Queensryche - Live Evolution
Performance 
Production 
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Queensryche - Live Evolution
Performance |
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Live Evolution was recorded over two nights at the Moore Theater, in Queensryche's hometown of Seattle. It was their first tour without founding member, guitarist, and only good songwriter, Chris DeGarmo, who was replaced with guitar technician Kelly Gray before the recording of their Q2K album. Gray does a pretty unremarkable job filling in on guitar, and his style just doesn't quite seem to fit the band. Neither him, nor founding guitarist Michael Wilton have the charisma and stage presence of DeGarmo, and this was sorely missing from this performance. Wilton is a decent guitarist, who performs the live songs with technically proficiency, but you are never going to be blown away by him. Geoff Tate's voice still sounds amazing, and Queensryche will always be worth checking out as long as he is fronting the band. The band is noticeably older, balder, and fatter, and seamed down-right tired during these performances. The songs all sounded fantastic, but the energy and enthusiasm we saw from the Operation Livecrime video, was missing in action. The bands two "front-men", Wilton and Tate, pretty much just stood around playing their roles - never really engaging the audience. This surprised me because I saw them last summer on their co-headlining tour with Dream Theater, and I thought they were much more dynamic than on this DVD. I even thought that they outshined the reigning prog-metal kings that night. They did have a different guitarist who has replaced Gray - I can't remember his name, but he didn't add anything significant either. The band just seemed a lot more energized than on this DVD - probably because of the competition of opening for the Dream Theater machine that night. The set list was arranged into four separate suites: 1) EP/Warning/Rage, 2) Empire/Promise Land, 3) Mindcrime, and 4) HTNF/Q2K, which grouped together songs from different time periods. I don't know if the actual concert had the suites in chronological order, but the DVD did not. The Mindcrime suite was played last, before the encore. The song selection was pretty good. You get 19 songs, clocking in at 98 minutes - not bad, but they should have added a few more. There were several more songs on the companion double-album. Each of their albums were represented by at least one song. I would have liked to have seen a few more songs from the Empire album - they only played three, "Empire", "Silent Lucidity", and "Jet City Woman". The two songs from the Q2K album, "Hit The Black", and "Breakdown" were pretty weak additions, but I guess you've got to include something from your new album. Wouldn't it be great to see an "Empire in its entirety" tour and DVD some day, like they did for Operation Mindcrime? And better yet, with Degarmo back in the band. Speaking of Degarmo, when are they going to put out their entire MTV Unplugged performance they did back in 1992. The performances of "Della Brown" and "I Will Remember" that they included on their Building Empires video, were awesome. That acoustic version of "I Will Remember" blows away the original version on Rage for Order. Degarmo and Wilton trading acoustic licks just killed. The chemistry was unreal. Anyways, back to this DVD. During the Mindcrime suite, Pamela Moore came out to reprise her role of Sister Mary during the performance of "Suite Sister Mary". It was pretty cool. She has aged about as gracefully as the rest of the band, but her voice sounded pretty decent. Their encore was an outstanding performance of "Take Hold Of The Flame". Tate sang it like he was 21 again. That is the song that first got me hooked on Queensryche, way back when, and it still sends my adrenaline soaring whenever I hear it CRAAANKED! Oh, and that I did, much to my wife's dismay. I used the excuse that I HAD to blast it, in order to review the audio quality properly. It worked for a few minutes. The old dudes even came out for a second encore, or maybe it was just the encore from the second night, and played the song that started it all, "Queen Of The Reich". Once again they kicked ass. The absolute best thing about this DVD is the phenomenal video quality. I don't know if it is just somehow perfectly in sync with my TV settings or what, but it is one of the most vivid, high definition looking DVD concerts that I own - and I own A LOT. Queensryche have a colorful and hypnotic lightshow and it is captured with vivid color and clarity. The camera work is almost perfect, as you have the sense that you are watching from the 10th row, center stage, but with the advantage of close-ups and multiple camera angles as well. The 5.1 surround mix is very good, but damn-it, I'm going to get real picky hear. I found Tate's vocals to be mixed slightly too loud, and the drums and bass a little too low. Their wasn't a definitive separation of the instruments that I like, and it sounded more like a stereo mix. Queensryche have since released a new album that includes four songs that were co-written with Chris DeGarmo. These were, to no surprise, the best songs on the album. Unfortunately, Degarmo has declined to tour with the band. It will be interesting to see if they continue to write together, or if Queensryche will be able to write some decent tunes on their own. Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - January 2004 |
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Technical Details |
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Audio Transfer |
Video Transfer |
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Set List |
Performers |
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Running Time: 98 Minutes |
DVD Release Date - October 2001 |