Thanks to Gregsynthbootlegs I have been able to choose these concerts as possible candidates:
Sun City 10/19/1984
Tokyo 5/8/1985
Tokyo 5/9/1985
Let me know what you guys think!
Sun City (imo) has the best Works Tour Bohemian Rhapsody, Hammer to Fall, and really good versions of I want to break free and Radio Gaga. Although Tokyo has the best Its A Hard Life
Yes! Both Tokyo concerts also feature exceptional versions of Somebody to Love, however, Freddie nails more notes overall in the Sun City concert, hitting Bb4s during Bohemian Rhapsody and introducing album phrasing on Bo Rap, Killer Queen, and We Are the Champions.
I also forgot to mention that Rock in Rio 11/1/1985 (first night) was a potential candidate for the best Works Tour concert. This has one of the best versions of StL of all time (if only they'd played the full thing instead of the StL/Killer Queen/Seven Seas/Keep Yourself/Liar medley!) and the best version of Seven Seas of Rhye from the 1980s, in my opinion.
Everybody here pretty much nailed the gold shows! 1st Birmingham is also really good and shows like Nagoya, 5/11 Tokyo, and Frankfurt are also pretty good!
Thank you all for your input. I've used your guys' suggestions and several hours sifting through Greg's channel to bring you my personal top 5 list.
1. Sun City 10/19/1984 (Album phrasing, good mix of power and soul in Freddie's voice, band is in sync. John contributes a lot of nice vocals, especially on StL.)
2. Rock in Rio 1/11/1985 (Lots of raw power in Freddie's voice. Band sounds really powerful and in the zone, contributing perfect backing vocals together.)
3. Stuggart 9/27/1984 (Freddie nails most, if not all of the notes he goes for, and the musical performances from the band are completely in sync)
4. Tokyo 5/11/1985 (Although missing some Bb4s, Freddie and the band are in really good shape. There's some really nice alternate phrasings on songs from Freddie, but the synth is a bit excessive.)
5. Brussels 8/24/1984 (The band as a whole sound really strong, but Freddie can't comfortably use his Ab4s and up.)
My top-5:
1. Tokyo 09/05/1985
2. Sun City 19/10/1984
3. Stuttgart 27/09/1984
4. Birmingham 31/08/1984
5. Rio 11/01/1985 or Brussels first night... but since Rio was professionally recorded I hope to one day hear that in full glory.
It's not just about the shape of Freddie's voice.
Countless people have posted here saying the 1984 UK dates are the best they ever saw.
There's a wonderful intimacy at the Wembley Arena dates. I have a soft spot for the September 7 show in particular. In fact, this week I met someone who saw the show and recalled Rick Parfitt joining the band in the encore. He said it was on par with Milton Keynes, which he also attended.
Bringing back a bunch of the old songs must've brought the house down every night. A shame they didn't tour this show in the US - it would've killed. It's the show most Queen fans wanted to hear in 1982.
1st Birmingham (My favourite gig from Works Wour as for the performance)
1st Rio (My favourite gig from Works Tour, first Queen concert I've ever seen :))
Sun City 10/19 (Great quality and really good band's shape)
Tokyo 5/9 (Best show from Japan)
Tokyo 5/11 (Not the best but I love the fact that this show is (mostly) captured by a camera in nice quality, I like theirs outfits in that tour)
The Real Wizard wrote:
It's not just about the shape of Freddie's voice.
Countless people have posted here saying the 1984 UK dates are the best they ever saw.
There's a wonderful intimacy at the Wembley Arena dates. I have a soft spot for the September 7 show in particular. In fact, this week I met someone who saw the show and recalled Rick Parfitt joining the band in the encore. He said it was on par with Milton Keynes, which he also attended.
Bringing back a bunch of the old songs must've
brought the house down every night. A shame they
didn't tour this show in the US - it would've killed. It's the show most Queen fans wanted to hear in 1982.
Indeed this is very true. Shame the planned US dates didn't happen.
The UK Works shows were the best UK dates since The Crazy tour easily and the sheer impact of the size of production dwarfed anything they had done before.
I think the setlist was an effort to escape the Hot Space period. The whole production came over as much heavier and more focussed than that tour.
I remember reading a review of one of the wembley shows, could have been in Sounds or even Kerrang though I don't recall for sure, but the review said it was more rock n'roll, heavier and louder than Van Halen at Donington and visually it looked like the sky was falling down!!!
the best show of any concert tour is the best one you went to... Bootlegs are mere shadows of the experience of being there.
So for me in 1984 it was Brussels, the 2nd night they added later in the tour. Not the day they shot the Hammer to Fall video.
I was on Holiday in Austria when they played London so couldn't go, instead I took a bus to Brussels.
You can explain to me that Freddie's voice was better at other shows, or that Brian's solo was epic on a different date.
But that night I was 5 feet from the stage on Brian's side, with nobody in front of me and I'm pretty sure if I stretched I could have touched the monitor.
I could see the sweat dripping off Freddie onto the stage and I could feel the heat from the lights.
I saw Queen on every tour from 79 onwards, usually more than once, but that was the closest I ever got to the stage, and it was freaking perfect.
So yeah... that one.