Live Review : Geoff Tate + Kim Jennett @ Academy 3, Manchester on October 9th 2024

Nostalgia is a potent force. It’s your own personal Time Machine, allowing us to revisit the sounds and the essence of our past exploits. It also has highly redemptive and restorative powers. It allows the whitewashing of career indiscretions and focuses on the highs, while simultaneously burying the lows. Queensryche are case in point, as the 80’s morphed into the 90’s they seemed poised to join Maiden and Metallica in the really big league of metallic heavy weights. “Operation Mindcrime “had position them as the thinking person’s metal band and follow-up “Empire” increased tenfold their commercial clout, thrusting them into arena status. For a short smidgen of time they had the Midas touch and could do no wrong. Then grunge happened.

They made one more superlative album, in the shape of prog metal blueprint “The Promised Land”. But by this stage, their appeal was already beginning to become selective. What followed next is a veritable soap opera of career missteps, internal disharmony, dire albums, hideous unwanted sequels, eventual implosion and subsequent dual versions of the band. Musical mastermind Chris DeGarmo exited music completely, now making a living as a business jet pilot’ and then now exists two non-communicating camps upholding the band's legacy. An official Queensryche consisting of two surviving members and frontperson Geoff Tate as a strident solo act.

What is really interesting is that nostalgia has allowed all the post-early 90s turmoil to be swept under the proverbial carpet. Both sides of this acrimonious fallout have dispensed with any inclination to move forward their musical legacies. The official Queensryche are touring the mythical self-titled EP and astonishing debut album early in the New Year, whilst our Geoff has played “Mindcrime” in its entirety on many occasions (and will do again next year) alongside “Rage for Order” and “Empire”. Tonight, however he is tackling the Queensryche songbook and nostalgia dictates that the audience is made up of those who were there the first time around desperate to sing along one more time.

Opener Kim Jennett, despite only being a sprightly 29, is also trading in nostalgia. Her set is a headlong plunge through an inordinate number of bygone genres. Opener’Psycho’ is pure 70’s pub rock,  but then with ‘Let Me Be the One’ she takes a sideways turn into slick commercial rock and the third track ‘Burn’ could for all intents and purposes be a Free cover. Later on in the set ‘Dead to Me’ pulls in Nu-Metal and ‘Devil’ would not feel out of place on a Ministry record. 

She manages to pull off this crash course through metals six decade evolution because of two crucial assets. Number one, she has an astonishing voice. It is mind-blowing in both its range and also its power. She seems equally at home with the sweet harmonious heart-stopping lullabies as she does with the gargantuan bloodcurdling howls. Secondly, she possesses a wonderfully grounded Northern disposition. There is charisma aplenty, but it is of the world-weary self-deprecating variety that seldom spawns itself south of the Watford Gap.

She is eminently likeable, supping of her beer and treating the audience like a bevy of her mates she has bumped into on Warrington High Street. It is that affable, genial nature that makes the confusing breadth of her material forgivable. She really has something and it goes beyond just the brilliance of her voice. Once she has decided which genre she wants to dwell in, it is obvious that great things await her.

Cutting to the chase, he may well have reached the UK pension age but boy does Geoff Tate look good and sound even better. He has aged in a profoundly dignified manner, achieving elder statesman status without losing any of his youthful enthusiasm. He speaks with palpable passion about being a technophile and the way that technology continues to shape the way around us in a positive and exulting manner. He comes across as both curious and humble, stating that he adores the fact that the road is now his home.

Musically we get everything you could possibly want. Tonight, whilst fuelled by nostalgia, is a massive reminder of just how important and era-defining Queensryche were. Their fall from grace might have been tumultuous, but across their first five albums, they shaped metal in ways that has never been fully acknowledged. They brought a level of ingenuity, intelligence and maturity that still remains to this day. They also wrote some bloody good songs and that's what this evening becomes a celebration of.

The early doors inclusion of ‘Desert Dance’ from “Tribe” and ‘Sacred Ground’ for “Q2k” confounds some of those who have been enticed along by the promise of an evening of the first EP to “Empire”. However, as soon as we hit “Operation Mindcrime’s” illustrious title track the voices become raised and the energy pumps through the room. As the band ploughs through three songs back to back from the monolith that is “Mindcrime”, it becomes clear that Queensryche couldn’t half pen an anthem. ‘Breaking the Silence’ and ‘I Don’t Believe in Love’ exist as part of a stoic set narrative but taken outside of that they are still sensational tracks, full of melodic majesty and crescendoing power.

The set deals with Queensryche’s different eras in batches. We get ‘NM156’ from the debut album joined at the hip to ‘Screaming in Digital’ and ‘Walk in the Shadows’ from the sophomore outing “Rage for Order”. Despite their almost forty-year vintage none feel dated. Instead, there is the realisation that Queensryche were onto something really early on and they were veritable forerunners of metal's march towards technicality and sophisticated progression.

The final brace of songs from the main set are taken from their commercial heyday of “Empire”. This is the moment when they embraced accessibility and switched from the role of visionary auteurs to custodians of songs that soundtracked people's lives. Punctuated by a cacophony of friendly hackles, Geoff attempts to recall the story of being stopped at a service station in the middle of nowhere and being extolled of the importance of ‘Silent Lucidity’ to a passer-by's life. That is the point about this evening and nostalgia in general. These songs no longer belong to Geoff and neither to his estranged former bandmates. They belong to us, the listeners. They belong to the people whose weddings, funerals, break-ups, first dates, births, conceptions and other life moments they have accompanied. Everyone who bellows along in his room this evening has a reason why these songs are special. Everyone has a story about how a certain track aired this evening has been a constant in their journey through life. This is why we are here and it is beautiful.

Pink Floyd’s ‘Welcome to the Machine’ heralds the encore and acts primarily as an opportunity for Geoff's latest backing band to show off their musical prowess. Its inclusion may well have been at the cost of numerous missing-in-action nuggets from the back catalogue, but it serves its purpose well and again allows Geoff to show in no uncertain terms that his voice is still as pristine as it was in the eighties. We return to the songbook for a final hurrah of ‘Take hold of the Flame’ which sounds as majestic now as it did when it first entered our gravitational pull four decades ago. Whereas other vocalists are beginning to show their age, Geoff seems unbothered by the passage of time and is still able to pull off those high notes with utter ease. 

Tonight is a celebration. A celebration of a band and legacy that never quite gets the plaudits that it deserves. A celebration of a back catalogue that is filled to the brim with gems and riches that still retain their power but also their ingenuity. Most of all it was a celebration of a man that still absolutely embraces this lifestyle and the impact that his music has had on people's lives. For the entirety of the 90 minute show Geoff sports a delirious grin and that grin says everything. This is a content man and content men equal astounding performances.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Geoff Tate + Kim Jennett