A kind of magic: Impressive revival of the classic Queen catalog

At the risk of wearing holes in an already overly polished a little cliché, one can hardly ignore the fact that tonight's session belongs to the year's most anticipated rock concerts here at home. 24 years after we lost the amazing frontman Freddie Mercury to AIDS (the remains of) Queen finally comes to visit: There is a full house in Herning tonight.

And judging by the expectant atmosphere among the more than 15,000 people waiting it doesn’t raise great concern that it is a 33-year-old former "American Idol" participant who’s trying to lift the heavy legacy from Mercury.

At 20:02 the lights are dimmed and a nesting wall of sound begins to rise behind a giant white stage curtain adorned Queens familiar band emblem. At 20:09 you can hear an electric guitar being struck behind the curtain.

Four minutes later a restless audience begins to applaud the familiar rhythm to the 1977 classic We Will Rock You in rhythmic impatience. At 20:18 shoots a column of smoke from the advanced mini scene at the end of a long ramp that goes into the crowd. And then it all starts.

Enthusiastic showman

One Vision and then Stone Cold Crazy opens the party and no, the musical-trained Lambert is not a Mercury: He is a technically skilled singer, even with the appropriate flamboyant homosexual appearance. An enthusiastic showman, as well. But Mercury's special blend of thinly veiled vulnerability and rocking strength – that we’ll only get glimpses off in the few moving passages where video clips with Mercury on the big screen is incorporated into the performance.

But a show it is - and a highly entertaining and engaging one of its kind, needs immediately added. Because when the introductory paragraphs are in place, you have to actually agree with the English reviewers: Lambert not only shoulder the task – he injects a healthy dose of vitamins and young blood into the new millennium Queen that the former Free & Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers didn’t succeed to do in his time as Queen vocalist.

The costume shifts are countless underway; from leather jacket with gold studs, to tight red checkered pants in long leather boots to a leopard spotted suit and royal crown – and while singing Killer Queen Lambert sprawls affectionately on a couch on the protruding podium, while May performing.

Though we miss Mercury, Brian May look and sound in return just like himself. The characteristic curly hair was white, but his face strangely unchanged. And more importantly: He still masters the electric guitar with the same pompous authority, as in the band's golden days three or four decades ago.

A kind of magic

We get a long concert - almost two and a half hours - and the show is only getting better as it progresses. I Want to Break Free include May’s first regular royal solo. Several more follows like, A Kind of Magic. Where drummer Roger Taylor takes the vocal lead for a while- though it has to be said that he’s sounding a bit fragile. The two remaining members of the original group also unfold extensively on their instruments.

Then Lambert is back, and Tie Your Mother Down is allowed to guide us into the last quarter of the concert, where quite heavy artillery is pulled forward in the form of Radio Gaga, Bohemian Rhapsody and finally the encore with We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions, while gold confetti is raining down from the ceiling, and the enthusiasm in the venue hit the roof.

It is now 38 years ago that Queen promised they would rock us in the primal and effective song of the same name. Tonight in Herning they fulfilled the promise once again - and that is probably also a kind of magic, in a sense.

Source: http://gaffa.dk/anmeldelse/92432

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