Eddie Trunk’s interview in New Jersey with Brian May will be live NEXT week. Look forward to that.
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EDDIETRUNK.COM
7/24: TED NUGENT, QUEEN, NIGHT RANGER PODCAST, SACRAMENTO THIS WEEKEND, MORE
by Eddie Trunk
Caught Queen with Adam Lambert last night in NJ. Pretty remarkable that for the most part Queen are filling arenas (sold out MSG and The Forum in LA) with no opening act against all the competition out there this Summer. Speaks to the power and timelessness of their music. I have seen the band with Freddie, Paul Rodgers and now Adam Lambert. Stating the obvious, nobody is Freddie. But I liked Paul very much in the gig and Lambert was totally different, but also very strong. Lambert is way more flamboyant and really gets into the Freddie pageantry of the frontman role. His voice is pretty remarkable and he was clearly moved to be able to sing Freddie’s songs (as he stated) and play in a band that was important to him and so many around the globe.
Queen are MASSIVE outside of the US. Here they are an arena act, everywhere else stadiums. As a matter of fact they recently did a gig in front of 500,000! Queen in 2014 is more a celebration of the music and a tribute to Freddie. Lambert is very much his own guy in the role, careful not to impersonate (no half mic stand or similar clothes, etc), but also very much about doing the material as close to Mercury as possible. Different from Rodgers who put more of a bluesy spin on it.
I interviewed Brian May before the show and he told me they wanted to get back to being a little heavier and more classic Queen. The show had a little bit of a too long middle of ballads and solos, but with the two key guys being in their mid 60′s, and playing over two hours, it gave others a break.
Highlights for me were “Now I’m Here”, “Stone Cold Crazy”, “Fat Bottom Girls”, and many others. Just amazing songs!
Brian is one of a kind in his playing and sound and Roger sings and plays very well, especially for his age. He had an assist from his son at a few points in the show as well.
Brian told me he is unsure how long he and Roger can keep doing it and where it goes from here, but loves Adam and said he thinks Freddie would have also. The demand is there for more shows and maybe even an album but seems nothing is set yet.
Had a great hang after with Roger and Brian and they are just class gentlemen as well as rock icons. You will hear the complete Brian May interview in my podcast very soon as well as clips of it in both radio shows. In the short time I had with him we got into some great stuff.
Adam Lambert…the modern edgy artist with an old rock soul.
Eddie Trunk
TV & Radio host/producer
That Metal Show/VH1 Classic
Q104.3 NYC/Syndicated/SiriusXM