Former QUEENSRŸCHE singer Geoff Tate performed the band’s classic albums “Rage For Order” and “Empire” in their entirety at this past Friday’s (May 28) stop of the “Empire 30th Anniversary Tour” at the Historic Everett Theatre in Everett, Washington. Fan-filmed video footage of the concert can be seen below.
For this show, COVID-19 restrictions were still in effect. Therefore, seating was assigned by date the tickets were purchased and group size (maximum of six), utilizing social distancing requirements. Masks were required while moving about the theatre.
1986’s “Rage For Order” introduced a much more polished look and sound for QUEENSRŸCHE. The album featured keyboards as prominently as guitars, and the group adopted an image more closely associated with glam rock or glam metal than with heavy metal (of which glam metal was a subgenre). A video was filmed for the song “Gonna Get Close to You”, originally recorded in 1984 by DALBELLO.
Released in 1990, “Empire” included the hit ballad “Silent Lucidity”, which reached No. 9 on the Billboard singles chart, helped propel “Empire” to No. 7 on the album chart and earned two Grammy Award nominations.
Prior to the launch of the trek in early 2020, Tate told MisplacedStraws.com that he would take the “Empire 30th Anniversary Tour” to “as many countries as I can and playing the album in its entirety, which I’ve never done before. So that’ll be real fun. In fact, I think there’s some songs on that album that I’ve never, ever played live before, so it’ll be a treat — for me, as well, I think, for the audience too,” the former QUEENSRŸCHE singer said. “I’m really looking forward to that.”
Tate told Eonmusic that one song from “Empire” that was rarely performed live is “Anybody Listening?” “When QUEENSRŸCHE was together, we never really put that song in our set,” he said. “We just had a hard time playing it, for some reason; it just never jelled or felt right. And I’d really like to play that song again, and play it right.”
In April 2014, Tate and QUEENSRŸCHE announced that a settlement had been reached after a nearly two-year legal battle where the singer sued over the rights to the QUEENSRŸCHE name after being fired in 2012. Original QUEENSRŸCHE members Michael Wilton (guitar), Scott Rockenfield (drums) and Eddie Jackson (bass) responded with a countersuit. The settlement included an agreement that Wilton, Rockenfield and Jackson would continue as QUEENSRŸCHE, while Tate would have the sole right to perform the albums “Operation: Mindcrime” and “Operation: Mindcrime II” in their entirety live.
Tate has been replaced in QUEENSRŸCHE by former CRIMSON GLORY singer Todd La Torre.
Geoff recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of “Operation: Mindcrime” on European and U.S. tours.
Geoff Tate Silent Lucidity. Everett Theater 5/28/21
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Back stage meet and greet last night with Geoff Tate (original singer of Queensryche) in the historic Everett theater in Washington. Wonderful man, incredible night!
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