Any 80's Hair Metal Heads Remember Queensryche??? My confession to Geoff....

It's concert season - more specifically outdoor concert season. I am a huge lover of music. All music. OK, well - most music.

It's time. Time to scour the internet in search of whatever other tickets I can come across.

Now, I've got guilt.

While searching livenation.com, there I saw it - QUEENSRYCHE!!  Not just Queensryche, but the billing was listed as "Queensryche: 25th Anniversary Operation Mindcrime"  I NEEDED to go!

As a rule, I'm a loyal human. If I love, I love forever. Unless, of course, I've been given a big reason not to love. I don't like change. I'm loyal to the original. When Van Halen went Van Hagar, I boycotted.  When Steve Perry was replace by whoever the new lead singer is of Journey, I boycotted. I had absolutely NO desire to see Queensryche sans Geoff Tate.

I'm so sorry, Geoff.  I don't know what happened.

And here it is...

Dear Geoff,
I'm terribly sorry. I've inadvertently cheated on you. I'm sad to say - I think I liked it.
Maybe not completely, because there will never be another YOU, but I enjoyed myself.
I'm so sorry.
Faithfully yours,
Resurrected 80's High Hair Metal Chick

Yes, it's like that.
While I was combing through LiveNation.com I DID see Queensryche: 25th Anniversary Operation Mind Crime. If you're 80's and love that - How exciting is that??

One of the things I'm well aware of is the Queensryche split. There's Geoff, THE voice of Queensryche, who split from the band and has a new band. Then there's the band, with the founding member, Michael Wilton and new lead singer, Todd LaTorre. Both touring as Queensryche.
Confusing, right?

Before I purchased my tickets, I double, triple and quadruple checked. I wanted to be double damn sure I was buying GEOFF TATE Queensryche tickets. There was his face, plastered all over every website - promoting everywhere, once again "25th Anniversary Operation Mindcrime." I was confident I was making the right decision. There were also 2 dates available!! Once at Starland in March, which I couldn't make. Once in April at BergenPac, which I could make.
I excitedly bought my tickets.

Yes, it was a bit of a red flag that the shows were happening in the same state, but ya know - it IS concert season. I checked, double checked, triple checked and quadruple checked. I THOUGHT that I was confident that it was Geoff Tate Queensryche I was going to see.

As the date got closer, I noticed that my upcoming event - as listed on Facebook had changed. There was now a notation that "Ticketmaster has changed event name."  Ut oh...  Now instead of it saying:  Queensryche:  25th Anniversary Operation Mindcrime - it simply said, Queensryche.

I was duped!

I knew something was up, so I went to livenation.com and checked the venues, the artists, the dates... there it was.  The change. The change that pissed me off on several levels, because I WANTED Geoff Tate.

The billing, I felt, was intentionally confused. Did I mention I was pissed?

The show I had been so looking forward to now became, meh - I like live shows anyway. I'll still have a good time. I'll just go anyway and suck it up like any other cover band. If I hate it, I'll leave.

I didn't leave.  I enjoyed it.

Was the concert anywhere NEAR the expected 25th Anniversary of Operation Mindcrime??  NO. They only played a few songs from that album. On that level I was a little disappointed, but Todd sounded great. He has great energy. He has a great voice. He is a great stage performer. He is very expressive and lives the music. I really liked that. No, he's not Geoff - but I liked it. I was entertained. I enjoyed the show. I really enjoyed the show. Yes, I was shocked too!

The warm up band was Gothic Knights. A band that hails from NYC and has been around since 1990. No, I never heard of them either. Here's why...  Although the lead singer has a great voice, he has absolutely no stage presence. There's no excitement. No real movement or feeling of connection with the band. Stiff.  I feel that I could close my eyes and enjoy the music, I just didn't need to watch because the watching part didn't entertain me. They are still very 80's feeling.

Admittedly, I went in with a bad attitude and disappointment at the way Live Nation handled things. I would NOT have purchased the tickets if I'd known it wan't Geoff Tate I was going to see, but I'm glad that I gave it all a chance.

I probably wouldn't go see Queensryche again, out of loyalty to Geoff, without Geoff - but I also wouldn't turn anyone away. It was a good show. I liked it and I think that anyone else who enjoys this type of music, who likes Queensryche and can be open minded (like I'm not) would enjoy the show.


So Geoff, I hope I'm forgiven. No one rocks it like you. You will be my first and only voice of Queensryche. This time, I just strayed - but I'm back. :)

Thank you all for reading my blog!!

~Jenn