophysicist — went sci-fi on a riser of glowing lava for “Last Horizon,” a solo with long elegant lines and a thundering power finish that transitioned into a hard-rocking “Tie Your Mother Down.” It was followed by a jubilant sea shanty sing-along of “Fat Bottomed Girls,” which was strange in 1978 and just a little more wrong in 2019.
For the set-closing “Bohemian Rhapsody,” May donned a space robot suit and mask and Lambert topped a riser with a single spot singing the opening “Mama, just killed a man.” In another perfect touch, they turned the operatic interlude over to Mercury, via the classic Queen video, before May and Lambert crushed the song’s hyperdrive climax in the most thrilling musical moment of the night.
Back on video, Mercury’s “Ay-Oh” chant from Live Aid set up the stomping soccer-stadium finish of “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions” that sent everyone home fully energized.
Can they tell their grandkids, now or many years from now, that they saw Queen? Nope. But the two original parts and the singer who idolized Freddie got them pretty close to the killer Queen.
