The week before the concert here in Rio de Janeiro I got surprised after asking many of my friends, Queen fans, if they had already bought their tickets and received as answer: “Ah, I won´t go. There is no Freddie. I don´t believe it will be good”. I got really puzzled thinking about that but kept on waiting for the concert´s day.
Arriving at the HSBC Arena, I immediately met some other friends and had some nice moments with people I hadn´t seen for some time. The Arena wasn´t very crowded, maybe because of the expensive price of the tickets ( R$180,00 standing ), but it was good since we could see the concert with no “pushings or bumpings”.
The concert started with the traditional light and sound effects, almost a copyright when talking about Queen, together with a very big scene, where videos related to the songs were showed together with some pictures of the band. Suddenly, Dr. Brian May (PhD) starts the first chords of "Now I'm Here", quickly interrupted and followed by "Hammer to Fall". After that "Tie Your Mother Down", "Fat Bottomed Girls" and "Another One Bites the Dust". Although songs were played a little slower, Mr Roger Taylor is not a boy anymore, it was a very beautiful start.
Paul Rodgers, as usual, gave us a perfect singing class and also taught us how it is to substitute the biggest front-man of the rock history without losing identity. Perfectly tuned and showing an extreme good taste when creating melodic phrases, he interpreted Queen songs on his way not trying to get adapted to Freddie´s style. I´ve always liked Mr. Rodgers´work and after this concert he is even higher on my top list.
Now, the traditional “unplugged moment”. Paul Rodgers plays and sings the beautiful "Seagull”, Band Company´s song. It was a pity cause nobody knew the song and at the end I started to hear some “enough, enough....we want Queen”, I was really sorry. After that Brian went on stage with a very beautiful 12-string guitar ( a Taylor 12-string if I´m not wrong) and talked a little with the audience before starting "Love of my Life". It was a really touching moment even to Brian himself who couldn´t avoid the tears as soon as the music stopped.
In this sequence, Brian invited Roger Taylor to join him on a smaller stage in the middle of the VIP area and they started playing “39”, one of the best songs of Queen. Little by little the other musicians joined in with a double bass, accordion and so on. This moment was really nice and fun being finished with Mr. Taylor´s drum solo with the right of sticking the new bassist´s double bass making a creative and unusual moment. He started the solo with the same set he used to play “39”, a tambour and a tambourine.
While Roger was doing his solo, the roadie started to bring the drum set (in the order: hi-hat, snare, tons, cymbals). Having the new drum ready he started "I'm in Love with my Car" followed by "A Kind of Magic", leading the vocals. Even though "A Kind of Magic" was written by him it was a big surprise to see Roger Taylor singing this song since we were all used to hear it on Freddie´s voice. It was very good though.
Brian May played his classic guitar solo full of delays and reminded some of his solo career themes. He also played the song "Bijou", from the album Innuendo, and during this moment images of Freddie Mercury singing appeared on the scene as if they were in a duet. The audience applauded a lot. They also played hits such as "Radio Ga Ga", "Under Pressure", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "The Show Must Go On" besides "Feel Like Making Love", a Bad Company´s song.
But the big moment was up to come.
The stage blacked out and suddenly, on the scene, images of Freddie playing "Bohemian Rhapsody" on the piano from a concert in the 80´s started. The images went on and on while the band on stage started to play together with Freddie until the end of the guitar solo. When the “opera part” ends Paul Rodgers starts singing. At the end, there is a duet between Freddie and Paul that made most of the big guys cry, including this one here, who is writing this review. "Bohemian Rhapsody" teared up all the eyes, literally. A respectful honor to Freddie during the playing of his most known song.
The set list was over but on the bis, "All Right Now", of Free, with all its rock ´n roll attitude. That was a great moment. The traditional joining of "We Will Rock You"/"We Are the Champions" announced that we were getting to the end of the concert.
A memorable night. Again tears came out with "God Save The Queen", the English hymn in a Brian May´s version. It was the end of the show.
I left the HSBC Arena very happy feeling as if I were 14 years old again since I had just seen my favorite band one more time, 23 years later. Those two concerts became a real part of my life at very different times.
The only thing I can say to my friends that didn´t want to go to the concert is that they really missed a great Queen concert, they missed a “new” Queen. It is impossible to compare both moments, impossible. The Classic Queen with Freddie Mercury and Deacon is unique and will never be replaced but it´s great to see Brian May and Roger Taylor in a new phase together with a rock icon as Paul Rodgers. After all, “The show must go on”.
Alexandre BG is one the best guitarists of Rio de Janeiro and one of the biggest Queen fans of the world.
It is an honor to Hard Blast having this review written by him specially for us.
Filipe Diniz became a big rock fan since he heard Queen for the very first time. All pictures uploaded from Queen concert in Rio were taken by him. You can see a bit of his work at http://filiped.blogspot.com/ (the blog is in Portuguese).
