Live | Geoff Tate – Muziekgieterij – Maastricht [NL]

3 November 2023 - 35th Anniversary of Operation: Mindcrime - European Tour 2023

“Sweet dreams, you bastard,” are the final words spoken by the nurse in the overture ,,I Remember Now,” being the start of the quintessential prog metal concept album ‘Operation Mindcrime’, released in 1988! Tonight, Geoff Tate, the only voice of Queensrÿche, shone almost like never before, as his vocal performance here in Maastricht was really impressive and almost immaculate indeed. 

THE HIGHLIGHTS

The band, consisting of the Scottish Jack Ross (bass guitar), American Danny Laverde (drums), Irish James Brown (guitar) and French Amaury Altmayer (guitar) opened the set furiously with the instrumental ,,Anarchy-X,” and then Tate entered the stage and impressively sang ,,Revolution Calling,”, while the audience responded with great singing and shouting. 

While listening to classic Queensrÿche tracks like ,,The Mission”, ,,Suite Sister Mary”, ,,The Needle Lies” and ,,Eyes Of  A Stranger” – those being the highlights of the OM album this evening –  I could hardly believe that this album is already 35 years old, as the music is so awesome and stands the test of time for 100%! Geoff Tate performed the songs so well as he really hit the high notes most of the time for sure; what a throat!!!

OPERATION: MINDCRIME 2

,,Eyes Of A Stranger”, played live for the 161st time by the way, ended this OM experience and Geoff and the band were really “impressed” by the enthusiasm and the singing of the crowd. After a roaring applause Geoff said: “and we are just getting started” … and then the title track of ‘Empire’ (1990) was played, again a formidable song for the crowd to participate in. Tonight’s surprise was a track from the album ‘Operation Mindcrime 2 ‘(2006), being ,,One Foot In Hell”; a track that Tate has performed live for the first time this year. For the audience this was perhaps a bit of a disappointment, as the spirit of singing along here was really meagre, probably due to the fact that it is a rather “unknown” Queensrÿche song.

THE ENCORE

However, ,,Jet City Woman” and a goosebumps version of ,,Silent Lucidity” set the venue on fire again; leaving the crowd in awe and wanting more of course…. Tate almost became emotional due to the warm response of the audience and so we were treated to two more tracks. ,,Take Hold Of The Flame”, one of my favourite QR tracks ever, set the venue on fire again and Geoff Tate really nailed this one; man, this guy can still hit some high notes although Jeffrey Wayne Tate is already 64 years old/young indeed! ,,Queen Of The Reich”, first released in 1981, ended this awesome gig and although Tate said to me in the interview prior to this show that he “hated” this track (too old…), he really sang his lungs out there. 

Great show, excellent band and some of the best metal/hard rock music ever recorded was played tonight; for those who have missed this, well, maybe next time as Geoff Tate 2023 is still one of the best singers in the world; hats off indeed.

Header photo is an official promo photo