I was almost 23 years ago, when I have seen Queensryche for the first time live. This was in the good ol' Gorky Park in Senden, Germany and it was the "Building empires" tour. I still can remember that it was a great show. And at that time the band had also a lot of fantastic songs in their set and on their records. But as we all know, these highlights were followed by a period of disappointments.
In the meantime we are 23 years further down the road, Queensryche is still around and back on the stage. With a new album in their back hand, which got pretty good reviews by the way, the band found back to it's old strength. This is mainly due to the fact that their new singer Todd la Torre gave the band an enormous push and it feels like everybody went through a fountain of youth. Not only that the guy has an awesome voice, he is also a real energetic frontman and always in contact with the audience. That's what rock'n'roll is about.
Yesterday the band showed exactly all of this when they performed at the Effenaar in Eindhoven, Holland. The current tour is called "Return to history" and that was also what you/we got. The setlist was full of old classics of the band, combined with some new songs here and there. Funny enough, the setlist didn't look that much different from the one 23 years ago. But it's exactly those songs from the first four albums, which are the highlights in the bands history. The crowd was very enthusiastic from the very beginning. They celebrated the old hits and appreciated the new stuff.
The sound during this evening was very good, except during the first song. It could have been a bit more powerful, but that's more personal perception and it didn't do any harm to the show.
After this evening in Eindhoven I can confirm that this band is worth to have the name Queensryche and that they are back. It was an entertaining and rockin' evening.
If they continue with the enthusiasm I guess that we can expect a glorious future together with the band.
Setlist:
Queen of the Reich
Speak
Walk in the shadow
The whisper
En force
Child of fire
Warning / X2
Where dreams go to die / Midhnight lullaby
A world without
Guitar solo
The needle lies
NM 156
Roads to madness
Fallout
My empty room
Eyes of a stranger
Empire
Encore:
Jet city woman
Take hold of the flame
Location: De Effenaar, Eindhoven
Date: 01.11.2013