QUDOS Bank Arena, Sydney
Wednesday February 21, 2018 :
Majority of my childhood was soundtracked by Queen’s greatest hits record. I still have that exact record to this day, that I inherited from my late father. The influence Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon had on me was enormous.
For some time between 2004 and 2009, Queen had Paul Rogers of Bad Company fame fronting the band, but to be completely honest Adam Lambert – American National Treasure as I like to call him, not only does it better, he doesn’t even have to “steal the show” – he just adds to it. In complete harmony with the rest of the band, honouring the forever immortalised legend that is Freddie Mercury and still making sure to be respectful of who the original members of the band are.
If you are one of those people who would say : “Well he’s no Freddie.” – “No shit. There will only ever be one Rock God.” – Lambert will tell you this himself. Regardless of what you think of Lambert, you would be the ones missing out on experiencing something truly magical and ridiculously inclusive for a huge crowd of people who filled the arena that night.
First Australian show for Queen in 2018 took place in Sydney at Qudos Bank Arena. Kicking the show off with a little ‘We Will Rock You’ intro, ‘Hammer to Fall’ welcomed Lambert to stage pacing around in a pair of high heeled boots, sunnies and a very cool rock’n’roll outfit. The man is not only beautiful, he is extremely talented as well. The way he captured the crowd in the palm of his hand without excluding the original members of the band really was noticeable during ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’.
The crowd soon was surprised by Lambert appearing from beneath the stage on top of a metal head sculpture (called Frank, apparently) wearing a very extravagant pink suit, addressing all of the “but he’s not Freddie” critics and moved on to a glorious version of ‘Killer Queen’, which was definitely worthy of Mercury’s crown. But there was more – as ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ commenced Lambert made his way to the end of a very long runway reciting the lyrics to ‘Bicycle Race’ and once the spotlight lit the very end of the runway – there was a pink glitter tricycle waiting for him with a basket full of flowers, he threw a few into the crowd and rode the bike back to stage during the shorter version of the song. Roger Taylor took over from Lambert with an absolutely mind blowing version of ‘I’m In Love With My Car’, being a huge fan of his, I was absolutely stoked I got to experience that.
‘Get Down, Make Love’ and ‘I Want It All’ were well received but the show really got to its culmination when Brian May finally greeted the fans and announced a song for Freddie, ‘Love Of My Life’ – the whole venue glistened with phone generated lights and the echoing singalong, a few tears were shed when Mercury appeared on screen to finish off the song. What a truly special moment.
While the crowd recovered from all the feels, May pulled out a selfie stick and filmed the crowd all around the venue, spinning around and projecting everything on screen which entertained the fans quite a bit. Glitter pants clad Lambert returned to stage for ‘Somebody to Love’, moving over to the end of runway May, Lambert and Taylor had their moment afterwards Roger Taylor did an amazing drum solo battle with touring drummer by the name of Tyler Warren. I expected to see Taylor’s son – Rufus Taylor, who’s probably too busy touring with his band The Darkness, but young Nashville lad pulled it off just as well! First notes of ‘Under Pressure’ always spark me up, shared vocals of Lambert and Taylor sounded great! ‘Some Kind of Magic’ performed by Taylor and May really made me admire Taylor even more as a skilled and talented singer.
A weird but pleasant surprise was Adam Lambert’s own song “Whataya Want From Me”(originally Pink’s song) it must’ve been mind blowing for Lambert to have his hit single played by the LEGENDARY “backing band” – it was his time to shine separate from Queen as a band, BUT he preferred to stick close to May and not take on all of the glory. He seemed very appreciative of the gesture and hugged it out with May at the end of the song.
‘Who Wants to Live Forever’ saw the whole venue light up in tiny little dots of light projecting from a huge disco ball, while ‘Last Horizons’ had the stage rise above the crowd, as if Frank (the statue head from earlier) was raising Brian May in the palm of his metal hand. Packed with a bunch of psychedelic visuals on screen, guitar solo sounded exquisite and finishing the performance with ‘Radio Ga Ga’ and a lengthy ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ sing-a-long from the crowd. While the crowd begged for more, we saw Mercury appear on screen from an old live recording and his image commanded the crowd to sing along to the harmonies of ‘Day-Oh’ followed by flipping everyone off reminding us how cheeky he actually was.
It was finally time to hear all rebel’s favourite anthem : ‘We Will Rock You’ – Lambert appeared on stage in a cape and bejewelled crown and May wore some sort of a futuristic silver outfit. ‘We Are The Champions’ closed the show exploding with confetti as the band waved farewell. It was a nice touch hearing David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ blasting over the speakers right as the house lights lit up. The list of Queen’s guest vocalists was larger than the amount of fingers on both of your hands, but Bowie’s and Mercury’s “Under Pressure” will always be iconic.
If you are still one of those “He’s no Freddie” people, you are truly missing out on being part of music history being made. Suit Yourself.
Reviewer : Annette Geneva
Photographer : David Youdell
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I would say also that Freddie was no Adam Lambert…everyone needs to experience this extraordinary collaboration, it’ll bounce around in your head for quite a while