Concert Review
A Night At the Opera
Adam Lambert joins the two remaining members of Queen at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles for a triumphant review of the band’s history.
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I have to find the will to carry on with the show
– Queen
The first full-fledged rock concert I ever experienced was Queen at Madison Square Garden in 1982 (1). We entered the historic venue after opening act Billy Squier had already taken the stage. Forty years later I can still remember the feeling of being hit by sound waves as the opening of “In the Dark” was played.
I was introduced to Queen through their massively popular album The Game and its hit songs “Another One Bites the Dust” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” As an instant fan, I bought a shirt and wore it to school where I was admonished by a classmate for not knowing more about their back catalog. Soon after the eight-track of their Greatest Hits was part of my collection. This was quickly replaced by a cassette as the original wore out. That did not last very long either. I was hooked.
Shortly before the show at the Garden, the band released Hot Space, the follow-up to The Game. This album represented a change in direction for the band that was not well received by the public. While I personally still enjoy the album, others did not agree and it is widely blamed for a drop in the band’s popularity in America. Luckily, the Hot Space tour took place so early in the album cycle that it acted almost as an extension of the Game tour, allowing me to see them at what was still the height of their popularity.
The Hot Space tour dates would be Queen’s last North American shows anchored by Freddie Mercury. If diminishing record sales were not enough, the singer’s unpublished AIDS diagnosis meant he would have been denied entry to the United States under Ronald Regan’s draconian…
