Geoff Tate’s “Big Rock Show Hits” Tour Hits Jacksonville
Geoff Tate brought his “Big Rock Show Hits” tour showcasing his powerhouse four-octave vocal range to the newly-renovated Florida Theatre on Wednesday Night, February 28th, this was my first show at this beautiful and historic, nearly 100 year-old venue since its 15 million dollar renovation was completed in late October, and they couldn’t have done a better job with it, the acoustically near-perfect room now once again looks as incredible as it sounds!
Opening the show promptly at 8pm, former Whitesnake guitar wizard Adrian Vandenberg’s band took the stage for a blistering set mixing Whitesnake mega-hits such as “Fool For Your Love”, “Judgement Day” and “Still Of The Night” with equally excellent Vandenberg band selections including “Your Love Is In Vain” and “Burning Heart”. Adrian’s band was fantastic, with Swedish singer Mats Leven bearing an at times uncanny vocal similarity to David Coverdale, absolutely nailing the singer’s iconic style, particularly on the Whitesnake material, proving himself to also be a formidable frontman in his own right! Adrian himself was absolutely on fire, a master of tasty, melodic and musical shred, blues-based hard rock riffs and some of the very best rock & roll Les Paul tone you’ll ever hear, he is a tragically-underrated and important player, one whom you seriously need to witness live if you’ve never seen him before or haven’t seen him since he stalked the big stages with Whitesnake in their 80s heyday.
Up next, the former Queensryche frontman Geoff Tate stormed onto the stage at 9:30pm with a smoking rendition of the title track to their seminal 1990 release “Empire”, storming through a scorching 16-song set consisting entirely of Queensryche material with the exception of the first encore, a heavier version of Pink Floyd’s “Welcome To The Machine”, which featured a smoking, four-way guitar battle between Geoff’s highly-proficient mini guitar army of Dario Parente, James Brown, Bruno Sa and Kieran Robertson. Geoff’s innate charisma and presence cannot be denied, he owned the Jacksonville crowd from the moment he walked onto that stage until the moment he left it sixteen songs later with a jaw-dropping finale of “Queen Of The Reich”, an ability you either have naturally or just don’t have at all, and Geoff has it by the truckload!
Through one banger after another, timeless Queensryche classics such as “Breaking The Silence”, “Walk In The Shadows” and the crowd favorite/audience participation standout “Jet City Woman”, Geoff and his talented band brought it on Wednesday night, with Geoff even turning in an impressive performance on the saxophone during “The Thin Line”, showing yet another layer to his many talents! There were even a few choice deep cuts sprinkled in – “Desert Dance” from 2003’s underrated “Tribe” album, “I Am I” from 1994’s “Promised Land”, and a personal favorite of mine, the ahead-of-its-time, AI-Apocalyptic “NM156” from Queensryche’s phenomenal 1984 full-length debut album “The Warning”, all nailed to perfection with crisp, tight performances from the band with its excellent rhythm section of Daniel LaVerde on drums and Jack Ross on bass, these guys laid it down with groove and passion from start to finish, very impressive!
All in all, a great bill and a great show! Vandenberg was a perfect pairing with Geoff Tate, and both bands brought it, turning in blistering sets which showed that while it may be getting a little grey around the temples, great rock & roll and the “Big Rock Show” are FAR from dead if classic masters like Adrian and Geoff have anything to say about it!
Shane Handke
GetAMPED Magazine