After 173 days it is getting hard to remember what I have blogged about. I am sure that I have mentioned before that Queen is my all-time favorite band before but I am too lazy to check. One day I will blog about how I discovered them but for this column I am going to cover the time I was able to see them in concert.
I saw them a few years ago in Las Vegas and let me say, it was the best concert I have been to. Vegas is a special place for Queen since that is the place where they debuted their musical We Will Rock You.
With the unfortunate passing of Freddie Mercury back in 1991 I thought that I had missed the boat in seeing Queen in person. But I was lucky that they formed a partnership with Paul Rodgers of Bad Company fame to tour the US and also release an album together. I didn't even know that they were touring at the time and I was surfing the net and found that they were touring and better yet, they were coming to Las Vegas!
Now let me say this. Paul Rodgers can never replace Freddie Mercury. No one can replace Freddie Mercury. But I thought Paul did a good job meshing well with Queen's music. I am not a Rodgers hater at all, I appreciate the stuff that he brought to the table. I got Return of the Champions Live CD by Queen and Paul Rodgers and I will admit that I was surprised by his vocals. He didn't try to imitate Freddie, he took Queen's songs and put his own style on them.
I looked them up to see if they were touring and was so excited that they were coming shortly in concert to Vegas. I got two tickets (for me and my wife) and we made plans to stay the weekend in Vegas. Kristy and I left Logan here with Lynn, Jennifer and Mom and we took off Thursday morning. The drive was horrible, it was snowing so bad all through Salt Lake and Provo, the roads were full of ice and snow but once we got past Provo, the weather improved and it got warm. We got to Vegas in pretty good time and we stayed at the Tropicana hotel.
The hotel was right across the street from the MGM (where Queen was playing) and right off the strip. Friday we went out and ate at the ESPN Zone for lunch and went shopping. We went the M&M store and bought some stuff for Logan and then we rested and then went the concert.
I was pretty excited. We first got in line so I can buy a Queen t-shirt and the lines somehow blurred together and we got to the merchandise booth at the same time as this fat lady and her daughter. I had no problem letting them go first and thought that would be the right thing to do when suddenly she looks at me and yells out "We were here first! Not you!" I thought about letting her have it but I smiled nicely and let her go first. Geez, what an extremely rude lady.
I bought a real cool "retro" brown Queen shirt and then we ran off to find our seats. There was no opening act. Then the lights dimmed and the concert began. It started with this cool remix of It’s a Beautiful Day and then the members of Queen came out and rocked it!
LAS VEGAS - Fri 07/04/06 SET LIST
IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY
REACHING OUT
TIE YOUR MOTHER DOWN
FAT BOTTOMED GIRLS
CAN'T GET ENOUGH
TAKE LOVE
CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE
LOVE OF MY LIFE
HAMMER TO FALL
FEEL LIKE MAKING LOVE
I'M IN LOVE WITH MY CAR
LAST HORIZON
BAD COMPANY
ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST
DRAGON ATTACK
THESE ARE THE DAYS OF OUR LIVES
RADIO GA GA
UNDER PRESSURE
THE SHOW MUST GO ON
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
WE WILL ROCK YOU
ALL RIGHT NOW
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS
It was SO worth the money and the drive to see them. During the song These are the Days of Our Lives they flashed images of Freddie on the large screen to the cheers of the crowd. I think I was the only HUGE Queen fan sitting on our row. I knew all the typical Queen concert things to do and yelled and sang them out.
I was hoping they would sing I Want It All but I was extremely glad for the inclusion of Under Pressure. When Brian May introduced that song he said that we should all be familiar with that song because they stole it from some "white boy". I was not a huge fan of the song Dragon Attack until I heard it live. The bass line was so awesome live. It vibrated your whole body. Now that song is one of my favorites.
Like I said before, Queen just isn't Queen without Freddie but I thought Paul did a fantastic job. And it was fun to hear some of his Bad Company songs live as well. When they exited off stage I tried to get everyone clapping the beat to We Will Rock You but it didn't catch on until another section started it. And then they came back and finished the show. Sure I am biased but I think this was the best concert I have been too.
The next day we went shopping and browsed the sights of Las Vegas. We also went and walked around the LDS temple in Las Vegas too. The next day we returned home to Mom and Logan. The trip was nice and relaxing and was extremely happy that I was able to see my favorite band of all-time and share that with Kristy. I would do it again in a flash.
Pun FULLY intended! FLASH! AHHHHAHHHHH! SAVIOR OF THE UNIVERSE!
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