|
|
Post by pi on Jul 25, 2022 8:06:36 GMT -5
TamperelainenGig review | Queen + Adam Lambert charmed with their bohemian rhapsody
Freddie Mercury is an all time frontman, PERIOD. This is my opinion, which carried with me today as ballast as I headed towards the Nokia Areena.
I've somehow managed to avoid hearing Queen sung by anyone other than Mercury on YouTube and other similar streaming services, except for the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert, which has been exactly thirty years since then.
Queen or any other singer seems to divide people into two camps: one group is happy when they hear Queen classics even in some form, while the other group considers performing under the name Queen without Mercury to be almost sacrilegious.
The fourth original member, John Deacon, is probably closer to the latter position, as he has not appeared in Queen's ranks since the aforementioned tribute concert.
A little spoiler warning for those who are going to the latter concert on Monday and don't want to know what happens. In this case, you should stop reading here, because what follows is a fairly detailed description of the evening's events.
As the audience buzzed with excitement as the clock struck eight, the wait was rewarded as spotlights lit up the air of the Nokia Arena while Innuendo played from the background tape. Soon, Brian May got up from the stage and Now I'm Here started playing live, aptly declaring that we really are here.
When May started her guitar riff, the result was immediate goosebumps as shivers went through my whole body. Soon, Adam Lambert also arrived on stage in his glittering top hat , while Roger Taylor was drumming on the comp like in his best days.
Hammer to Fall raised the intensity even more, and after that, we set the mood to the rhythm of Somebody to Love , which, as a side note, was one of the most successful versions of the Freddie Mercury Tribute, now also performed by the late George Michael.
During Killer Queen, I went from filming to the audience just in time for the start of Don't Stop Me Now . The song already had the audience singing along loudly, as did the somewhat rarer In the Lap of the Gods...Revisited that followed . Needless to say, it was clear at this point at the latest that the audience was eating out of the hands of Adam Lambert and all of Queen.
Roger Taylor is known as a skilled drummer, but sometimes you forget that he is also a great singer. This was proven when she declared her love for her car by singing I'm in Love with Car while giving Lambert time to change her outfit.
As the bells rang, Lambert soon got on the small stage at the end of the catwalk on a motorcycle, racing with the lights, sparkling in his silver outfit as Bicycle Race continued the vehicle theme of the show. The shameless Fat Bottomed Girls got rhythmic clapping in Arena. The guitar solo of the song finally made it clear to everyone that Brian May is one of the greatest rock guitarists of all time.
A booming Lambert declared next, as a striking bass pattern filled the airspace, that you will feel this song waiting for a loud sing-along. There was no need to wait when Another One Bites the Dust came out. One of the tightest tracks of the evening, I Want it All, continued with a joint singing line.
After that, the rest of the band danced around the stage structures utilizing huge video screens, while Brian May stood alone at the end of the catwalk and said into the microphone in clear Finnish: "Good evening, Finland", stating that he had waited a really long time to say this, continuing that this was really "fucking incredible". The theme of this summer has been the joy of being able to perform and the joy of being in the audience after all the corona hassles, which happened again today. Happiness radiated throughout the hall.
Next, May asked for the audience's help with the next song, Love of my life , and very loudly the audience fulfilled their wish, causing May to judge the performance in the middle of the song as "beautiful" with thousands of cell phone lights shining in the audience, and it really was beautiful. It became especially beautiful when Freddie Mercury appeared on the stage's huge video screen to sing the last verse. A really moving moment and I even found myself wiping the corner of my eye as a lump stuck in my throat.
May introduced the next song about time travel and how it would feel to travel to the ends of the universe and back. As the screens took the audience literally to the center of the universe, the rhythmic '39 began . At the end of the song, another set of drums rose from the small stage as Roger Taylor returned to the stage as well. Although he didn't break into them yet, he showed off his singing skills again with These Are the Days of Our Lives. The drums were soon used when Lambert also returned to the stage for a really grooving version of Crazy Little Thing Called Love . What followed was Under Pressure , originally recorded as a duet between Freddie Mercury and David Bowie , with Lambert singing Mercury's and Taylor's Bowie parts, an amazing dialogue.
