QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT Announce Summer 2017 North American Tour

[twonabomber]

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/queen-adam-lambert-announce-summer-2017-north-american-tour/

QUEEN and "American Idol" finalist Adam Lambert will embark on a summer North American tour that will launch June 23 at Phoenix's Gila River Arena and wrap on August 5 at Houston's Toyota Center.

Tickets for the 25-city trek will go on sale Friday, February 3 at 10 a.m. local time via Live Nation. Members of QUEEN and Adam Lambert's fan clubs can buy tickets beginning Tuesday, January 31 at 10 a.m.

Lambert, drummer Roger Taylor and guitarist Brian May first shared the stage during "American Idol" in May 2009 for a performance of "We Are The Champions". They teamed up again in 2011 at the MTV European Music Awards in Belfast, Ireland for an electrifying eight-minute finale of "The Show Must Go On", "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions" and in the summer of 2012, Lambert performed a series of shows with QUEEN across Europe as well as dates in Russia, Ukraine and Poland. They have since completed several tours and performed at some of the biggest festivals in the world.

Last November, Taylor spoke to Planet Rock about QUEEN's plans to release more music: "If we do anything in the future, I'd like it to be something new. I don't know how new it would sound, but I think if Brian could come up with a song or two which we felt, sort of, fitted, you know."

Asked if there is a chance that QUEEN could release new material, Taylor said: "It's quite possible. We're really enjoying… We've just come back from the Far East — well, a month ago now — which was phenomenal. It's great to know that there's still a demand, and we do love playing with Adam Lambert, who is an incredible singer and a lovely man."

May previously described Lambert as the only singer the band had found capable of filling the shoes of iconic frontman Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991 of complications from to AIDS. "Adam is the first person we've encountered who can do all the QUEEN catalogue without blinking," said May. "He is a gift from God." Taylor echoed the guitarist's sentiments, adding: "[Adam's] incredibly musical, and we certainly take anything he says quite seriously."

Lambert, for his part, downplayed the Mercury comparisons, saying: "There's never going to be another, and I'm not replacing him. That's not what I'm doing. I'm trying to keep the memory alive, and remind people how amazing he was, without imitating him. I'm trying to share with the audience how much he inspired me."

QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT 2017 tour dates:

Jun. 23 - Phoenix, AZ @ Gila River Arena
Jun. 24 - Las Vegas, NV @ T-Mobile Arena
Jun. 26 - Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl
Jun. 29 - San Jose, CA @ SAP Center
Jul. 01 - Seattle, WA @ Key Arena
Jul. 02 - Vancouver, BC @ Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena
Jul. 04 - Edmonton, AB @ Rogers Place
Jul. 06 - Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center Arena
Jul. 08 - Omaha, NE @ CenturyLink Center
Jul. 09 - Kansas City, MO @ Sprint Center
Jul. 13 - Chicago, IL @ United Center
Jul. 14 - St. Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center
Jul. 17 - Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
Jul. 18 - Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre
Jul. 20 - Detroit, MI @ The Palace of Auburn Hills
Jul. 21 - Cleveland, OH @ Quicken Loans Arena
Jul. 23 - Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena
Jul. 25 - Boston, MA @ TD Garden
Jul. 26 - Newark, NJ @ Prudential Center
Jul. 28 - New York, NY @ Barclays Center
Jul. 30 - Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
Jul. 31 - Washington D.C. @ Verizon Center
Aug. 02 - Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
Aug. 04 - Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
Aug. 05 - Houston, TX @ Toyota Center

[FORD]

I just don't get the Lamebert thing. Still say they should have got this dude.....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qmFEh5zsBY

[twonabomber]

I think I'm going to go. My friend's kid is a huge Lambert fan. She's seen him at least once, on his holiday tour a couple years ago. Got all the Queen videos favorited on her YouTube. Sounds like it'll be the kid, her mom, and me. My friend will likely stay home and go to bed at 7 pm.

