If you are going to show that you are back playing the older material, then there is no better way than by opening the show with a flawless version of “Queen Of The Ryche.” The band hit the stage with the song that started it all and proceeded to play only material from the first five Queensryche albums. Since they released their excellent self-titled CD a few weeks ago, I was happy they played a few tracks from that release also. “Redemption,” “Where Dreams Go To Die,” and “Fallout” fit into the set seamlessly and if you were a novice fan, you wouldn’t have realized that they were not older Queensryche tracks. We did get some of the “hits” because, let’s face it, the crowd wants to hear some of the more popular material from those early records. Tracks like “Walk in the Shadows,” “Jet City Woman” and “Silent Lucidity” have to be played but the crowd was looking for the older, deeper cuts. In that department, the band delivered on many levels. Not only did they play “En Force,” “Child of Fire”, and “Warning” off their first album, but they even included “Prophecy” which for the longest time was a B-side track. I know I’m not speaking for everyone but as far as I was concerned, they could have finished the show then and I still would have walked away happy. That being said, the band did play more tunes off of Operation: Mindcrime and Empire. They finished the concert with a five song encore that included new track “Fallout,” older tune “Take Hold Of The Flame” and a trifecta off of Empire.
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