OPERATION: MINDCRIME (Live)

At Trillians, Newcastle, U.K., November 26, 2018

So we end the year as we started it. Well almost. In something of a dash of déjà vu, former Queensrÿche vocalist Geoff Tate landed back at Trillians at the end of a year long treck which started off pretty much at this very spot, performing the classic Operation: Mindcrime in its entirety to celebrate its 30^th anniversary.

Surely those who saw this show a few months ago wouldn’t bother coming back so soon after January’s show, would they? Well, Operation: Mindcrime sold a million copies grabbing a Platinum disc along the way and has since gone down in Metal folklore as one of the great Metal albums and a trailblazer of the Progressive Metal movement that flourished in its wake. Who could possibly resist the chance to see this stadium sized epic in such an intimate venue for a second time. Judging by the fans shoehorned in to Trillians there were many of a likeminded view.

Of course, we got the whole, classic album from I Remember Now to the searing climax of Eyes Of A Stranger with the epic Suite Sister Mary taking centre stage featuring Tate duetting with his daughter, Emily, in the role of Sister Mary.

Tate’s enthusiastic young band, bolstered by the seasoned Canadian, Scott Moughton on lead guitar, has spent nigh on a year on the road and that experience has forged them into a tight, cohesive unit meaning the razor-sharp riffing of Speak and The Needle Lies cut hard and deep.

Geoff Tate, one of the finest singers of his generation, was in fine form. His rich mid tone and piecing upper register sounding every bit as effective as when the album was first released three decades ago.

Breaking The Silence and I Don’t Believe In Love raised the roof as the crowd sang along to every word, Tate clearly relishing the closeness of the audience to the stage.

How could Tate and his band possibly follow that? Well a mini-Empire set including the Grammy nominated Silent Lucidity and the hi-tec blast of Best I Can passed the baton, nicely setting up next year’s 30^th anniversary of their multi-Platinum Empire album.

Review and Photos By Mick Burgess

Author

Mick Burgess

Mick is a reviewer and photographer here at Metal Express Radio, based in the North-East of England. He first fell in love with music after hearing Jeff Wayne's spectacular The War of the Worlds in the cold winter of 1978. Then in the summer of '79 he discovered a copy of Kiss Alive II amongst his sister’s record collection, which literally blew him away! He then quickly found Van Halen I and Rainbow's Down To Earth, and he was well on the way to being rescued from Top 40 radio hell! Over the ensuing years, he's enjoyed the Classic Rock music of Rush, Blue Oyster Cult, and Deep Purple; the AOR of Journey and Foreigner; the Pomp of Styx and Kansas; the Progressive Metal of Dream Theater, Queensrÿche, and Symphony X; the Goth Metal of Nightwish, Within Temptation, and Epica, and a whole host of other great bands that are too numerous to mention. When he's not listening to music, he watches Sunderland lose more football (soccer) matches than they win, and occasionally, if he has to, he goes to work as a property lawyer.
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