Queensryche at the Old Airport

Seattle’s Queensryche rolled into the Terminal 1 hall at the old Riem airport in Munich. In front of a sold-out room, the musi­cians used a two-hour set to show they’re way more than just rockers. The show was seriously demanding on every front, and on top of the incredible energy they gave off, they delivered the whole ceremony artistically, in a way that was entirely their own. Queensryche come from Seattle, but they’ve been around for thir­teen years, and in that time they’ve carved out their own path in modern heavy metal, which is more than just heavy metal. Their music has a way of flirting with lofty, even cos­mic associations, and the musical and technical design of their concerts matches that, while the performance itself is top-notch and thoroughly professional. Despite some weird sound that the techs only fixed by the third song, everything else came together as one tight, punchy, quality whole. The quintet, made up of singer, saxophonist and born stage actor Geoff Tate, virtuoso guitarists Michael Wilton and Chris De Garmo, bassist Eddie Jackson and drummer Scott Rockenfield, ran through the best-known songs from Queensryche’s rich catalog last night. From last year’s record Promised Land, which got the most attention, they played I Am I, Bridge, Damaged, Out Of Mind, Promised Land and a few more gems from that excellent album. They put a bit less emphasis on their record Empire, but we still heard Empire, Jet City Woman, Another Rainy Night Without You and a few others. The rest of the show went to songs from Operation Mindcrime, an outstanding concept album. The whole performance was basically one big piece of theater, since singer Tate backs up a lot of the lyrics with special staged action. The sound and light­ing effects worked perfectly, so I can’t find a single flaw in the two-hour set. For the finale they naturally saved the ballads Silent Lucidity and Real World.