My seats were far beyond my expectations. I was actully closer to the catwalk than where this photo was taken. I went solo to this gig, with the missus holding down the fort at a nearby Hampton Inn (she's going tonight to the Nassau Coliseum gig, which would be her third, so props to her).

By far, this was the best they sounded. The Wembley gig was an awful venue, but the sound was loud and forthright. Plus, it was on holy ground, albeit under a huge tent. The Jersey gig, the first Queen-related gig in 23 years on North American soil, wasn't notable for its sound, but was cathartic for many of the Queen fans, like myself, who had waited their whole lives for this to happen.

It was great, then, to be in a crowd in the middle of a tour, the band well-rehearsed and loud. Brian May was about 12 feet away from me, and now I can say that, rather than being dumbfounded by being so close to one of my heroes in this close of a proximity, I will go apeshit crazy.

"Play that guitar, you motherfucker," I recall shouting at the top of my lungs during "Tie Your Mother Down." A nice man my age in front of me was taking stereo photographs, one of Brian's obsessions, while the concert went on. This contrasted nicely to my jumping up and down whenever Roger, Brian, or Paul, went down the catwalk.

A highlight for me as a Queen nerd was a full-on version of an album cut off of their 1980 album The Game, "Dragon Attack." As Queen, they had played a verse and chorus of it it as a jam interlude going into Brian's extended solo on "Now I'm Here." But on Friday night, they played the whole thing: vocal breakdown, drum solo, bass solo (one of the few John Deacon ever put torecord), and the guitar solo. Not only was Paul Rodgers' voice good for the song -- which I can't say is the case for all the Queen songs he sings -- but there isn't a real live reference point to which I can compare it. I felt, in other words, like I was hearing something new.

That's also certainly the case when they played "The Show Must Go On," which Freddie never sang live -- probably not even all the way through in one take, actually, since he was so ill when recording it, drinking iced Stoli to keep his courage up. Hearing that song is more cathartic to me, is much of an homage, as the Freddie montage during the precorded opera section of "Bohemian Rhapsody."

What I still can't get over is how the crowd reacts to the 80s songs. When the crowd is doing the hand-clap thing to "Radio Ga Ga," or even singing along to TSMGO, they are reacting to songs that did not even go gold in the US, didn't even chart at all as singles, when they were first released. North American Queen fans are like cockroaches: you can erase all signs of us, but we're still here.

The fans that are left, however, are a hearty and stubborn sort. They are serious about their Queen experiences. No one did not have a Queen-related shirt in the section I was in, most of them were handmade designs and stencils. I know you might be thinking Star Trek conventions, and you'd probably be right.

We're about to take off to the Nassau gig. I'll post a report up here tomorrow. I'm bringing my mom and her boyfriend as well as the missus.

I'm hoping Brian does "'39," which he doesn't do every night on the tour. And maybe "I Want It All." But I can't get too greedy.

Labels: God Save My Queen, Queenspotting