Queensryche brought their 30th Anniversary Tour to Greensburg, PA on Aug. 13. I had never been to the Palace Theater, so this was a new experience. It is a historic building, and the architecture is beautiful. I was expecting to have to fight my way to the front to shoot, or find the balcony, but surprisingly enough, order was maintained. Now, I did a stupid thing this night. I received a brand new Canon 7D earlier in the day, and I didn’t have much time to read up on all the bells and whistles. Thinking it couldn’t be that much different than my 40D, and thinking there wouldn’t be much room to maneuver with two cameras, I only took the 7D to the show. Bad mistake. The new camera is quite different, and not knowing all of the little details meant that I came out with less-than-perfect shots. Live and learn! Combine that with the fact that they couldn’t seem to get the lights to work for the first song-and-a-half, and there aren’t many shots worth posting. After that fiasco with the lights - I mean at some points you could only see the indicator lights on the equipment - it would have been nice if the tour manager had offered to let me shoot a little longer, but oh, well.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. The opening act was a young band out of Ireland called the Voodoos. They were pretty good. The next U2? Probably not, but I liked their style and their energy. Now Queensryche has never been one of my favorite bands, although there are a few songs of theirs on regular rotation in my iPod. I have heard some say that recent tours were almost boring, and I knew I probably wouldn’t know many of the songs they played, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised. Geoff Tate is a very theatrical performer and he still sounds great. The rest of the band really rocked it, and I was digging the groove on one of their newer tunes, so I’ll have to look it up.. Their set list included Damaged, I Don’t Believe in Love, Hit the Black, Empty Room, Dead Man, At the Edge, Thin Line and Silent Lucidity (one of my all time favorites). I was an awesome show! I may just have to go see them again.
