Concert Review and Pictorial: Queen + Adam Lambert = Rhapsody

Unforgettable. That about sums it up. For anyone who had doubts about Adam Lambert’s abilities and attended the show, they had those doubts quashed thoroughly. The key is that Lambert does not attempt to be Freddie Mercury but to honor his legacy. He puts just the right about of theatricality and small amounts of mimicry combined with an unbelievable voice that American Idol viewers only saw scratch the surface.

But make no mistake, this was not Adam Lambert with the backing band Queen, it’s more like Brian May and Roger Taylor’s show and Adam Lambert is there to command the crowd. The setlist was about everything a fan could ask for (okay maybe I would have loved to hear “Stone Cold Crazy”) and the production was unreal.

There were so many highlights it’s hard to pinpoint all of them, but certainly, Adam Lambert’s multiple outfits were noteworthy, enough to make my wife insanely jealous. When Adam appeared up from the depths of the stage on a Harley for “Bicycle Race” and camped it up as he sprawled across the body of the bike and belted out the lyrics, the crowd went nuts. Roger Taylor’s voice on “I’m In Love With My Car” was impeccable and reminds you how much he adds besides being a fantastic drummer.

The theatrical stage had many facets to it, including a top screen that concentrated on visuals of the band and the lower half great visual eye-candy graphics. When Brian May went into “Last Horizon” and his guitar solo he appeared to be floating on an asteroid as planets and stars floated by, giving an extremely surreal effect. Add to the graphics a huge disco ball and laser lights that really put dramatic emphasis on some songs and it was like icing on the cake.

A special treat had to be when Brian played a few songs acoustically from the B Stage at the end of the catwalk and spoke with the crowd. His voice is amazing as well and reminds you of how much talent was packed into one band. Later on, he was joined by Taylor on a scaled-down kit for “Doin’ All Right” and then Adam and Roger handled the duet on “Under Pressure” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”.

Massive crowd-pleasers had to be every time Freddie appeared on the screen in very tasteful moments such as “Bohemian Rhapsody” when a lot of the famous video was shown and of course the encore with Freddie doing the famous “Ay Yo” crowd sing along. There were also little things like Brian May wearing the ‘Frank’ robot mask from the album News of the World and when he wore a Freddie Mercury shirt for “We Will Rock You” and “We Are The Champions”.

It was a concert not to be missed and certainly to be remembered.

full setlist: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/queen-adam-lambert/2019/ppg-paints-arena-pittsburgh-pa-7b9e6ab0.html

All photos  ©  2019 AWeldingphoto