Queensryche - House of Blues, Chicago 5/7/09

One thing that you can never accuse Queensryche of is being predictable. Bands like AC/DC and Motorhead are no doubt great bands but there is a level of predictability with their albums and concerts. Aside from going back and finishing the Operation Mindcrime story, the band has constantly redefined itself; each record stands alone and is unique in its own right. You may not like every CD but you can’t say that it is like their last one (or the one before that).

This tour again pushes the envelope a bit and goes in a different direction from other Queensryche tours. There is no opening act (that has been done before) but they play the whole show through with no intermission or break. The set is broken up into three suites and each one covers a different album. The first section was the Rage for Order suite and they performed songs that they rarely play. Over the years, they have done all of them live but not in one chunk like they are performing on this tour. Songs like London, Surgical Strike, and Gonna Get Close To You were greeted like old friends by the crowd. I was surprised that many of the fans at the show were familiar with those deep cuts because Rage for Order is not one of the more commercially popular albums from the Ryche cannon.

The next section focused on the new CD American Soldier. Although they did not perform the whole disk, they did play a healthy portion. I was glad they did decide to give us eight of the twelve tracks as I feel that the songs work best as a complete work as apposed to single tunes. Sure, cuts like Unafraid and If I Were King are good by themselves but when put in context of the whole CD, they get that additional x-factor that makes them special. During this suite, the main focus was the U.S. military, starting with the soldier who barked out the opening lines of Sliver to the video footage (projected on a screen behind the band) of war and the life of a soldier. Geoff Tate’s daughter Emily even made the tour and sang the duet Home Again with her father.

To finish off the main set, Queensryche performed a suite from their most popular record Empire. Even though a couple of tracks have made it into the set list since the release of the album, the focus was more on the rarely played tunes. Songs like The Thin Line, Resistance, and Anybody Listening? hardly ever make it into the set list so it was great to hear these tunes live again. The band finished off the evening with Empire and the only oddball in the whole evening Take Hold of the Flame. I’m glad they played the song but it didn’t fit in with the three suite theme of songs from Rage for Order, American Soldier, and Empire. Anyway, it doesn’t matter because it was a great night of great music. Queensryche is performing at the top of their game and they just released tour dates for the second leg of the American tour. Do yourself a favor and catch them on this tour.

Greg Olma