“I don’t need no goddam teleprompter. I just read your lips.” Geoff Tate grins widely, the word-perfect crowd singing every line to every song. It is a heartwarming feeling, the atmosphere electric as those packed into the industrial unit feel of the O2 Academy Islington find themselves utterly lost in the music as it washes over and into them.
Geoff Tate – Kim Jennett
O2 Academy Islington – 3 October 2024
Words: Paul Monkhouse
Photography: Manuela Langotsch
The thing about the music that Geoff Tate has produced over the years is that is equal parts cerebral and balls out, his extraordinary vocal impressing as much today as when Queensrÿche toured these shores opening for Dio in 1984. Here we are, four decades later, and the flame is still burning with an unquenchable passion.
Tonight is a career-spanning set, billed as playing his greatest hits and more, the multicultural band accompanying him tearing up the numbers as if they were recorded yesterday. Such is their obvious joy.
It is not only the band who are obviously having a good time, Tate himself seems to be having the time of his life up there, his theatrical moves equal to that of David Lee Roth and David Coverdale at their most toothsome.
You can’t blame him, though. The heft of the songs is undiminished, the audience jumping, the band cooking and, unlike most of his peers, the sheer power of his voice unburnished by the passing of time. Striking, too, is the prescience of the themes explored, the onward march of technology and dystopian traits of life in 2024 reflected in lyrics written some forty years previously.
With a lot of the set from the huge Operation: Mindcrime and Empire albums, the thrilling opening of the latter’s title track sets pulses racing, the steamroller titan heavy and full of the twists and turns that took the original to the stratosphere.
From the grandiose Desert Dance and the funky hard rock of I Am I, it was a constantly shifting set, the dynamics gloriously juxtaposed and the run-through of technological-themed numbers from Mindcrime bringing extra delight in the technology-loving Tate.
Reaching all the way back to their self-titled EP, The Warning and Rage To Order and beyond, numbers like the shimmering Another Rainy Night (Without You), hook-filled Jet City Woman and a pounding I Don’t Believe In Love bring goosebumping nostalgia, illustrating that a good song is forever.
With the sublime Silent Lucidity, a metalised take on Pink Floyd’s Welcome To The Machine and the closing one-two punch of Take Hold Of The Flame and Queen Of The Reich bringing the night to a tumultuous climax, a very happy audience filed out into the night warmed by the knowledge they had seen a master at work.
He still has the moves, he still has the voice, and he still has the tunes. Geoff Tate is a singular definition of the word artist, and long may he continue.
Kim Jennett
Prior to the Prog Metal storm that was the headline act, support Kim Jennett and band provided a tornado of sound and fury that was liberally soaked in swagger and a massive groove along with the huge riffs.
At the rear of the stage, Paul White proved himself to be a man who understands swing and showmanship, his floor-shaking drumming brutal but full of swing and precision. With his old friend Mart Trail on bass and vocals and the big riffing Chris Charles on guitar, the quartet are a powerful and tight team, the vibe one of four people having a great time together yet deadly serious about the music they play.
Opener Psycho is a punch in the face, its urgent tempo as sharp and dangerous as a buzzsaw at top speed and the monstrous groove of Bloody Killing Floor getting bodies moving.
It is a cliché to say that Jennett is a force of nature, but sometimes a cliché is the best way to say things. The diminutive vocalist is a feral ball of energy and passion, her blues voice imbued with a frisson of rasp that really sells the material.
The venomous Hell Is Wherever You Are, and a closing cover of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song sit side by side as the band tore into both with equal relish. Certainly, closing on a cover can be a risky move, but with the quartet putting their own subtle spin on the number and the force with which it was played was just the cherry on the cake. A bit of high-octane fun to close the intense eight-song set.
There has been a false start or two in her career, but with this band and this material, there is a distinct air that her time is definitely coming, and this time next year, Jennett will have seen the breakthrough she has long deserved. Kim Jennett rocks.
