kevin statham photos
By Steve Newton
I gotta admit, I wasn’t totally sure that I’d be loving Geoff Tate‘s concert at the Great Canadian Casino Vancouver last night (July 10). He was set to perform Queensrÿche’s Operation: Mindcrime concept album in its entirety, but that stellar disc of primo progressive-metal was released 38 years ago. Would the 67-year-old’s vocals–famous for being powerful and dramatic, boasting a multi-octave range-be up to snuff?
The answer is a resounding yes.
From the moment Tate strolled on stage to sing the opening lines of Mindcrime‘s “Revolution Calling”, my YouTube-induced fears of him potentially sounding like today’s shameless David Lee Roth or Vince Neil were wiped away. The guy’s still got it, in spades, and by the time he got to my fave song on Mindcrime, “Spreading the Disease”, I was experiencing that pleasurable brain tweak I used to get from that tune back in the day.
Of course, it didn’t hurt that Tate has assembled a wicked international band to help him relive his past glories with Queensrÿche, the multiplatinum outfit he fronted from 1982 until his acrimonious departure in 2012. The lineup included guitarists James Brown and Dario Parente, from Ireland and Italy respectively, who did a stellar job recreating the work of original pickers Michael Wilton and Chris DeGarmo. The bang-on rhythm section was composed of bassist Jack Ross from Scotland and Tate’s old drummer buddy from Seattle, Robert Baker.
Tate with guitarist Dario Parente
Also accompanying Tate was Irish vocalist-keyboardist Clódagh McCarthy, who portrayed Sister Mary, the teenage prostitute-turned-nun who befriends Nikki (Tate), the protagonist of the Operation: Mindcrime story, a heroin addict and would-be political radical frustrated by the the greed, corruption, and hypocrisy he sees all around him. (Kinda sounds like the States right now, dunnit?). The pregnant McCarthy (due in February!) also performed with her husband Tomás in the amazing duo that warmed up for Tate. She sang exquisitely–in Gaelic, at one point–and played sax while Tomás was a monster on acoustic guitar and deep, reverberating vocals.
the McCarthy’s
After performing the entire Mindcrime album, Tate led the band through some of Queensrÿche’s best-known songs, including the anthemic “Jet City Woman” and the group’s biggest hit, “Silent Lucidity”. “People have been married to this song,” he said of the pretty 1991 power ballad, “and people have been buried to this song. Children have been born to this song. And children have been made to this song.
“Two of mine, actually,” he added with a wry smile.
For the final selection of the night Tate asked if anybody wanted to hear a song from the early days of metal, and since the crowd thought that would be a dandy idea, the band blasted out “Queen of the Reich”, a galloping number off Queensrÿche’s self-titled debut EP of 1982. That song reminded me a lot of Iron Maiden, so no wonder I left the casino feeling like I’d won a million bucks.
To hear the full audio of my interviews with Geoff Tate from 1991 and 2000 subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can eavesdrop on over 700 of my uncut, one-on-one conversations with the legends of rock since 1982.