Volume and Vengeance! No, that’s not the name of a Judas Priest tour, but rather the latest ongoing jaunt by fellow metal gods Queensrÿche and Accept. While I’d seen both acts multiple times, the former close to 20 at this point (I’ve lost count), I couldn’t help but get excited over such a pairing. Both bands played a crucial role in my early metal journey, as I’d sit glued to the family room TV, watching their videos play ad nauseum on VH1 Classic’s Metal Mania. While those days have long since passed, and are even farther behind for the first generation fans who watched those videos when they initially aired on MTV, the undying spirit of classic metal was alive and well last Thursday, as Queensrÿche and Accept took the stage at the House of Blues in downtown Chicago. Here’s how it all went down…
Accept
Being that this was a House of Blues show, and by extension a Live Nation produced show, I knew that when the ticket read “7:00 PM”, Accept wouldn’t be onstage a moment later. The term “punk time” does not exist in this conglomerate’s lexicon. Lo and behold, come 7 PM, Wolf Hoffmann and the gang stormed the stage with their signature brand of Teutonic steel at maximum volume, hence the “volume” portion of this tour’s moniker. Now granted, I’m not sure how much of this was the band themselves or House of Blues naturally poor acoustics, but we’ll get to that in a moment.
For how early this show began, and the way it was billed, I thought for sure this was a co-headliner that would see both acts playing no less than 90 minutes apiece. Instead, Accept were reduced to “special guest” status, playing a 50 minute hit parade that initially left me standing like a deer in the headlights, asking aloud, “That was it?” No, I wasn’t asking this because I was underwhelmed by the performance itself or the songs played, but rather trying to wrap my head around the concept of condensing such an iconic band and catalog down to 50 minutes. How…just how?! With a smile on his face and glimmer in his eye, founder Hoffmann showed us EXACTLY how.
Despite their brief set time, Accept did their absolute darndest to cover all bases of their legendary canon, and I’d argue did a fine job doing so. Fact of the matter is, there’s no way this band can leave without playing “Fast as a Shark” and “Balls to the Wall”, so count them in. “Restless and Wild” and “Midnight Mover” remain as powerful of singalongs today as ever, as does the anthemic “Metal Heart”, which served as the title track to their 1985 opus. Also played from the band’s classic ’80s era was punishing proto-thrasher “Breaker”, which was when I learned (or rather relearned) the hard way that the sound quality at HoB varies depending on where you’re standing.
For the first 30 seconds or so of “Breaker”, all I could hear was the unrelenting double bass attack of drummer Christopher Williams. Mind you, I was front and center, my preferred view for a show like this. It wasn’t until I moved slightly backwards towards the middle and to the left of the stage, that I could hear Hoffmann’s speedy riffs and frontman Mark Tornillo’s screams of, “Icicle brains! Bicycle chains!” From that moment forward, it was a much more pleasurable experience for both me and my eardrums. Speaking of Tornillo, let’s talk a bit about his era, shall we?
Has it really been 15 years since Blood of the Nations was released to an unsuspecting public? That can’t be. It feels just like yesterday I was a naive middle schooler, dropping my allowance money at Best Buy on the first Accept album of my lifetime. Fast forward 15 years later, and cuts like “Teutonic Terror” and “Pandemic” are as synonymous with the band as “Balls to the Wall” and “Fast as a Shark”, or at least that’s how it felt when they played these two modern day classics on this particular evening. All in all, Accept did everything a proper support act should do: Leave us wanting more, while also getting the crowd revved up and ready for the main event. And that, my friends, is something I can…accept.
Setlist
- “The Reckoning”
- “Restless and Wild”
- “Midnight Mover”
- “Straight Up Jack”
- “Breaker”
- “Metal Heart”
- “Teutonic Terror”
- “Fast as a Shark”
- “Pandemic”
- “Balls to the Wall”
Queensrÿche
Considering how long it’d been since I’d caught a show at House of Blues, I initially chalked Accept’s sound woes to a case of “support syndrome”, in which the opener doesn’t get the same treatment as the headliner. As Queensrÿche took the stage at 8:20, I learned the hard way that this was not the case. Sure, the sound was slightly better, but again, drums overpowered all other instruments, leaving this here show reviewer trying to find a spot where the mix sounded most acceptable in this acoustically challenged room.
Yet again, here I was in the middle of the floor to the left, where I could best here all members of Queensrÿche banging away on a setlist that consisted of hits, new songs, and deep tracks. Lots and LOTS of deep tracks. Following last year’s tour that saw the band playing both their eponymous 1983 EP and 1984’s The Warning in full, I was curious how they’d go about constructing this year’s set. The end result was one of the most invigorating Queensrÿche sets I’ve ever had the pleasure of catching.
Perhaps more than ever, there was a strong focus on the band’s 1988 metal opera, Operation: Mindcrime, which former singer Geoff Tate is currently touring in full for the last time (or so he says). Tate’s former bandmates played roughly half of the masterpiece, from obvious staples like “I Don’t Believe in Love” and “Eyes of a Stranger”, to much welcomed surprises like “Speak” and “Breaking the Silence”. Whether I’m catching Tate or Queensrÿche, it isn’t until they play these songs live that I’m reminded JUST how impactful this album was and still is. Sure, I know how important it is to me and my life, but when you’re singing along word for word with 1,000 others? That’s when it truly sinks in.
Besides the Mindcrime singalongs, “Queen of the Reich”, “Take Hold of the Flame”, and “NM 156” remained from last year’s setlist. There was also representation from 1986’s Rage for Order in the form of the usual “Walk in the Shadows”, and the not so usual “London” and “Neue Regel”, both of which were highlights of the evening for this Queensrÿche diehard. According to frontman Todd La Torre, “London” hadn’t been performed in over 20 years, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the same applied to “Neue Regel”. Needless to say, I was on cloud nine, screaming along to both in all their OG prog metal glory.
Similar to Accept’s Mark Tornillo, La Torre too faced the daunting task of filling a giant frontman’s shoes, and has done so quite excellently. The evening’s set featured three songs from his era: “Arrow of Time” off 2015’s Condition Hüman, and “Behind the Walls” and “In Extremis” off their most recent album, Digital Noise Alliance. Interestingly, the diehard crowd were singing along to the chorus of “Behind the Walls” as loudly as that of “Eyes of a Stranger” or “Empire”, which was nothing short of exciting. Sure Queensrÿche are a band with a rich legacy, but also a vital present and a promising future, all of which were on full display on this particular evening. My qualms with House of Blues aside, both bands brought their A game, as well as volume and vengeance, and not a single headbanger left unsatisfied.
Setlist
- “Queen of the Reich”
- “Walk in the Shadows”
- “Breaking the Silence”
- “I Don’t Believe in Love”
- “Arrow of Time”
- “NM 156”
- “London”
- “Behind the Walls”
- “Take Hold of the Flame”
- “Speak”
- “In Extremis”
- “Empire”
- “My Empty Room”
- “Eyes of a Stranger”
Encore
- “Neue Regel”
- “I Remember Now”
- “Anarchy-X”
- “Revolution Calling”