The Rhapsody Tour

Surprisingly, I had only seen Adam Lambert live once, when he performed as part of Cyndi Lauper's annual Home for the Holidays concert.  Needless to say I was blown away by his voice and stage presence and added his name to my (long) list of artists I wanted to see live in concert.  So, when he and Queen announced the North American leg of The Rhapsody Tour, I knew that I was going to have the opportunity to experience something special.

Adam Lambert and Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor first performed together on season 8 of American Idol when he and Kris Allen (who went on to win that season) sang We Are The Champions with the band members.  However it wasn't until 2012 that Queen and Adam did a full concert together in Kiev.  Since then they have performed on several TV and awards shows, festivals and had a ten-day residency in Vegas. 

Some die-hard Queen fans might question Adam's ability to fill Freddie's shoes but Adam himself has made it clear that he is not trying to replace or imitate the iconic singer, nor would he be so presumptuous as to say that he is channeling him.  He is, however, doing an incredible job of honouring that Mercury magic that made the band a global phenomenon.  Brian May has said the following about Queen's new frontman:  "Adam is beautifully confident, but he's never arrogant.  He's always respectful.  He's always looking for the right way to do things.  He brings himself to it.  That's all I can say.  He's not an imitator.  He doesn't need to pretend to be Freddie, in any sense whatsoever.  I don't know if it's a marriage, but it's a very good affair."

The show was nothing short of spectacular, enhanced by mesmerizing lasers and magnificent projections and even a holographic projection of Freddie (one of the most touching moments of the show was Freddie and Brian singing Love of my Life amid a sea of cell phone lights).  Adam was unapologetically camp and totally owned the stage, while showing respect to Freddie's legacy as well as the incredible talents of Brian May and Roger Taylor at the same time.  My only disappointment is that they did not perform A Kind of Magic (one of my favourite Queen tracks) but with such an extensive discography it's impossible to cover everything.  Still, they crammed a lot of hits into the show which ran just over 2 hours.

The complete setlist was as follows:

Now I'm Here
Seven Seas of Rhye
Keep Yourself Alive
Hammer to Fall
Killer Queen
Don't Stop Me Now
In the Lap of the Gods... Revisited
Somebody to Love
The Show Must Go On
I'm in Love With My Car
Bicycle Race
Another One Bites the Dust
Machines (Or 'Back to Humans')
I Want It All
Love of My Life
'39
Doing All Right
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Under Pressure
I Want to Break Free
Who Wants to Live Forever
Guitar Solo
Tie Your Mother Down
Fat Bottomed Girls
Radio Ga Ga
Bohemian Rhapsody

Encore:
We Will Rock You
We Are the Champions