The Church, Three Mile Pilot, Queen... and a bit of dysphoria, again
The Church at Marquee in Tempe, AZ. An amazing concert. This band has class, I don't care that they're not that huge. Fabulous Aussies. The way they come across is a perfect balance of the dignity and glory of some serious rock veterans, and at the same time none of the arrogance and being full of themselves, quite the opposite - very warm and friendly. The venue wasn't exactly empty, but not filled to the brim either. We had great seats, very close. They had some technical difficulties with sound/equipment, so there were some gaps, which Steve tried to fill with talk and some improvised singing. Even those problems could not spoil the show, they're just too good. Mostly acoustic (surprise!), only bass was electric. I kept trying to figure out how the two acoustic guitars' sound was amplified, I could not see any pick-ups, only what looked like regular guitar signal cables ends taped to the guitar body at the bottom, just below the bridge. They could have been mics, so the two acoustics were probably just miked. Looked like they enjoyed playing, too. And two encores - sweeet - I'm glad the audience did that, they deserve it. Now we have about 6 or 7 CDs, a DVD and a T-shirt.... and yeah, the show is over.... it was so perfect... why did it have to end?
Now what? My next fix is probably not till September, when Roger Waters comes to town... I didn't go to Queen & PR concert, because of PR, though I really love Roger and Brian. May be I should have gone. PR does their rockiest, choppiest songs OK (like We Will Rock You), but when he's trying to do Freddie's "this voice floods the Earth" actual melodic singing vocals songs, he just sucks. Freddie's 60th birthday is on September 5th, and I do hope the world will be celebrating. I personally will drink champagne and watch early Queen videos all day... I know that I won't be able to see my biggest indie love Three Mile Pilot playing live for the 1st time in 8 years (Chicago, Sept.8-10, Touch-n-Go 25th anniversary), so I cannot even get excited over it. Good for Chicago, damn it!
All I've left to do now is continue collecting pictures... and watch Back Chat... I got addicted to that video, I don't care that it's "too disco to be real Queen" and it doesn't have the Red Special - it works as a mild antidepressant for me, it really does. All four queenies look fabulous, if you just disregard Freddie's mustache. He's performing an excellent complete body workout, and some quirky singing, which fits the song so flawlessly. And a sweet, achy guitar solo from very serious Brian, and Roger looking indeed like Luke Skywalker. Easily the best song by John Deacon (everyone else would name Another One Bites the Dust as his best, but I don't care, so bite me!).