After that, the small stage was left behind and the band returned to work their magic again in the middle of the theater-imitating sets of the bigger stage, with screens spewing magic dust to the beat of A Kind of Magic . Of course, May's fireballs shooting from his guitar added to the magic. This was followed by Brian May's thanks to everyone such as the audience, tour staff, stagehands, drivers and all other possible parties. Of course, special thanks went to the musicians playing in the background of the May-Taylor-Lambert trio, i.e. Tyler Warren on drums, Neil Fairclough on bass and Spike Edney on keyboards.
All the background musicians got their limelight in the form of small solos during the introductions, and Edney's keyboard solo, which was presented last, ended up in I Want to Break Free . Lambert wandered around the stage, but there was no vacuum cleaner, maybe the stage will stay clean anyway. In contrast, a huge mirror ball descended from the ceiling of the hall to enhance the piece.
After the atmospheric Who Wants to Live Forever, it was Brian May's time to take to the heights on top of an asteroid for his guitar solo, with small planets spinning around and laser beams cutting through the air. Pretty impressive looking, and from where I sat, my brain and eyes couldn't quite process what was video projection and what was physical sets. A perfect background for May's solo, after all, she is also a PhD in astrophysics.
After the astronomical solo , we heard one of Queen's heaviest songs, Tie Your Mother Down , which can almost be classified as heavy metal. The heavy giant Metallica also regularly covers this song in their concerts, and it doesn't even sound heavier than Queen + Adam Lambert's version today. This was followed by Radio Ga Ga , which offered a strong communal experience , whose collective applause felt like something from another galaxy.
Next , the orchestral beginning of Bohemian Rhapsody started from the opening tape, with Lambert soon continuing live. The song created mixed feelings, because it is one of the most amazing ever and it was amazing to hear it live, but the song also means that the concert is coming to an inexorable end. With the explosion of bombs and a guitar solo played in the middle of the smoke, the set came to an end.
At Queen's concerts , the content of the encore is hardly a surprise to anyone who is even slightly familiar with the matter. The Nokia-arena audience was on top of the situation, starting a moment after the band left the stage with a rhythmic applause that meant only one thing. While waiting for that, after a few minutes of applause, Mercury appeared on the screen again to sing the audience with his Ey-Oh shout.
Soon, however, Taylor arrived to accompany the claps with his drums and We Will Rock You was able to begin, led by a crown-headed Lambert. After this, and as expected, as the last song for the whole evening, We Are the Champions was played as a joint song .
After all, it's only been a couple of months since the same song was sung as a collective song in the same hall to mark Finland's ice hockey world championship. A visually and musically amazing trip ended in a shower of confetti with God Save the Queen playing in the background.
Finally, I return to the question I asked at the beginning, whether Freddie Mercury can be replaced by Queen's frontman. Lambert both sang brilliantly and was just the right amount of flamboyant, puffy and theatrical, but in his own way and not trying to imitate Mercury. I would bet that on the edge of the same cloud, Freddie Mercury and the previously mentioned George Michael and David Bowie are nodding in approval. I agree, and probably most of the Nokia Arena audience - if not all.
On Monday, the same thing is still ahead at Nokia Areena with the closing concert of the entire tour. If you have a ticket to the event, you can consider yourself very lucky.
QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT RHAPSODY TOUR, NOKIA ARENA 24.7.2022
• Now I'm Here
• Hammer to Fall
• Somebody to Love
• Killer Queen
• Don¨t Stop Me Now
• In the Lap of the Gods…Revisited
• I'm in Love With My Car
• Bicycle Race
• Fat Bottomed Girls
• Another One Bites The Dust
• I Want it All
• Love of My Life
• '39
• These Are the Days of Our Lives
• Crazy Little Thing Called Love
• Under Pressure
• A Kind of Magic
• I Want to Break Free
• Who Wants to Live Forever
• Road Your Mother Down
• Radio Ga Ga
• Bohemian Rhapsody
• We Will Rock You
• We Are the Champions
Spotlight on Adam Lambert, who didn't even have to fill Freddie Mercury's shoes, but stand firmly on his own VILLE LAINE
Easy to ventilate when things are going well VILLE LAINE
Translated from Finnish
www.tamperelainen.fi/paikalliset/4746950#kommentit
|
|
|
|
Post by pi on Jul 25, 2022 8:13:04 GMT -5
Translated from Finnish Two sold out nights at #NokiaArena ! 👑 @queenwillrock + @adamlambert performed yesterday in Tampere and the gig was everything we had dreamed of and so much more! Today, the wonderful, sold-out show can be enjoyed for the second time. twitter.com/LiveNationFI/status/1551549977784090626    |
|
