Last night I saw the first of the two Sydney shows. Setlist can be found in the link below. link
Some noteworthy things, not in running order:
- The show was preceded with Procession, Brian playing along to one of the guitar lines from behind the curtain.
- There was a bass solo incorporating Don't Try Suicide, Body Language and Staying Power.
- As has been posted here already, Brian mentioned that they were filming that show and that it'd be 'on TV' in some capacity. This was followed by him doing a quick rotation of 'selfie' footage with the audience using a go pro on a stick.
- There was an extended call and response section after Tie Your Mother Down, with Lambert singing things like 'gimme that love' - it was a bit awkward but the audience eventually got into it.
- In Lap of the Gods Revisited, they sang the 'you can do it' backing vocals for the second verse - the first tour I've ever known this to be done live in any setting.
- Brian played a nice segment of Last Horizon in his guitar solo.
- Brian's pretty weak vocally. Roger is still going strong, but his A Kind of Magic was not as strong as at Kiev in 2012 (not that I'd expect him to match that terrific performance).
- Brian messed up the words to the first verse of '39 a couple times, throwing himself off so much that he just didn't sing anything for 'ne'er looked back, never feared, never cried'.
- Love of my Life was very nice, with the audience singing throughout.
- Brian played a bit of Headlong before Fat Bottomed Girls.
- Lambert sang 'cray cray' instead of 'crazy' at one point in Crazy Little Thing, kinda funny.
- Almost the whole audience did the hand raise and clap for Radio Ga Ga - was pretty surreal.
- Roger did most of the drumming, often with Rufus just hitting cymbals or shaking some percussion instrument. He helped on difficult fills at certain points, such as the really fast one before the second chorus of Fat Bottomed Girls, something which Roger never attempted live. [Ignore this, he did it every time in the original tours. Dunno what I was thinking].
- Rufus took over on drums for Tie Your Mother Down for some reason, Roger just sang and had a tambourine or something.
- Perhaps I'm overly sensitive, but the whole thing was way way too loud - I wanted so much to enjoy the Who Wants to Live Forever solo but was physically wincing at how piercingly loud the guitar was.
- I was a bit fearful every time Brian ran across the stage, up and down stairs etc, in light of all his knee issues. All was fine, thankfully.
As to Brian's vocal weakness I agree with you but there were shows at which he pulled off a good vocal performance. The great thing is that he's still experimenting when it comes to his style and performance.
I've listened to the Perth show and during TATDOOL he was trying to play all the guitar parts from the album version and experiment here and there a bit. Dunno why during I want it all before "It ain't much I'm askin'' he corrected the end of his part as he didn't need to.
tomchristie22 wrote:
Last night I saw the first of the two Sydney shows. Setlist can be found in the link below.
link
, such as the really fast one before the second chorus of Fat Bottomed Girls, something which Roger never attempted live.
Thanks for the first hand account. Roger did used to play that fast fill on FBG in the 'old days'. Did he not play it all all, or did Rufus just join in and they both played it?
tomchristie22 wrote:
Last night I saw the first of the two Sydney shows. Setlist can be found in the link below.
link
, such as the really fast one before the second chorus of Fat Bottomed Girls, something which Roger never attempted live.
Thanks for the first hand account. Roger did used to play that fast fill on FBG in the 'old days'. Did he not play it all all, or did Rufus just join in and they both played it?
He did? I must have heard a show where he didn't play it and just assumed he never did. I think both he and Rufus played it this time.
I think Roger has pretty well always done a version of that FBG's drum roll, one of the reasons it sounded so great in the studio is that he used a very small 6" concert tom at the start of the roll and then straight into a really big ones, giving the impression that it's longer than it really is. Also the kit was recorded tuned somewhat higher pitched than he had done in the past which I think helped add to it.
It's a great drum roll that would be really difficult to capture live unless he changed his kit configuration
tomchristie22 wrote:
Last night I saw the first of the two Sydney shows. Setlist can be found in the link below.
link
Some noteworthy things, not in running order:
That actually could be, just about word-for-word, the description of their show I saw in Detroit (Auburn Hills) last month.........they really don't change anything around I guess......heh................except for once in a blue moon throwing a new song in there.................(AKOM, Dragon Attack, IWBTLY)
I was thinking about this the other day tho.............Queen and Adam have now played at least one song from every Queen album! Even including Made In Heaven and Queen Forever...........
Togg wrote:
I think Roger has pretty well always done a version of that FBG's drum roll
Yeah, I listened through a whole lot of bootlegs and now I'm puzzled as to where I got the idea that he never used to attempt it.
The King Of Rhye wrote:
I was thinking about this the other day tho.............Queen and Adam have now played at least one song from every Queen album! Even including Made In Heaven and Queen Forever...........
But not Queen Rocks ;)
Sydney was the first show of the tour where they played Magic instead of These are the Days of Our Lives. I think I'd have much preferred to hear the latter, but Magic is still pretty nice.