| JacquesDaniels 24.08.2007 01:35 |
Hey everyone. Not sure where should I have actually posted this one, but I suppose "General" will do, as I couldn't find a good subforum for these kinds of specific topics. As you can read, the topic is mostly intended for the fellow Queen fans in Finland. (And for the fans of the band performing.) This weekend - actually, the first show was yesterday already - Rajaton (Boundless), the vocal group will perform with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra at the Sibelius Hall (or whatever it's called), three nights in a row. Not sure if there's any tickets left, because they were rather quickly sold out the last time they did their Queen tribute a year or so ago, and this time they started selling tickets in January. For those of you, who don't know about this band, check out the song "Butterfly" and their ABBA tribute videos on YouTube, and I'm sure Wikipedia has something to offer, not to mention their own website. I can't be arsed to link anything though... google 'em. Anyway, I'm going to see the show on Saturday, even though I do have my doubts about the whole thing... I'll report about it as soon as I can. |
| GtKngRat 24.08.2007 06:25 |
Another finnish tribute is that BANG! is now available in finnish ! Check link for more info ! |
| JacquesDaniels 26.08.2007 14:53 |
GtKngRat wrote: Another finnish tribute is that BANG! is now available in finnish ! Check link for more info !Hey, that's pretty cool! Hadn't heard of that yet. Anyway, here's my review of the show I attended yesterday (saturday, 25.8.2007) to anyone who's interested. I think there's a good possibility of the Queen show to be released as an album, as they did last year with their ABBA project (although it was pretty much a studio recording). ---- SINFONIA LAHTI conducted by Jaakko Kuusisto with vocal ensemble RAJATON (Boundless) "A Kind of Magic" - Tribute to Queen with other notable guest musicians: Lenni-Kalle Taipale - keyboards (23.8. and 25.8.) Iiro Rantala - keyboards (24.8.) Jari "Heinä" Nieminen - guitar Kalle Chydenius - bass Jari "Kepa" Kettunen - drums ---- I'll start with saying a few words about the musicians themselves - of the lot I know about, anyway. I don't know much about Sinfonia Lahti (the symphony orchestra, obviously), but it's regarded as one of the best, if not THE best symphony orchestras in Finland. I can't really contradict this, because I thought the concert was rather stellar from their part. The programme booklet informed that the orchestra had won a bunch of platinum awards for albums and a whole lot of other stuff, which I can't quote here, because I didn't buy the booklet myself. Vocal ensemble Rajaton has been working together for over a decade now, with some success abroad. Two of the members are also notable solo artists, namely Essi Wuorela and Jussi Chydenius, who is also known as an ex-drummer of a Finnish pop-group Don Huonot, among other things. Try here for more information: link Lenni-Kalle Taipale and Iiro Rantala are both notoriously famous jazz pianists in Finland, extending some fame in mid-European countries. Lenni was playing the night I went to see the show, and although he did perfectly well with most of the stuff, I thought his style didn't quite fit in there, but that's just me. Maybe some other attendant could give an opinion. "Heinä" and Chydenius are somewhat unknown to myself, even if I've seen them both play lots of different kinds of shows. They're alright in their own ways, but "Heinä" is not Brian, and Chydenius is not Deacon. "Kepa" Kettunen is mostly known for his recent work as the drummer of Wigwam, the most famous progrock band from Finland. He nailed it, I might say. --- THE SETLIST: We Will Rock You (regular version) Killer Queen -> arranged segue to: A Kind of Magic -> arranged segue to: Somebody To Love You Take My Breath Away Under Pressure (a cappella) Innuendo I'm Going Slightly Mad MEDLEY: * It's A Beautiful Day * One Vision * You Don't Fool Me * One Vision (reprise) * Mustapha * Made In Heaven We Are The Champions -- 20 minutes break -- Jealousy Radio Ga Ga -> arranged segue to: Another One Bites The Dust -> segue to: I Want It All Seaside Rendezvous (voc. arr.: King's Singers) Love Of My Life Who Wants To Live Forever The Miracle -> arranged segue to: Bicycle Race -> arranged segue to: Friends Will Be Friends The Show Must Go On ENCORE: Bohemian Rhapsody --- Starting with the beginning, I thought the regular rendition of WWRY was a bad choice for a show opener, considering that the concert was played in a hallroom, even if it's the fifth best concert hall in the world. But, it introduced the vocal group alright, all of them wearing cheesy 70's disco make-up and black/red fashioned clothes with different Queen logos on the ladies and gentlemen of the group. The guitar solo blowed. Oh well. Killer Queen was alright. Essi taking lead vocals for the only time during the first set, it wasn't anything remarkable, but was played to set |
| JacquesDaniels 26.08.2007 15:21 |
Another One Bites The Dust, which was turned into a duel between the two more dynamic male vocalists of the group, Jussi and Hannu. Hannu took on his Freddie role rather brilliantly, and had the audience repeating his lines in the middle section. Reety-alrighty. I Want It All took off right after a weird stadium-type transference section at the end of AOBTD, but for once, it worked alright. Hannu went for the lead here, but this time, he didn't pull it off. Not enough rock in his voice. But, he took the stage to himself very much as he ought to. Seaside Rendezvous. Anyone, who's ever heard of the King's Singers a cappella version of this one, knows it already. Only, Rajaton took their arrangement and sang it infinitely better. Brilliant. Love Of My Life - I must say, I expected the harp to be played during this song, as they had carried one on the stage during the break. No such luck. But it didn't matter much. Essi sang it almost like it was her own song, it was that good. Lenni did his duty as a prolific pianist, and for the only time during the show, we heard the conductor himself take a position as a player, and did the Brian stuff with his violin. Absolutely marvellous. Who Wants To Live Forever, along with The Miracle, were the low point of the second set. WWTLF would've been perfect, if Ahti hadn't murdered it with his singing. Oh well. It could've been worse. At least the orchestra played beautifully. All the way through, accordingly to the long album version. The Miracle could've also worked well, if not for the bad choice of a lead singer. Also, the fast rock section at the end didn't work at all. Bicycle Race: I knew this one was going to be fun. It was surprising on a few different levels, but nothing horrible happened. But damn it's a cheesy song. :) Gotta love it. Oh, and they had bicycle bells on stage. Naturally. Friends Will Be Friends... I wasn't looking forward to hear this one as much as I was surprised to hear how good it really was. I can't say much about it, though - it wasn't anything remarkable in the ways of performance or anything else... it was only natural they should do it. After they had performed it, I knew why. Oh, and Essi did this one, essentially. The Show Must Go On was the last song listed on the programme booklet. Throughout the show, this was the song I was waiting for, because it would've been the ultimate showoff for Hannu, if he had done it. Unfortunately, they had decided to perform it as a group, each doing their own separate lines in the verses etc. But it was still awesome. Better than any version that Brian and Roger have ever had to do with as a live performance. A perfect way to say goodbye, if only... ...they hadn't played Bohemian Rhapsody. And naturally, the audience had to do a 10-minute standing ovation for them to get their asses back on stage and do the thing we'd all been waiting for, even if it wasn't marked on the booklet. Once again, goosebumps. This was the best version of the song I've ever heard being performed live, were it on TV or in the same room. But you can't really help the fact that only Freddie could do Bohemian Rhapsody the way it was supposed to. I dare you all to buy the album if it ever comes out and contradict my opinions. ;) |
| JacquesDaniels 26.08.2007 15:31 |
Oh yeah, I forgot, they (vocalists) changed their clothes for the second set. They all had the sort of Freddie's white jacket Wembley '86 things. Anyway, questions are welcome if anyone's interested in more details. |