Just got back from the Queen (+ Paul Rodgers) Concert in Paris. I took a few photos but I was sort of far away (only bought my ticket last night and it was pretty packed) so they all look sort of like ass, so bad luck if you weren't there.



The concert was at Bercy hall - if you think Boondall stadium it's pretty much the same, though I think Bercy is a bit bigger - and much more accessible. It was like a 10 minute Metro ride, which was great, considering I fell asleep in the arvo and thought I was going to be late.

They started with what I assume was a new song, which didn't bode well for the rest of the night because I didn't really care about their new stuff. Neither did anyone else, judging from the near-total lack of response when they tried some new material.

But that was OK, because they played a bunch of the old stuff as well. Another One Bites the Dust was IIRC the first oldie they kicked off with, shortly followed by I Want It All, which was f***ing amazing. Brian May was certainly the star of the show; his mad guitar skills were a joy to watch.

Roger Taylor also got out there and busted out a kickin drum solo which was then followed by him singing "I'm in Love with my car", which was just f***ing awesome.

The last song before the encore was Bohemian Rhapsody; they had a video of Freddie doing the intro lyrics while the other guys played the instruments, then after the famous headbanging part, Paul Rodgers came out and finished it off. Very cool. Then they went off and came back for the encore and did a Bad Company song (Feel Like Making Love - or maybe that was before encore, can't remember, but pretty sure they did one BC song after encore and one new song). The finish was We Will Rock You and then, of course, We Are the Champions.

As a standalone concert it was great; I (and probably everyone else) was really only there to see Queen - in fact I would have been happier if it was just the three guys and Paul Rodgers (and the two other guitar dudes they had) stayed out of it. I've seen Brian May do a solo act a few years ago and he was awesome, so I think they could have carried the whole thing and it would have been simply amazing. Not wanting to piss all over Rodgers - he did a great job, but he's no Freddie.

Probably the worst thing about it though was it was just another reminder that I'm never going to get to see the real band perform live. Sigh.

Queen with out Freddie ain't Queen.

No stone cold crazy ... boo

If you were that far back and drunk/high, I think it'd be quite close to the real thing...