DETROIT, MICHIGAN –The North American Tour has come to a close and audiences all over the United States are reeling back from the over powering delivery of Queen and Adam Lambert. Audiences are talking about this tour up in Canada too where the band did shows in Ontario and Toronto.  I read where guitarist Brian May said he wanted to hit the arenas, “one more time” and I really took this as the final tour. But you should by now dear fans that rock and roll never truly dies. The show must go on and it has….. oh it has.

Adam Lambert, from American Idol, has stepped up to the plate and grabbed the helm as lead front vocalist. The songs were reworked into modern rock classics. He put new life into, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Killer Queen”, “Somebody To Love”, “Another One Bites The Dust” and “We Will Rock You” and audiences were eating it up. People wanted more. Then on July 30, 2014 Brian May announces that not only will the band continue in an Australian leg of the tour but will take on New Zealand and Asia. There is talk about taking the tour back to England for a grand finale. But other sources have hinted that the tour might even return to the United States for a special encore performance.

Wow, this really puts the fun back in rock and roll again doesn’t it? I knew that the show was very different from other rock performances when the band opened with, “Now I’m Here”. I have only heard the songs performed off the double live album, “Live Killers” back in the 1970’s and pretty much thought that was going to be buried in rock history. I never dreamed that I would be hearing them again in a big auditorium especially after the loss of one of rocks greatest singers, Freddie Mercury. But here it is… 2014, and the band is delivering high caliber performances.

“Down In The City Just-A-You And Me !!” ADAM LAMBERT TAKES THE CROWN

The last few years of rock music have been pretty bleak. There was some dreadful songs coming from something called Blue October, and Nickleback that will filled with self hate, doubt and despair – and those were the good songs. The rest aren’t worth mentioning.  Queen busts back onto the scene and I gotta admit I was very hesitant  how this whole thing would unfold. But Adam Lambert just took the ball and ran with it and rock was exciting again. The played in Chicago and in New York City in Madison Square Garden and the full arena excitement was back and you can see it in the fans.

The stage set was immense. I wrote about how the giant stage scaffolding resembled a big “Q” and this was echoed in a journalism piece by the Chicago Reader. I  knew I wasn’t just imaging things because it was really obvious when you sat up in the higher seats. The ring would hold a large projection screen and the bottom of the letter extended into alarge ramp where Adam would run down and belt out his vocals to the crowd. I knew then that this was a real show. A real Queen experience that spared no expense and had virtually no limits and I began to believe that rock and roll was BACK!!

I had attended the Van Halen reunions in 2007 – 2012 and this was nothing like that. David Lee Roth and the boys had a large video screen behind the band ala Oasis. That is okay and the visuals were great but this was little more than a video curtain that served as a backdrop. The cameras were pointed back into the band so you can see large projections super imposed over the group. This was an old trick we learned years ago in video basics when I was an undergrad. It was okay the first time but then this began to show up again in their follow up tour. It became formula and …. Blah.

Queen and Adam Lambert on the other hand took the mechanics of staging the show very seriously. Yes, it was theatrical but more than that it was over the top entertaining. Adam changed clothes several times throughout the show and his outfits were incredible. I liked the one where he had a shoulder exposed and had some kind of metal spikes on his sleeve. There was some kind of animal print on his shirt and tight leather pants. This guy came out to not only floor the audiences and critics but the establish style into pop music. This guy raised the bar and showed us once again what was possible in modern day rock music. Adam Lambert interjected a dazzling display of high level artistry that rock music has not seen in decades.

You got bands that wear dirty converse sneakers and are warbling hateful words over doomed relationships. These musicians, if that’s allowed, are wearing dark hoodies on stage and project no charisma are not even in the same league as Adam Lambert. They are certainly not worthy of wearing the crown and be known as any form of rock royalty.

What happened to rock music in the last 20 years. It was like a horrible dark dream that descended over our airwaves that was devoid of any creativity, fun, sexiness or style. You certainly didn’t feel alive listening to a lot of this stuff. Maybe the meth heads got the message. I wouldn’t know – I don’t do drugs. I do rock and roll.

THE GLAM BURGERS – AND EDIBLE POP CULTURE

Now this blew my mind. Someone sent a picture into our offices depicting a Burger King Whopper with an Adam Lambert wrapper that read, “The Glam Whopper”.  We are still looking into this to see if this is a real food item from a test kitchen or something. We put the pictures of it on Hot Metro Finds. It looks authentic enough and underneath Adam Lamberts picture is the phrase, “Stay Fabulous”.  We have been informed that there is already a – Glam Burger – being served at the popular Cheesecake Factory. This could be a real good follow up for the short lived Burger King issued, “Pride Whopper” during the Pride Day Parades in Detroit, New York, Chicago and San Francisco.

So, until we hear further word… how about it Burger King? The fans say they would go for it. And what better spokesman for BK than the newly crowned – King of Rock and Roll.

THE RUMORED ENCORE PERFORMANCE
The news from Brian May this morning hinted that Queen will never retire. May was quoted as saying that he would continue to play until his fingers could not play anymore.

I take great comfort in that!

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QUEEN WITH ADAM LAMBERT - The tour shirts were outstanding. Every design carries the best of the old and the new. The classic logo made famous from the album, "A Night At The Opera" is present on the 2014 Tour.