Doppler, A Roadies View

Revolution.......and Mary

I was always a fan of music, especially hard rock and metal, long before I became a professional roadie. I grew up in the 70's listening to Deep Purple, Sabbath, Rush, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, Zepplin and more.

Later it was Priest, Maiden, UFO and such. There was a band called Queensryche that I heard about around 1982 or 83. I actually have their original EP in my collection somewhere. First time I saw them was in 1984 in a small club and they were supporting Y&T. Then again several times always as a support act.

Now the reason for this whole story is I was watching VH1 classic and they aired the Operation Mindcrime DVD. This of course was the entire album done live. Now it was actually filmed during the bands Empire tour in 1991 several years after it's original release.

I had the pleasure of being a guest at one of the shows on that tour. A friend of mine was the monitor engineer on that tour working for the "ryche". Another friend was working for the opener Suicidal Tendencies.

Several groups over the years have been so far ahead as far as a live show. Rush and Pink Floyd musicially and visually were two of these groups. I remember the first time I saw Rush around 1979 and they had the video screens behind them, the lighting it was so ahead of it's time.

Queensryche took that and carried into the 90's will most bands were wearing flannel and stripping down to three or four chords.

Queensryche were and are very talented musicians. That tour in 1991 had a lot of visuals behind them. The two screens showed the story that the band was playing. Operation Mindcrime was a concept album. They had to play to a "click" and it was important that the set was near perfect musically.

It was a show that most bands could not pull off, let alone even try.

Now in 2006 they have released Operation Mindcrime II

They plan to play both albums in their entirety on the upcoming tour. The thing is now most of the big tours are using video, LED walls and other effects in their shows.

I guess Queensryche will have to rely on that musicianship.

posted by Doppler at 10:26 PM