October 15, 2021.
(Niek Lucassen)
It was surreal to be in a room full of people singing every word of the
title track from Strange Frontier. I haven't experienced that feeling
since I saw Dweezil Zappa doing "I'm the Slime."
"You and me seen better
times" - these words carried an extra layer of poignancy on this
occasion for all the obvious reasons, but at the same time it just
wasn't the case in that exact moment, as this is the best thing every
one of us could possibly have been doing. The joy of being together with
the man whose music means so much to us made it all null and void, even
just for a couple wonderful hours.
Point blank, the band was
killer - without question it's the best he's ever assembled. They were
musically and vocally tight. The five of them smiled at one another
throughout, and the elder statesman interacted with his band with the
most genuine of joy. The backing vocals in the early Queen pieces like "Tenement Funster" and I'm in Love with My Car" were perfectly executed.
But
it's the main man we all came to see. Roger is so unapologetically
himself. He never looks fully comfortable as the frontman of a band, but
at the same time he also looks like he'd rather be nowhere else. He
wears his heart on his sleeve, just like the lyrics on every one of his
solo albums. It's incredible he's still this good at 72, singing as well
as he did 30 years ago. His drumming chops were in great shape too -
far better than 2005 where he sometimes looked out of breath. He's
taking much better care of himself now. Most of the old rock stars must
have personal trainers and stylists, as they're looking and sounding
better than they did in decades past. Aware of his limits, Roger sat
down at his drum kit just twice - but both were eventful. These guys are
well into retirement age, and we're lucky they're doing this at all.
The
band did give him a break half way through, and the interlude of "Rock
It (Prime Jive)" with wingman Tyler Warren on the lead vocal was quite
possibly the highlight of the evening. Warren needs no introduction, and
is absolutely a world class talent. He is unquestionably the best guy
on the planet for the gig. He deserves it.
Christian Mendoza was
excellent on guitar as well. On "Say It's Not True" it became clear that
he was closer to Jeff Beck than Brian May, which is precisely why he's
there. Roger doesn't want someone who plays like his old Queen bandmate -
he wants someone who makes it his own and isn't too flashy. Mendoza is
the perfect guy for the job.
Bassist Neil Fairclough has done
the arenas and stadiums of the world with Brian and Roger, but he was
just as happy to be in a club, playing spotlessly as always.
But
it's Tina Hizon that was the secret sauce, playing four instruments. She
was even on double duty, as Spike Edney wasn't on the gig because he
was unwell. Roger mentioned how the musical director was at the hospital
earlier that day, and near the end of the show to his surprise Spike
came on in shorts and a t-shirt to play the last few songs. Hizon nailed
Treanna Morris' part on "Surrender," and in my head all I could think was
- this was clearly her audition piece. She was a dead ringer. A huge
talent.
There was a moment of levity in "Foreign Sand." It's
pretty well inarguably the most gorgeous song he's ever composed, but on
this night after "just say hello" the crowd literally said hello, and
he loved it, laughing his way into the next line. On each night of the tour henceforth the "hello" became more emphatic, and at the final gig in London it cracked Roger up, to which he quipped "it's meant to be serious!" in between lines.
The triumvirate of Roger, Tina, and Tyler on drums at the tail end of "Up" was a high point as well.
For the encore Roger came on sporting a shiny red cigar jacket,
looking like a million bucks. They did two covers, and for Heroes the
multi-instrumentalist Hizon played the Robert Fripp part on electric
violin.
The only complaint is that the mix often wasn't
great, as it was a bass trap up in the balcony. We couldn't even hear
much of Roger's banter between songs, although the backing vocals were
mixed well. A couple of my friends who didn't know most of the material
weren't overly pleased, because the lyrics are a fair portion of what's
on offer with Roger's earnest and often heartfelt compositions.
But
for the most fervent of fans, the setlist was brilliant - songs
spanning his solo career from all but one of his albums, as well as a
fair chunk of the classics he wrote for Queen. I was thrilled to hear "A
Nation of Haircuts" from Electric Fire, and the new tunes all sounded
great too. I wish we could've heard something from Fun In Space, but
Roger's vocal range isn't quite what it was 40 years ago, and his sense
of self-awareness combined with his musical maturity had him assembling a
band and a setlist perfect for 2021.
His first four solo albums are all criminally underrated (here's my review of the first two). It seems almost unfathomable that the drummer of the
most popular of all the classic rock bands (if their sheer number of Spotify followers is an
accurate enough metric to measure this) is playing clubs, but if
anything that just amplified the feeling of intimacy. There was this
feeling of "he's ours."
There was supposed to be an opening
act, Colin Macleod, who is apparently quite good but didn't show for some reason. But honestly, after
nearly two years of not being able to see a gig, two hours was the
perfect length.
As
we exited the venue there were a few hundred kids lined up for a rave. A
few hours earlier it was people two to three times their age in that same
formation. I hate to sound like an old man or a Luddite, but they had no
idea what they were missing.
