Heaven and Hell / Queensryche
Hoffman Estates, IL, September, 2007
by Colonel Angus
Queensryche stepped out of the studio to be special guest on the second
leg of the Heaven and Hell North American Tour.Being in the studio must
have given them the itch to go out and play live in front of an
audience because the original boys from Seattle looked and sounded
great.
The set may have been short but they still made the most of it.They
opened with "The Whisper" from their totally under-rated Rage For Order
LP. Even though they have used this song as an opener for a while,it
hasn't lost any of its ability to get the crowd going. Next up, we got
"Damaged" which is one of the better tracks on Promised Land.The
heaviness of the tune fit the show perfectly since the crowd was looking
for the more metal side of the band.Not to disappoint the fans, the
band went back to 1988 and delivered a perfect version of "Speak". I
don't think Queensryche will ever be able to play a show without
including any material from the prog metal masterpiece Operation
Mindcrime.
"I'm American" was given an airing next.The first hit single "Jet City
Woman" got the one of the bigger applauses of the night. While I was
watching the show, I noticed how tight the band was playing, not that
they
are ever sloppy, but they had that extra spark and you can tell that the
Queensryche machine was firing on all cylinders.
More Operation Mindcrime was brought up next in the form of "The Needle
Lies" which is one of those tracks that begs to be played live.Not
letting up one bit, the band then launch into "Empire".Those two songs
back to back are quite the powerhouse one-two punch.I had read that
the band was going to release a covers record so they decided to play
"Welcome To The Machine" (Pink Floyd natch) complete with Geoff Tate on
the saxophone. The cut was reworked and "queesryche-ized" which is good
because a faithful rendition would have been cover band territory and
Queensryche is no cover band. The show ended with "Eyes Of A Stranger"
which was the perfect way to end their brief metallic set.If you are
going to one of the Heaven and Hell shows, do yourself a favor and get
there early enough to catch Queensryche. I guarantee you won't be
disappointed.
For those of you who don't know who Heaven and Hell is, it is basically
Black Sabbath Mk III. Although the original lineup is considered the
best (not by this writer), this version definitely has a high regard
among all heavy metal fans. The reason for the name change is to prevent
any confusion over who is singing and this version will only cover the
Dio era material. For my money, this is the more musical version of
Black Sabbath.
This was Heaven and Hell's second trip through on this tour and even
though it was a slightly shorter set, the performance was still top
notch. While E5150 was piped in through the PA, the curtains dropped to
reveal a castle-like stage set up.And just like the record, the
monstrous chords of "Mob Rules" kicked off proceedings. The band sounded
really good and the acoustic at the Sears Centre gave the show a heavy
but clear sound. "Children Of The Sea" was next followed by "I" and by
this point they had touched on each of the Dio fronted albums.After a
quick "hello" from Ronnie James Dio, the band launched into the plodding
classic "Sign Of The Southern Cross".Tony Iommi put in a note perfect
performance and Geezer Butler showed off his bass skills by finger
picking all over the fret board. That song is a monster live.Another Mob
Rules tune, "Voodoo", was next and just as it finished, Vinny Appice
went into his solo. Although there are a lot of drummers out
there,somehow I can't imagine anyone other than Vinny Appice manning the
drum kit on those set of tunes.
The underrated Dehumanizer got another piece of the live action with
"Computer God". I was amazed at the crowd response to the song.Of all
the tunes played, it was definitely the most obscure of the set.I saw
Black Sabbath on the Mob Rules tour back in 1981 but back then, they
didn't play "Falling Off The Edge Of The World".That song made the whole
show for me.They pulled it off perfectly. Tony Iommi then got his solo
spot that really just bled into the intro for "Die Young".I'm glad they
decided to play the whole song because on previous tours, they just
performed a truncated version. The song "Heaven and Hell" drew the set
to a close but not before they came back for the encore of "Neon
Knights".
The fate of Heaven and Hell is up in the air at this time. Ronnie is
going back to Dio to record Magica 2 & 3 and Black Sabbath is
nearing another milestone so who knows when these 4 musos will get back
together again. Do yourself a favor and catch them while you still can.
There might not be a second chance after 2007.
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