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QUEENSRYCHE In Houston, TX With Photos! By Larry Petro, News Monkey Wednesday, March 27, 2024 @ 9:23 AM
For the second time in my career of covering shows for the mighty KNAC.COM I have had the opportunity to catch both Geoff Tate and QUEENSRYCHE In the Houston are within a very short period of time. The first occasion occurred about 12 years ago when QUEENSRYCHE and Geoff Tate's OPERATION: MINDCRIME both played The Concert Pub North in Houston about 6 weeks apart. This time, having just seen Geoff on his co-headline tour with Adrian Vandenberg at the House of Blues on March 15th (review HERE), exactly one week later QUEENSRYCHE rolled into town to kick off 'The Origins Tour' as the headliner for Day 2 of the Hell's Heroes VI festival being held at White Oak Music Hall just north of the downtown Houston area March 21-23.
The grounds of White Oak were still a bit muddy and soggy due to storms that rolled through the area the day before, threatening to derail the opening day of Hell's Heroes, but overall the weather only caused a few minor annoyances and the disruption to Day 1 was kept to a minimum. Day 2 however was greeted with blue skies and a little bit of a breeze, making what humidity there was because of the previous day's rain not unbearable.
One thing I thought was nice about the festival was that the staff allowed in-and-out privileges to the concertgoers all day long up until 7pm which was nice. You weren't confined to the festival grounds and could leave and go get a bite to eat from someplace other than the onsite vendors or go to your vehicle to charge your phone or even take a nap if you so desired. Me personally, my sole reason for being here for Day 2 was to see QUEENSRYCHE, who would not only be headlining that evening but were also launching their 'The Origins Tour' here which would see the band performing the debut EP and sophomore release The Warning in full, something nearly every person I spoke to was looking forward to.
Of course along the way I finally got to meet the legendary DJ Will as well as AFM Records PR guy Dustin Hardman and got to catch portions of sets from such metal legends as OMEN and WATCHTOWER, as well as ETERNAL CHAMPION and the mighty SOLITUDE AETURNUS, who played the outside stage right before QUEENSRYCHE, and CAULDRON, who were actually still playing the inside stage when QUEENSRYCHE started their set outside.
The band was off and running as they played "Nightrider", "Blinded" and "The Lady Wore Black" before the band paused just long enough for drummer Casey Grillo to change out his bass drum heads which had the early EP Tri-Ryche logo to ones displaying the cover for The Warning. The band was in full-on fun mode and vocalist Todd La Torre was on point as they plowed through The Warning tracks "Warning", En Force", Deliverance" and of course others like "NM 156", "Take Hold Of The Flame" and "Roads To Madness". The band returned for two encores, in our case they were "Empire" and long-time closer "Eyes Of A Stranger". It appears that the band are changing thing up with regards to these encores with a couple of shows getting "Prophecy" instead of "Empire" or instead of the normal closer. No matter which encores you get this is one show to see.
And if you needed another reason to see one of the shows on this run, tonight the tour hits the LA area where they will now be joined by the mighty ARMORED SAINT for the remainder of the tour, so you have no excuse now! Check them out at one of these shows and also note that ARMORED SAINT will be playing some one-off shows along the way as well so check out their website for details on those.
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While I will leave a recap of the entire festival to my compadre and KNAC.COM legend DJ Will, I can give you an overview of my experience as a first-time attendee to this festival despite living only an hour or so away. White Oak Music Hall consists of 3 different staging areas, a small stage on the second floor of the building (which I have never seen as of yet), a second, larger stage on the ground floor which is where more bigger acts play and then an outdoor, amphitheater-style stage with a slightly sloped hill. Up until this point I had only covered shows inside so the chance to shoot acts on the outdoor stage was certainly something I was looking forward to.
The only time in my life that I had ever seen QUEENSRYCHE perform the entire EP was way back in 1983 when the band was third on the bill behind QUIET RIOT and AXE right after the EP came out. Unfortunately, due to life events after that time, it would be many years before I would have the opportunity to see QR live so I missed out on the whole time period when they were at their absolute peak. Getting to catch them performing The Warning in its entirety was equally appealing and as the anticipation built to a fever pitch, the 5,000 or so in attendance roared upon hearing PANTERA's "Walk" before QUEENSRYCHE took the stage opening with the EP from start to finish in order, and that of course means opener "Queen Of The Reich".
QUEENSRYCHE 'The Origins Tour'
Setlist:
