Geoff Tate brought his “The Whole Story” acoustic tour to Omaha, Nebraska on Feb 9th, 2017.
Does Geoff Tate still have his remarkable vocal range and power? And, does Queensryche’s music translate well acoustically? The answer to both is a resounding YES!
The show began with guitarists Scott Moughton and Kieran Robertson playing an almost flamenco sounding intro to “Walk in the Shadows” from Queenryche’s “Rage for Order”. The rest of band casually took the stage during this intro and delivered a fantastic and surprisingly powerful rendition highlighted by Geoff’s strong vocals and harmonies with Scott Moughton.
This set the tone for a brilliantly crafted set consisting of hits and deep tracks spanning Queensryche’s catalog from 1983 – 2012. They also played “The Fight” from Operation Mindcrime’s 2016 release “Resurrection”. Geoff has been surrounded by gifted musicians his entire career, and his acoustic band was a showcase of talent and exceptional orchestration. Ollie Jordan-Kelly played a well-amplified cajon that kept a strong pulse throughout the evening, and Evan Kleve’s violin provided a very welcome balance to the acoustic guitars, and the violin brought a whole new life to 97’s “Chasing Blue Sky” and “The Lady Wore Black” from Queensryche’s debut EP.
Despite the opening number, the first half of the set consisted of tracks from the 90’s. Naturally “Silent Lucidity” sounded very true to form acoustically, but other songs like “Another Rainy Night”, “Jet City Woman”, “Some People Fly”, and “Until There Was You” really shined when stripped down to let you appreciate how well written they truly are. A technical issue caused Scott’s guitar to cut out during “I Don’t Believe in Love”, but they got it resolved and the band resumed the song from the last chorus, then capped off the set with “Eyes of a Stranger” with the audience singing along with every word.
They returned to stage with an encore performance of Dropkick Murphy’s “I’m Shipping Up to Boston”, which had an Irish sea chant feel with everyone dancing along, and the show ended with “Around the World” from Queensryche’s 2011 record “Dedicated to Chaos”.
I’ll admit I wasn’t sure what to expect when I heard this would be an acoustic show. Throughout the evening Geoff shared stories about recording, touring, the decadent 80’s, his family, and the inspiration behind many of his songs. This show was a wonderful surprise for me, and a fantastic summary of his 35-year career. I certainly won’t hesitant to get tickets to see him again, preferably acoustic.
