Last Wednesday was May 8, 2002. Do you know what that means? It means that last Wednesday was the eleventh anniversary of my first Queensrÿche show. Last year was very exciting, since I got to celebrate a decade since the Queensrÿche show. I told my boss about the occasion and he made fun of me. He didn't understand why I even remembered the date of my first Queensrÿche show. Why wouldn't I? Not only did I see Queensrÿche on that lovely spring day, I saw them on the Empire tour.
You know what that means, right? It means not only did they play most of the Empire album, they also played Operation: Mindcrime in its entirety. And they played a bunch of stuff from the first three releases, including Roads To Madness. Do you hear me? Roads To Madness! In the middle of the longest concert ever, because Mindcrime itself is almost an hour, they stopped to play what is possibly the longest song in their catalog. Greatest concert moment ever.
I have been listening to a lot of Queensrÿche lately, and since I have just celebrated the 8th of May, now is as good a time as any to discuss the pros and cons of Queensrÿche. Okay, no cons will be discussed. Oh....con. I don't own the live video. You know the one! The one from the 1985 tour of Japan. That is the biggest con about Queensrÿche. Some people enjoy the videos from Mindcrime, but I could never endorse them. It always seemed weird and wrong to me that there were singles released from that album. It's a concept record! You don't grasp the concept if you only hear one song! Grrr.
In fact, I recently just bought a twelve-inch single of I Don't Believe In Love. On the one hand, I was super excited, because, you know, Queensrÿche twelve inch single, but on the other hand, it is the single for I Don't Believe In Love. Worst single ever. It turned an interesting and pivotal song from a concept album into a song that teenaged girls could quote when they were sad. I don't think that singles should be issued from concept albums. Except, of course, from The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars. A friend of mine tried to point out that The Wall generated some singles. But I don't like to talk about Pink Floyd. Cuts into my Queensrÿche time.
At present I am mostly listening to The Warning, as I just recently bought it on cassette for my car. I have owned The Warning for thirteen years now, and I can still only figure out what Geoff Tate is saying about half the time. I'm pretty sure he is talking about things that are best discussed if you live in a castle. I know that those sorts of songs were on the EP, (By the way, how bad is their hair on the EP? I can't believe it was ever cool to look like that.) and from what I can figure, those sorts of things are happening on The Warning as well. Thirteen years! You would think I could have deciphered the lyrics by now.
That's okay, The Warning isn't my favorite anyway. And here is where I have difficulty. Which is my favorite? Is it Operation: Mindcrime, or is it Rage For Order? Operation: Mindcrime was my very first Queensrÿche purchase. I bought it on the strength of a review in People magazine. I wish that I was lying. (Since I am a pack rat/nostalgia freak, I may still have that review in a folder somewhere. It was taped to my closet door for years.) Although I had also read an interesting review of it in a record club flyer, and another in a guitar magazine. So I had three barely reliable sources instead of just the one.
Anyway, I went to the mall and bought Mindcrime. I cannot tell you what a jaw-dropper it was for me in 1988. That album was astonishing. It was so much better than Poison! I needed a dictionary three different times when I read the liner notes. (I think it was three times. Lemme have a look at the lyric sheet...well, wait. Right now the only Queensrÿche vocabulary word I can find is requiem. I thought there was more stuff I had to look up. I don't know...I know all the Mindcrime vocabulary now, but it's been 14 years.)
I became totally addicted to Queensrÿche, and had to go to more malls and buy more Queensrÿche. My next purchase was Rage For Order. Why hadn't I listened to Queensrÿche before? That is all I could wonder. They were so much better than anything else I listened to. What were my other choices? Bon Jovi and Def Leppard. No, thank you! That may have worked in 1987, but this was early 1989! I had Queensrÿche!
So, I can never figure out which is my favorite. Mindcrime is my first Queensrÿche record, but...I think Rage is better. Not better, but more of a classic. Don't get me wrong, Mindcrime is a classic but it is very dated and doesn't hold up well. Remember, the plot of Mindcrime is based on political and religious scandals, therefore, it is best enjoyed by someone who actually lived through the late eighties. The teenagers of today, do they even know about the Iran-Contra and PTL scandals? They certainly don't remember them, they weren't even alive at the time. So even though I do believe Operation: Mindcrime is a classic, and ambitious, and wonderful, and blah, blah. I think you get it. I love Operation: Mindcrime. Even though I love it, I don't think it is the essential Queensrÿche album.
I think the essential Queensrÿche album is Rage For Order. Actually, the first three releases are all essential, but they are also very underrated and ignored, because every jackass in the world flipped their lids over Empire. Don't get me started on Empire....grrrrr. Anyway, Rage For Order. It has everything I want in a rock album. Except, what is with those band photos? Yikes.
Okay. I just dug out my "souvenir tour book," purchased eleven years ago. Regarding the photos for Rage For Order, here is what Eddie Jackson said, "We came off looking like this sort of Gothic black and white 1930s horror movie. When we looked at the first batch of photos we almost died!" Um. Yeah. "Hairspray" and "Queensrÿche" do not mix. Speaking of photos, I just had to browse my fabulous tour program, and talk about ugly shirts on parade. No kidding they didn't care about image! Hey DeGarmo, you weigh seventy-five pounds. Button your damn shirt!
Like I was saying, Rage has it all. First and foremost, it showcases the DeGarmo-Wilton double axe attack. They were the masters of the double axe attack. (Yeah, yeah. I haven't forgotten about double axe attacks of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. They are technically the masters. Just let me talk about Queensrÿche!) Rage For Order has me from the first second of the first song. How good is Walk In The Shadows? So good! And the album just gets better. My next highlight, of course, is The Whisper. It's like, that riff is all cool and stuff, and then the second guitar comes in. And I can no longer feel the back of my neck, because the double axe attack has just kicked my ass.
But I have time to recover, because now I am listening to Gonna Get Close To You. Oooh, Geoff is so creepy! He is downright icky. More proof that he is a great singer. The man generates a reaction. And not because of his looks. Geoff Tate...he's not a good looking guy. There. I said it. I know he became some sort of, uh, oh, I can't say it. Okay. He became some sort of poster boy when the Silent Lucidity single got popular. My friend who likes smooth jazz and Michael Bolton thought that Geoff Tate was hot. What? No, he isn't. He has a total fish face. If you want him to be the poster boy for a great set of pipes, I'm all for it. Poster boy for ugly outfits in 1985? Go for it! But he is not pin-up material. Gross.
So. To sum up. The Empire tour. I gotta tell you, the main reason I went was to see the entire Mindcrime show. Because Empire isn't very good. But that is another story for another day.