Review & Photography by Paul Verner for MPM
Now that the kids have all gone back to school, Belfast is experiencing a rare day of sunshine and it’s a hot sticky evening in the city.
What better excuse to head out and enjoy a rock’n roll show in the relatively luxurious air-conditioning of the Mandela Hall. Billed as a Greatest Hits tour, fans have travelled from far and wide to catch Geoff Tate performing the best of the Queensrÿche back catalogue.
Supporting tonight, Northern Ireland trio, A Little Bitter who began their set with Touched from the 2009 release New Dawn Revolution. Their style seemingly influenced by a mixture of classic rock and and 90’s alternative guitar bands.
Shake is perhaps the most introspective song in the set but it builds throughout and crescendos with some good ’n heavy riffage – just before closing out.
Their set definitely got progressively heavier, the band engaged with the growing crowd well and drew plenty of audience participation during fan favourite, Genghis.
Running ahead of schedule, they managed to fit in Nothing as an extra track, before closing with the technically excellent, Further I Crawl, which perhaps had the most intricate arrangement of their songs included on the night.
As the intro played Geoff Tate’s band made their way onto the stage and lashed into the distinctive opening riff from title track of the1990 3x multi platinum album Empire. Having listened to this music for over 30 years I can’t have been the only audience member to have shivers run down my spine as the this iconic song played and Tate’s vocal kicked in.
In-fact the vocals were nothing short of perfect the whole evening, as were the band who had plenty of energy and played to the crowd, interacting with each other during the solos and sharing the odd joke. They genuinely seem to enjoy sharing the stage with each other. Guitar solos there were a-plenty. The dual guitar work – a trade mark of those iconic songs carried-off note perfect.
There was a great selection of songs from through the Queensrÿche discography, as well as Empire (1990), there were songs representing, Take Cover (2007), Tribe (2003), Q2K (1999) Promised Land (1994), Operation: Mindcrime (1988), Rage For Order (1986) and The Warning (1984)
Highlights of the set included I Don’t believe In Love, Operation: Mindcrime & Another Rainy Night. After Another Rainy Night Geoff introduced two additional guest musicians, James Brown (guitar) and Jack Ross (bass), both of whom played in Tate’s touring band in 2023. When all 7 were on stage there were no fewer than 6 nations represented, a fact that Tate seemed to revel in. (USA, France, Italy, Australia, Scotland, & Ireland). Given the quality of musicianship this was less of a motley crew and more of an international virtuoso rock ensemble.
When the additional musicians were ready to go, Jack Ross effortlessly ripped into the opening baseline of Jet City Woman. With 3 guitarists now on stage this was a powerhouse performance and the crowd sang along to every word.
Next up Grammy nominated, fan favourite Silent Lucidity meant that the crowd continued to sing along even though it was perhaps a slower composition. There were plenty of phones in the air recording for posterity and it was great hearing Michael Kamen’s orchestral arrangement included via backing track as the rest of the band played the various guitar intricacies and sang the vocal harmonies alongside Tate’s impeccable lead delivery. And as the song closed, so did the main set.
It wasn’t long before they returned to the stage and after introducing the rest of the band they began the encore with Welcome To the Machine. They continued with Take Hold of The Flame and then closed the evening the Queen of the Reich from the 1983 EP Queensrÿche.
It is testament to Tate’s vocal prowess, that even after performing on the road for over 40 years he can still leave the two most vocally challenging songs until the very end of the set and still deliver them flawlessly.
In fact Flawless is how I would describe the whole evening; a great venue, superb sound & lighting, and of course, Geoff Tate & the band reminded us of amazing songs that brought back memories of misspent youth and gave all in attendance a new appreciation for them.
Geoff’s tour continues on 13th September at The Button Factory, Dublin, then on to Venice on the 21st of September, then back to Ireland and UK for a number of dates. For further touring information please see the official website.
Set List
- Empire
- Desert Dance
- I Am I
- Sacred Ground
- Operation: Mind Crime
- I Don’t Believe In Love
- NM 156
- Screaming In Digital
- Walk The Shadows
- Another Rainy Night (Without You)
- Jet City Woman
- Silent Lucidity
Encore
- Welcome To The Machine
- Take Hold Of The Flame
- Queen of The Reich
Tickets: https://www.geofftate.com/…/geoff-tates-greatest-hits…/
