This thread is for any parties interested in hearing about my account of the Queen+Paul Rodgers concert I just attended tonight. It is not intended to further Queen's (hostile) takeover of SYM and I don't mean to bring up a topic that annoys so, but I'd appreciate it if those people would refrain from using it as an opportunity to bad-mouth the band or its (fanatical) fanbase. This thread is not intended for those disinterested members, so I'd ask them to please indulge or at the very least ignore me for the time being.
I attended this concert tonight at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Michigan USA (also where my beloved Detroit Pistons play
) and, to be quite frank, wasn't expecting a whole lot. I've liked Queen since I was little but they're hardly my favorite band, and certainly not an obsession of mine. I was mostly looking forward to just seeing some guys I like and respect (Brian May) while having some good bonding time with my uncle, dad and cousin; please don't judge me on the company I attend concerts with as I specifically picked the two of them over any of my friends because, frankly, my friends have no taste in music (mostly new-age punk and rap
). The show started at 8 pm and there was no opening act: they hit the stage at 8:20 and played almost nonstop until 10:30.
I was positively blown away.
Now I've been lucky enough to attend quite a few concerts, including:
Eric Clapton, Red Hot Chili Peppers, the White Stripes, Michael McDonald, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Van Halen, Bad Company, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Robert Plant, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Elton John, Billy Joel, Aerosmith, Run DMC, the Black Crowes, Merle Haggard, Dave Matthews Band, a BB King/Bobby "Blue" Bland joint venture (my favorite concert of all time)... and some others I just can't remember. Out of all of these this concert ranks in a tie for second with the White Stripes. It was incredible. I knew ever frickin song they played. I saw Brian May wring the life out of the Red Special; it was the best guitar-playing I've ever seen live (and I've seen a ton of fantastic guitarists, BB King and Eric Clapton to name the best). I... Wow.
They started out immediately with "Tie Your Mother Down" which wasn't may favorite but it was energetic, got the blood flowing. They immediately whipped out "Fat Bottomed Girls" which I thought would be the highlight of the evening: it's a guilty favorite of my dad's and mine hearkening back to the days when I was little and he would play it in the car while my mom would yell at him for setting a bad example
. That was great. They played four total Bad Company tunes throughout the course of the night, which sounds like alot, but they were the absolute cream of the crop: "Feel Like Making Love", "Can't Get Enough of Your Love", "Don't Let Me Down" and, my personal favorite, "Bad Company". That was all good stuff, but would be considered filler for the rest of the setlist. They did "Another One Bites the Dust", "Headlong", "Radio Ga-Ga", a darn fine "Show Must Go On" despite the absence of Elton's voice for which I gotta give Paul Rodgers credit, as he brought it the whole night.
PR didn't try to recreate Freddie at all and was just himself for the whole night. He leant many of the songs a bit of a masculine edge that was refreshing, and went well with the no-nonsense approach of Roger and Brian who are too old to be cute and stuff; Roger was smashing the crap out of his drums all night and even Brian was very hard-nosed in his approach (but I'll get to them later). PR stepped aside and let Roger and particularly Brian do their thing when they wanted which was nice. You could see that he wasn't trying to take charge and they, in turn, deferred to him on the Bad Company tunes and let him do his micstand-whirling and such (a staple of any Bad Company show).
They did a great "Under Pressure" that had the crowd roaring, though they warned us before that they were "taking a risk" because they'd only played it a handful of times but that "Detroit seems a good place to take some risks" (I'm quoting to the best of my memory). There were some others I know I'm missing but the key tracks came about midway though the concert and at the very end, which I'll detail now.
Maybe the 5th song into the set, Brian walked out onto the an extension of the stage into the crowd (and darn close to us as we had unbelievable seats
) and sat down with an acoustic guitar, talked to the crowd for a minute or two (just an amazing entertainer, very personable and charismatic) and then did "Love of My Life" in dedication to Freddie which was beautiful (and not the first such tribute) and then grabbed Red and, oddly I thought, dedicated the next one to Eminem (whom he called a great modern poet). It turned out to be a bizarre slow, noodling of "Hammer To Fall" but was really, really good (Lord knows I've never heard it played like that) before windmilling after the first chorus into a huge, screeching, rousing rendition of the rest of the song with Paul and Roger (the way I'm used to hearing it). That was the first memorable moment of the evening.
The second came when Roger came out onstage a song later by himself and did a very impressive drum solo before tearing into "I'm In Love With My Car". Up to that point in time I hadn't been terribly impressed with Roger, though he was banging loud and with a ton of enthusiasm none of the songs really tested him at all (and he clearly wasn't too familiar with two of the Bad Company songs because he was staring down and to his left, at the floor the whole time where there was clearly some sort of sheet music). However he went John Bonham duirng that solo and the ensuing song and was just fabulous, the only dude I've seen play drums that well live was Zak Starkey (Ringo Starr's son) pulling his best Keith Moon during "Baba O' Riley" at The Who concert. I was shocked quite frankly. He also impressively lent his voice to a few of the later songs, taking up lead vocals on a few including a beautiful "These Are the Days Of Our Lives" tribute to Freddie. I'd have been hard-pressed to have even given you his last name before coming into the show but he was a pleasant surprise.
The fourth (I'll get to the third in a minute) moment was the "Bohemian Rhapsody" rendition that came as the last song before the encore: Freddie actually sang the first half of the song while videoclips of him perforeming onstage were played on the screen, with Brian just throwing in the appropriate guitar bits. Eventually Paul and everyone took over about midway through, but the images kept playing and it was very inspiring. I didn't think they'd play it at all despite its popularity considering it was really Freddie's baby, but it was a glorious tribute. Very memorable and touching.
The encore was very impressive and had everyone on their feet, chanting, swaying, waving, clapping, etc: a threepiece of "We Will Rock You", a really recognizable song that I was very familiar with (the name of which escapes me at the moment
) and then a massive "We Are the Champions". The sound was deafening, the energy was incredible; it was all throughout the night for that matter but that song is a great one to end on, really leaving you feeling good. Too many encore's suck in my opinion but that surely wasn't the case here.
The best part of the whole evening came courtesy of Brian. I can't even begin to describe how impressed with him I was throughout the entire course of the evening as he basically made the concert for me. I enjoyed the BB King/Bobby Bland concert so much because of how charismatic and classy those two men were: they had you laughing and signing along at the same time. They'd just as soon as talk to you as play for you, which I enjoyed even though my mother thought it was boring
. Brian was just as personable, but in much fewer words, just repeatedly saying how he couldn't thank us enough and that he was astounded at the reception they'd gotten in Detroit. He didn't wax poetic (so I've taken it upon myself to do so for him
), but he was just the perfect showman. He played to the crowd in more ways than I had ever seen. His guitar playing was immaculate, but just the way he carried himself, the way he caught the eyes of people and mouthed words to them, throwing guitar picks... It all seems minor and lots of other people do it, but you could tell how much he was enjoying himself: it made you want to clap all the harder just out of sheer appreciation, you wanted to show him how gratified you were.
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