7.2.22 QAL Amsterdam #2, Netherlands Ziggo Dome

Translated from Dutch 

Queen put on a dazzling and deafening show on Friday in Ziggo Dome. 27 songs in almost two and a half hours, right through time and space, to the point of exhaustion. oor.nl/concerten/queen-groots-en-meeslepend-in-ziggo-dome/




QUEEN GRAND AND COMPELLING IN ZIGGO DOME


Queen + Adam Lambert should have performed their The Rhapsody tour in the Ziggo Dome in 2020, but are now catching up with their promised Dutch concerts. Friday evening Brian May and Roger Taylor kept their legacy alive in Amsterdam, tonight they will be back in full uniform. Because it was an overwhelming audiovisual spectacle, as OOR saw on the spot.

The Show Must Go On† The biggest cliché in showbiz once again turns out to be true when we join the queue for the Ziggo Dome. "Mine were even discolored," laughs a proud father in his old denim jacket, who had his neatly printed tickets on the fridge since the fall of 2019. His two boys are now a head bigger, but that doesn't matter: Queen's appeal transcends all genres, genders and generations. Legendary and alive at the same time, with a package of hits that spans three decades and has proved timeless on all fronts thirty years after the death of their frontman. One leg is already in the echelon of the Gods (the film, the musicals, the icon Freddie Mercury), the other is stomping firmly in the reality of the present, because Brian May (74) and Roger Taylor (72) are still running the circus. always around the world.The Show Must Go On.



But that is not so obvious today, we realize when we pass 'the stairs of Corry'. Three weeks ago, a disappointed Johan Cruijff ArenA still poured onto the boulevard here, when the Stones canceled their concert at the last minute. Both Metallica and the Peppers went for the ax this week, while more and more big and small names on the festival posters this weekend due to positive covid tests. There is no real fear or worry for the Ziggo Dome – otherwise the tickets will simply go back on the fridge. But we all won't believe it until Queen is on stage. Fortunately, upon entering, a huge crown glitters at the back of the floor, accompanied by a persistent, bulging, ominous tone. The flag hangs on the palace. Queen is in the house.



You pick them right out: the people who came to the show not because of the music, but because of the myth-building around Mercury. In the Circustheater you will be neatly escorted from your champagne package to your golden seat right from the start , in the Ziggo Dome you have to conquer your own place – and then also stand with a field card. 'Is it that busy in the front too?' asks the boldest of a group of friends with plastic cups of rosé. They don't dare to go through the crowd anyway and chatter quietly when Innuendowhen intro tape dims the light. The first impression turns out to be wrong: the ladies are here mainly for Adam Lambert. 'He really sings much better than Freddie', the boldest is sure. Although she also enjoyed the movie. And the music. As she rushes to the bar for another five rosettes, history comes to life a little further ahead.



With a thunderous roar, that is. Because despite the fairytale legacy and the overarching show element, Queen is and remains primarily a hard rock band. Two snow-white faces, one with curls and the other with goatee, are still as noisy as when they started their band more than half a century ago. Brian May and Roger Taylor (assisted in the flank by, among others, veteran keyboardist Spike Edney) pop Now I'm Here , Tear It Up and Seven Seas Of Rhye out in one go. As Hammer To Fall concludes the opening salvo, the ladies' rosettes have spontaneously turned into bubbles, the boldest has now run to the hallway for five pairs of earplugs.



Then Adam Lambert takes his moment – ​​and deserved it, because he brings the vocal part with fire and flexibility. Where Queen once found a solid, sympathetic pillar in Paul Rodgers, who let the two primal members pull the trigger, with the flamboyant American they have added value that not only hits the right notes musically, but also sets the right tone in terms of entertainment value . . "I'm just a fan too," he echoes Mark Wahlberg in Rock Star , moments after he unleashes the high-pitched slash in Somebody To Love into the frenzied hall. Even Killer Queen, in its playful, kitschy charm so inextricably linked to Mercury's personality, never feels forced or fake in the hands of the current singer. Lambert carries the show with ease, like a bird of paradise with the wings of a phoenix. And that allows Brian May and Roger Taylor to get back to doing what they do best: putting up a wall of sound. Fat Bottomed Girls, I Want It All – Queen rumbles through everything.



Just when the ladies have mastered those things about earplugs, they can go out again. Brian May takes the center stage for an acoustic Love Of My Life . The effigy of Freddie Mercury first appears on screen, singing the last verse from eternity with Brian. We remember that well-timed tear at the end from previous performances, although it seems anything but a trick – we feel it ourselves. And he lingers behind the eyes, when Roger Taylor starts These Are The Days Of Our Lives , accompanied by old images of the entire band (including bassist John Deacon, who has disappeared from the face of the earth for years), and a little later Under Pressurededicates to Taylor Hawkins. "From Foo Fighters!" he adds. It means little to the ladies, but the handkerchiefs are already full. And the glasses empty. 'Beer!' suggests the boldest. The rest nod. When I Want To Break Free rolls through the hall, the girlfriends have finally shaken the plush of their ass for years and are standing tough on the half litre.

After just under two hours, the final offensive has started: Brian May descends from the stage roof after his guitar solo and starts a devastating Tie Your Mother Down , which turns into a top-heavy, dramatically accentuated The Show Must Go On . The ladies panic, clumsily balancing with their plastic cups, when the public moment in Radio Ga Ga forces them to clap along. Then sounds the well-known harmony of Bohemian Rhapsodythrough the hall. 'Is this the real life? Or is this just fantasy?' And in that sense is exactly the crux of Queen live in 2022. Their legacy, in image and sound, is so ubiquitous and untouchable today that you almost forget that it was all simply created by people. Freddie Mercury has graced the Hall of Fame alongside Hendrix, Elvis, Lennon, Marley and the other greats since his death in 1991, but Queen's central axis is still standing. You can simply step into the fantasy world, built in films, musicals and the many, many stories, because Brian May and Roger Taylor maintain Queen in the 21st century as a living legend . Real life and fantasy in one. And that on just any Friday evening in Amsterdam.




And as the legend of Queen stands alone, everyone lives their own adventure, with ups and downs. When the (recorded) opera part of Bohemian Rhapsody blares through the Ziggo Dome, a familiar tension builds. And with the eruption, the hall literally and figuratively goes through the roof. Four of the ladies have thrown their beers into the air and are headbanging Wayne's World to the crown. Only the boldest stood aside for a moment, handkerchief by the eyes. Who knows what she's been through with this song, or who she's thinking about now, in her own hall of fame. The wonderful combination of real life and fantasyhits harder than any musical. When the sound with 'Any way the wind blows…' dies, everything is all right again in a flash – and she is the only one of the couple still with her beer.



The lap of honor with We Will Rock You and We Are The Championstakes the tired Ziggo Dome back to the exit, where real life awaits – and the fantasy drags us through it. The ladies? They are very happy. They experienced and survived a real rock concert. And tomorrow they will also go to the Dolly Dots in Carré. If the beep has disappeared from the ears, that is, because Queen has put on a dazzling and deafening performance in Amsterdam tonight. 27 songs in almost two and a half hours, right through time and space, to the point of exhaustion. As we shuffle along the Johan Cruijff Boulevard past the stadium, the realization sinks in: Brian May and Roger Taylor will do this again tomorrow. And then in Madrid, Bologna, Paris, Antwerp, Copenhagen, Oslo, wherever the wind blows… 'Up those shitty stairs again', Corry van de Stones would have sighed. Although Freddie said it a little more beautifully:The Show Must Go On .