Geoff Tate & Kim Jennett, The Patti Pavilion Swansea, 04.10.24
The continuing reinvention of the "pocket sized powerhouse" Kim Jennett (7) seems to have been very public over the last few years, always around the rock sphere, she's been part of a band, featured on some guest singles, been a lead singer for other bands that needed one but with her latest reinvention and new music she flits between being in acoustic duo format and fronting her solo rock band.
Comprised of some of the best guns for hire around, Kim Jennett is a fine rock singer with bags of attitude and anthemic tracks of her own, this tour signalled her first after the major rebrand and new single Hell Is Wherever You Are and they're a slick unit cranking out rock riffs. For me I think Jennett's vocals works better when she goes a bit grittier, like she did on the cover of Zeppelin's Immigrant Song, though all of her material is a bit rawer and riffier live.
Proof that talent will always shine though when faced with adversity Kim Jennett made the most of this high profile support slot to win over a partisan crowd.
Partisan is definitely the word when it comes to fans of Geoff Tate (9), I do wonder how many in the audience have listened to Queensryche since he left, or indeed since 1994's Promised Land. It's languishing in the past that makes Mr Tate money these days, this tour marketed as a Greatest Hits Tour playing songs from Warning, Empire, Rage For Order and Operation: Mindcrime, the latter Tate's masterpiece, a conceptual record that can be compared to The Wall or Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, both records that are so linked to their creators.
Yes if in doubt play Mindcrime, a mantra that coined by myself and my gig buddy Mr Hewitt, mainly because when track such as NM156 and Screaming In Digital didn't grab the crowd as much as Breaking The Silence and I Don't Believe In Love from Operation Mindcrime, Jet City Woman from Empire, Take Hold Of The Flame from Warning etc etc. Basically the 'bigger: more recognised songs excited Swansea more than the 'album' cuts.
The biggest reaction though was saved for Silent Lucidity the mega ballad sung loud by the Welsh choir. It also closed the main set setting up for hide and seek and in a set of 'covers' I mean technically, these were all covers but the beginning of the encore we got a really dark metallic version of Welcome To The Machine by Pink Floyd as Take Hold Of The Flame sent everyone home.
Geoff Tate has been forging a career with songs from his history for a while now, his band are great at playing the music as similar to the originals as it gets. However his crowd come for the voice and that is still there doing what he does best.
No comments:
Post a Comment