When I was a senior in high school, I was given a copy of Queensryche’s “Rage for Order,” and I was amazed. While everyone else was drooling over Metallica and Megadeth, which I listened to enough to be familiar with them, Queensryche did more for me. Then late my senior year, they released “Operation: Mindcrime,” and it was (to the annoyance of my roommate and friends) on heavy rotation in my tape deck, swapping turns with Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.” I liked the storytelling albums I’d just figured out. Then I kept a passing interest in Queensryche for the 90s, eventually falling away. The one low-effort chance I had to see them was touring with Def Leppard, but the DL show I saw was with Tesla.
A few years later, I tried “Mindcrime II,” but I didn’t really give it enough attention. I still don’t know if I missed much, but there was no way it could measure up in my mind.
So the Geoff Tate show? He has a fantastic band these days, his voice is still in great shape, and they played all of “Mindcrime” for the “last” time. And 18-year-old me in this 56-year-old body sat in the cheap seats (still looking for work) and relived the angst and glory.
Technically, the guitars sometimes drowned out Tate’s lyrics, and the show wasn’t a “show,” more a club show at the Rose Music Center (outdoor, covered, show). The weather was wonderful. And there were two openers, and in the first opener, there was a woman who sang and played some of the time. It turns out that she was playing Mary in “Mindcrime” as well, singing opposite Tate.
“Mindcrime” had some lyrics that, if a bit dated in parts, still work. The villain in that story was the rich, which has only become more of a villain in the real world. In particular, “Spreading the Disease” and “Revolution Calling,” when not advancing the story, have political messages worth noticing. The fact that it was true in 1988 and are even more relevant now? That shows we haven’t dealt with our mess.
Side note: the opening of the album (which you can hear in the “Revolution Calling” video, where you can hear the hospital intercom saying “Dr. Davis, telephone please” and so on? After the album came out, for YEARS, if I was watching a hospital drama, I could hear it in the background.
Anyway, Geoff Tate put on a hell of a show, and I’m glad I went (at the VERY least, to entertain my late-teen self).
Bill Abbott, poet, web page 