A growing trend in the industry these days is for bands to release an album of cover tunes that either influenced them in their youth or in which they are just plain fans of. Last year alone, both Poison and Tesla put out cover albums and now we have Seattle’s Queensryche on board as well. They recently released their album, Take Cover and are currently touring to help bring some interest to this latest release. I caught up with them here in Orlando and found that the show was being promoted as “The Hits.” Not sure if that was a reference to the songs on Take Cover or if it was referring to the long string of hits that Queensryche has put out over the years, but I was going to find out soon enough.

Don Dokken was the supporting act and was slated to be doing an acoustic show. When he came out on stage, I was immediately struck by his appearance; very rough and run-down. I’m not trying to sound harsh, but had I not known that was him I could have easily mistaken him for a homeless man. He sang through many of the best songs that Dokken had put out back in the day and truthfully, I was glad when he was finished. He looked like performing was just too much of an effort; almost as if he really didn’t want to be there. I guess it is possible that he was under the weather being that we have reached that time of the year where illness runs rampant. We could all speculate as to why he appeared in such a fashion, but it’s probably just best to move on.

When Queensryche hit the stage, I was filled with excitement. I adore this band and go to see them every chance I get. I always have high expectations for them and I am rarely let down (with the exception of opening night on the Operation Mindcrime 2 tour where technical difficulties ruined the show for me). Soon, I found that Queensryche’s set list was filled with interesting choices that no one in the crowd seemed to get at all. We were treated to a few early cuts including “I Only Dream in Infrared” but were let down by not hearing much of anything from Operation Mindcrime. I was definitely not alone in my feelings on this. There were a select few cuts from Empire as well including “Jet City Woman” but ironically enough, for a show deemed to be the hits, “Silent Lucidity” was absent from the list. Not that I minded too much, as I think the song has been played to death anymore. There were however some lesser fans in the crowd that didn’t like not hearing the song and you could tell by the looks on their faces. One song that I really did like though was their cover of Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine”; superbly done.

After the show, I had the opportunity to hang out with the band for a bit and to my surprise, Geoff Tate, even made an appearance. All Queensryche fans know that he is somewhat elusive to the fans and I was pleasantly surprised to see him and have the chance to chat with him for a minute.  In between signing album covers and random crazy chicks trying to molest him, I asked him about what kind of response he has been getting from the fans about the latest album to which he replied, “the album has had a good response”. This kind of took me off guard as I was really expecting him to say that fans don’t seem to be into it at all. I have listened to the album myself and there is very little there that struck me as powerful or even interesting choices. From a band that engineered one of the best rock operas of all time, I would have expected something more profound.

-Christine Herb