Photos and Review by Jim LaValley
Galleries: Queensrÿche, Fates Warning
The Verdict is in. Queensrÿche with guests Fates Warning and The Cringe stopped by the Worcester Palladium on a foggy winter night to support their new album “The Verdict.” This is the 17th time I have seen Queensrÿche over the past 35 years and the third time with Todd La Torre. His tone, feeling, and capability fits in nicely with the band’s progressive metal sound, which is a huge statement because after all he has some huge shoes to fill. This was the best I’ve seen Todd with Queensrÿche and I think he killed it!!
They opened the show with “Blood of the Levant” from the new album to get the crowd pumped up. This was immediately followed by “I Am I” and a favorite of mine from “The Warning” album, “NM 156”.
Michael Wilton’s riffs and solos are stellar, and when coupled with Todd’s vocals and Eddie Jackson’s background vocals, the harmonies create the classic Queensrÿche sound. Todd’s vocals are amazing and compliment Michael Wilton’s and Parker Lundgren’s dueling guitar solos. He has won over Rÿche fans worldwide and nails the classics tunes while kicking out new Rÿche material to look forward to. He also recorded the drums on the new album and occasionally plays a mini-kit on the side of Casey Grillo throughout the night. Casey is filling in as the drummer for Scott Rockenfield while the band is touring.
The setlist had an awesome mix of songs ranging from their debut EP, “The Warning”, “Rage for Order”, “Operation Mindcrime,” “Empire,” and “Promise Land” for pre-Todd’s albums, then they also played 40% new songs from Todd’s albums’ “Queensrÿche,” “Condition Human,” and “The Verdict”.
From what I heard and saw in the crowd, the fans are very excited about the new direction the band is going with “The Verdict.” I even met a couple of fans that saw Queensrÿche at the Living Room in Providence to support the Warning album in 1985, I was there. There were also fans who started listening Rÿche after the Empire album and didn’t know the older tunes. Queensrÿche is building a solid new fanbase with their new music. Since the album was released at the beginning of the month (10 days ago), the reviews have been overwhelmingly great and very positive.
The stage was cool with tall lit LED screens on the sides of the stage and embedded within the bass drums to create various effects such as fire, charging military soldiers, and numerous other lighted images.
If you have been holding back on seeing Queensrÿche because of the new singer, I would check out this tour because in my opinion Todd has baked in nicely to the overall sound that Rÿche fans have grown to love and he is successfully driving the train. Rÿche On!!
Queensrÿche at the Palladium – Worcester, MA
