Geoff Tate – The Fine Line – Minneapolis MN – January 19th 2022

First Avenue presents Geoff Tate 30th Anniversary Tour of Empire.

January can be interesting in Minnesota. Could be 20-30 degrees or below zero. Today it was below zero. So after dealing with the day I was excited to go see Geoff preform Rage for Order and Empire in their interiority.

Opening tonight was Ivory Lake. This is a solo project from Josh Watts who used to be Geoff’s drummer. This is his first solo tour of the US. He just released his first solo EP last January. Unfortunately his band could not make the rip so we got a special acoustic solo performance from Josh. He has a really cool sound and was very upbeat about performing solo. Which made his performance ever better. He has a cool sound like Father John Misty and current singer song writer vibe. Click HERE for all info and music on Ivory Lake.

Rage for order is one of my favorite Queensryche albums. When Geoff said he was doing it in it’s entirety I was in. That was the sole reason I was there. I do love Empire but listened to ita lot in 90/91. It is an amazing album but Rage was why i was there. My friend Jon introduced me to them with the Warning album back in the early eighties. We then saw them the first in 84 open for KISS on the Warning tour. Saw Queensryche open for AC/DC in 85 on the Rage for Order tour and many times since then. Geoff played St. Paul a few years back on an acoustic tour which was amazing in itself. So it brings us to tonight. The band was amazing. Most from the UK in various places and drummer from Ohio if I remember right. They are awesome. They play the music as it should be and how you remember it. They add a little of their own style but not enough to screw the songs up. So many people try to reinvent the wheel. Stop it. Play the songs as we want them. Geoff’s voice is still just as strong as it ever was. I was blown away right from the beginning of Walk in the Shadows. So they do the whole Rage album then take a break and then play Empire. Geoff had great stories all night and was in an amazing mood. He had a great story about a guy in a grocery store who was talking about how important this song was in his life, Silent in Tennessee, and that’s how he started the song. Empire was amazing to relive live. I also saw the tour a few times so it was good to go back tonight. The band closed with Last Time in Paris and Take Hold of the Flame.

This was the first night of the tour for 2022. I want to thank him for wanting to play Rage in full. Never thought I would hear it live in full. There are so many many more dates to come. Click HERE for all the info on Geoff and all the tour dates.