Published on Oct 8, 2001
It’s been a decade since
Empire, arguably the second half of the one-two punch that
Queensryche delivered during their heyday, came out. Since then,
Geoff Tate and crew have seen interest in the band’s genre (as well
as the band) decline, and shifts in personnel and labels take
place. With their recent signing to Sanctuary, the band decided
that now was the time to put out their second live album,
Live Evolution, in order to bring everyone to the same point
in the band’s career and to clear out the pipes, as it were, for
their next studio effort.
Granted, not many people invested in the album-plus-video set
Operation: LiveCrime (never mind it’s about to be
re-released on CD), so
Live Evolution might be the first taste of Queensryche on
stage that they’ve had. And while this disc does show evidence
enough why the band had the level of popularity it once held, this
two-disc set also shows that time has not been kind to either all
of the material or even the group.
Tate was once held in high regard for his operatic training and
his ability to hit the high falsetto notes. But if the listener
expects to hear the same singer who graced albums like
The Warning or
Rage For Order, they need to temper their expectations.
Queensryche is almost finishing its second decade as a band, and
Tate’s vocals reflect the onset of middle-age at times. Especially
noted in the early material, such as “NM 156” and “Walk In The
Shadows,” there are times that Tate not only abandons attempts to
hit higher notes, but it sometimes sounds like he’s having
difficulty finding the key the song is in. (I also admit I miss the
harmonized vocals from the studio versions of “London” and “Walk In
The Shadows,” even if they were just layered at the time by Tate
himself.)
Live Evolution‘s strengths, not surprisingly, come from the
songs culled from
Operation: MindCrime and
Empire, even if minor changes to the songs have occurred
over the years (for example, the ending guitar part being lopped
off of “Silent Lucidity”). There is a reason that these songs have
held up over time, and
Live Evolution offers further proof of the solid songwriting
that was going on in the band at the time. Also holding their own
well are many selections originally taken from
Rage For Order, such as “Screaming In Digital” and, to an
extent, “London”. (It should be noted, though, that none of the
Rage tracks are featured in what’s labeled the “Rage/Mindcrime
Suite” on the disc; they’re all lumped under the “EP/Warning
Suite”. And I sure hope they fixed the track listing on the CD
cases; the track listing for about the first half of disc one is
pretty messed up.)
Yet Queensryche also shows why they went into a period of
decline, starting with the two tracks pulled from
Promised Land. Neither “I Am I” nor “Damaged” stand out
among the crowd, and seem to be included merely to feature songs
from that album. The same argument could be made for material from
Hear In The Now Frontier or
Q2K, two albums which were basically ignored
commercially.
In this regard, Queensryche might have done themselves the
greatest disservice by breaking up their music into various
portions of their career. I don’t know if this was the experience
for the concert-goers this past July (when these shows were taped),
but breaking the music up into particular time frames almost
welcomes the option to ignore certain time frames you’re not
interested in. Had this been a more fluid mixture, working in tunes
from
Empire with selections from
Q2K, it might have been more palpable. (It also wouldn’t
have hurt to have featured a little more humanity from the band –
there’s precious little interaction between Tate and the crowd.
I’ve seen Queensryche live, and I know they’re more lively than
this.)
Live Evolution is the typical “for the fans” concert
documentary, but the casual listener will probably be just as happy
with the studio efforts. It was a nice idea to tie their career
together with a two-CD live set, but it just wasn’t executed in the
best way possible.