[DONNIEP]

I just don't get the Lamebert thing. Still say they should have got this dude.....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qmFEh5zsBY

I agree. I've watched some of the recent Queen released concert footage with Lambert and he does a good enough job, doesn't try to sound like Freddie. But...if I'm paying to go see Queen I want it to sound like Freddie is up there, even if it's a one legged midget pirate singing.

[FORD]

Even without the karaoke tracks, Marc can pull it off...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_97S1ZuXUY

[FORD]

Even one of the leaders of the Great International Homosexual Conspiracy endorses him, for fucks sake!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efMhwzVPSDg

[twonabomber]

Tickets acquired, one of the presales. Lower level at the back of the floor was $89.50. Tix top out at $175, which is what I paid for McCartney. Floor seats for his show were a lot more though.

[twonabomber]

Going tonight.

My friend's kid went to Warped Tour the other day, I will have to ask her about GWAR's set.

[Von Halen]

Going tonight.

My friend's kid went to Warped Tour the other day, I will have to ask her about GWAR's set.

While you're seeing that fag singer tonight, I'll be seeing Texas Hippie Coalition! "I'm outlaw, until the day I die"! Motherfucker!

Queen played here the other night. 18 semi trucks for their stage. Must be a pretty elaborate set up.

[twonabomber]

There was a lot of stuff going on. Long walkway into the crowd, some stuff raised up from the stage, the obligatory huge light show.

When I asked my friend if she'd like to go she said something about one gay singer replacing another, how bad can it be? May's guitar solo went on a little too long, and there probably wasn't a need for the dueling drummers, but I don't know what songs they could have replaced those with and kept the show the same length. A little too much talking, Lambert went on about how grateful he is for working with May and Taylor for the last five years, then May talked a bit and did a "stereographic" selfie stick bit that could have been shorter.

Overall, a good show, decent set list but slowed down by the talking. Odd crowd, people my age and older, and then a bunch of young, screaming female Lambert fans.

[DavidLeeNatra]

When I asked my friend if she'd like to go she said something about one gay singer replacing another, how bad can it be?

I hope your answer was: "It's like when I replaced the last stupid bitch with you. The only time it's worth opening your mouth is when I put my dick in it."

[Nickdfresh]

Yeah, it was a bit of a retarded statement. No one can replace Freddie no matter how much he takes it up his tailpipe. Though I think Mercury was more or less bi, but that doesn't really matter. Lambert doesn't even touch the worst Mercury performance on his best day...

[twonabomber]

Lambert admitted that in one of his raps, that he was there to help May and Taylor keep the songs alive and not replace Mercury.

I'd take out the drum battle and put Tie Your Mother Down in the set. One of the Plain Dealer's writers said she would have liked to hear You're My Best Friend.

We Will Rock You (teaser)
Hammer to Fall
Stone Cold Crazy
Another One Bites the Dust
Fat Bottomed Girls
Killer Queen
Two Fux (Lambert song)
Don't Stop Me Now
Bicycle Race
I'm in Love With My Car (Roger Taylor vocals)
Get Down, Make Love
I Want It All
Love of My Life (Brian May vocals with Mercury tape/video)
Somebody to Love
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Drum Battle (Roger Taylor & Tyler Warren)
Under Pressure (Roger Taylor & Adam Lambert vocals)
I Want to Break Free
Who Wants to Live Forever
Guitar Solo (Included Last Horizon (May))
Day-Oh (Freddie Mercury live at Wembley video footage)
Radio Ga Ga
Bohemian Rhapsody (music video accompaniment featuring Freddie Mercury)

Encore:
We Will Rock You
We Are the Champions
God Save the Queen

[Von Halen]

How was "I Want It All"?

[twonabomber]

Pretty good, May did a slow solo after the vocal part in the middle. Then Taylor counted off 8 on the high hat and they did the fast section.

Another one that would have been good to hear instead of drum and guitar solos: One Vision.

