Queen show champion style
CONCERT
Queen and Adam Lambert
4 stars
Friday August 22
Perth Arena
REVIEW HARVEY RAE
We should be cynical about an American Idol finalist fronting one of the world's most famous rock bands but, on the other hand, for Perth fans who have faithfully attended tributes and musicals in Queen's honour for decades, this Australian tour opener was as close as they'll ever get to the real deal.
And it was always going to be a spectacle. Queen virtually invented stadium rock and this production was nothing short of an extravaganza.
A backdrop consisting of a video screen, oval lighting rig and ramp to the top of the stage combined to form a giant Q behind the band. Flanked on either side by banks upon banks of lights, it was as outrageous as it was brilliant. It was Queen, through and through.
For his part, early on Adam Lambert came across as the studded and pierced imposter he is, a gifted musical-theatre actor given an endless wardrobe budget, utilising his technically excellent voice to impersonate perhaps the most charismatic frontman of them all.
Combined with Now I'm Here being an underwhelming opener, the starting sequence left the capacity audience a little cold.
But Fat Bottomed Girls was like flicking a switch, the arena clapping and singing along. Brian May stalked the catwalk, Lambert indulged in some fab costume changes and the Q backdrop descended on to the stage. A medley of Seven Seas of Rhye and Killer Queen saw Lambert assuming the latter's titular character, lying back on a chaise longue at the end of the catwalk and suddenly he belonged.
From there he owned Somebody To Love and I Want It All, although the latter really belonged to Brian May's guitar wizardry, something also on display during the legendary axeman's spectacular guitar solo later on.
May was in terrific shape and his presence worth the price of admission alone.
The night's most touching moments came when the late Freddie Mercury appeared on the big screen to sing verses of, firstly, Love of My Life, and later Bohemian Rhapsody, leaving scarcely a dry eye in the house.
Roger Taylor sang These Are the Days of Our Lives and David Bowie's part on Under Pressure, before Who Wants To Live Forever provided a spectacle with lasers and a descending mirror ball.
Two 80s hits in I Want To Break Free and Radio Ga Ga were pure stadium joy, while Bohemian Rhapsody was all celebration, making way for the short but literally glittering encore of We Will Rock You and the rousing We Are The Champions, people fist-pumping as confetti cannons blew gold specks across the arena.
By that point there was no point in arguing about Lambert and whether or not the show must go on. Carry on, carry on.
May was in terrific shape and his presence worth the price of admission alone.