[DavidLeeNatra]

Talk about an "all killers no fillers setlist"...and still having a set of "killers" in the can...

One Vision
Tie your mother down
Show must go on
Seven Seas of Rhye
Headlong
Innuendo
Save me
Keep yourself alive
Spread your wings
The Miracle
It's a kind of magic

And I would dig some deep cuts, too...

[twonabomber]

After Rhapsody the screen showed some animations that looked like they came out of the It's A Kind Of Magic video. Would have liked to hear that one too.

Writer for the local "alternative" weekly paper got part of the Lambert rap:


After "Killer Queen," Lambert addressed the crowd and lauded original Queen members Taylor and May by name. "You're standing in front of rock 'n' roll legends, ladies and gentlemen," he said, and pausing so they could soak up applause. Calling it an "honor" and "so surreal" to be performing with Queen, he also referenced any skeptics who may say that he's not Mercury. "No shit!" he exclaimed in a no-duh voice. "There will only be one Freddie Mercury. He is a rock God." Lambert also added that he's a "fan, except I'm up here wearing the gayest suit you've ever seen." (Cue a full-body camera pan to his bright pink suit covered in sparkly appliques.)

All joking aside, Lambert zeroed in on why he and the band work so well together: He has enormous respect for Mercury, and isn't trying to replace or replicate him—but instead pay tribute to his flamboyance, charisma and inimitable vocal talent. However, he and the band have fantastic chemistry and, like Mercury, Lambert is up for anything, prop-wise. He sang "Killer Queen" while straddling a statue of the head of the robot from the News Of The World album cover, and gamely sang while riding a bicycle toting a gigantic basket of flowers during "Bicycle Race." (May too had fun onstage, and at one point used a "stereoscopic selfie stick" to pan around the crowd and film the cheering masses.)

[Von Halen]

Sounds like Lambert is a humble homo.

My friends wife went to the show here, and she said it was great.

[twonabomber]

Just got a call from my friend, I took his wife and daughter (and another friend of mine) to the show. The kid told him all about the show, he said she talked about it all day Sunday. Said it was the best show she's ever seen, and she went to Warped Tour the other day and ranted to me about GWAR. My status as "coolest uncle ever" continues. :D I think that was her first arena show though, Warped is at Blossom and she went to that the last two years.

[Seshmeister]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMevHaT6hFY

Hats off to Dr May for actually saying he couldn't play this, it's so rare for any guitarist to admit that about anything.

Also to be fair having followed Mr Tenniscourt on the social media I don't think he's going to be getting a Phd in Astrophysics any time soon. :D

[Hardrock69]

I never thought I would say this but I walked out after about 40 minutes. After spending northwards of 150 bucks or so. I had wanted to see them for decades. Never had seen them in any incarnation. So I was glad to be there.

Everything about the show was flawless. Performance spot on, Lambert sang everything to perfection, while doing a sort of "musical theater" schtick. Bassist dude was fine, Taylor and May played flawlessly...it was cool to hear Taylor singing about being in love with his car, lol. That song was always a favorite.

Lotsa kids there. At least 3/4 full at Bridgestone Arena. 18,000 capacity.

After half an hour, and knowing pretty much what the setlist was, the performance was laboratory sterile. No fire. No spirit. No balls. Die-hard Queen fans might beg to differ, but it was so lacking in the all-important element of delivering a good ass-kicking.

I decided it was not worth waiting around for the end. And when that thought entered my skull, that is when I decided to leave after the current song was over.

Hell, I care so little, I don't even remember what song it was.

Go see it if you are a fan of Half-Queen and want to toss away $150. Otherwise, stay home and find something interesting to do, like stare mindlessly at the floor, or think about inconsequential rubbish while staring at the bloody idiot box.

Or if you must, watch a concert video of when Freddie was still up front.

It would kick more ass than the performance I saw in person.

So much for my 1/3rd review of the concert.