Queensryche - State Theatre - St. Petersburg, Florida - April 24th, 2015 

 

 Queensryche returned to the Tampa Bay area with a stop at the State Theatre in St. Petersburg Florida on Friday, April 24th. This was their highly anticipated second Tampa Bay area show since vocalist Todd La Torre took the helm in 2012. The La Torre fronted band previously performed at The Ritz in Ybor City on March 15th 2013, these shows could be classified as "home town area" shows since Todd was born and raised in the Tampa Bay area. 

 

 Although not the fault of the band, there were a couple of technical issues including one that happened just after the band took the stage. The intro music played, the band came out and after a few confused looks between band members they promptly left the stage. After approximately  five minutes or so, the intro music played again and the band once again took the stage and launched right into Nightrider to a very enthusiastic crowd reponse. Despite the technical issues the band was firing on all cylinders as they ripped through a mostly greatest hits type set featuring material from the bands self titled ep, their first full length release The Warning, their second studio album Rage for Order, and the bands third and forth hit albums Operation Mindcrime and Empire. The only song they performed off of their first Todd La Torre fronted album, the self titled 2013 album Queensryche, was Where Dreams go to Die (with album intro X2).

 

 With La Torre now having two years as the frontman it's been plenty of time to work out any kinks in the vocal performance and it definitely showed at the State Theatre, he hit all the high notes with ease and sounded fantastic! The band fed off the crowd energy and they all sounded extremely tight and seemed to be having a fantastic time performing to this very lively audience. While not being sold out, the venue was VERY full and the crowd was very animated throughout the entire performance. The band was having an awesome time on stage, with original guitarist Michael Wilton spinning around and moving about the stage with a huge smile on his face, Parker Lundgren and original bassist Eddie Jackson for the most part stood on the right side of drummer Scott Rockenfield except for during the last song, Take Hold of the Flame, where Jackson moved to the front of the stage holding his bass over the first few rows of concertgoers. This is a band with something to prove, and they soundly did so at the State Theatre! 

 

Setlist:

 

Nightrider, Speak, Walk in the Shadows, The Whisper, En Force, Warning, Silent Lucidity, X2/Where Dreams Go to Die, guitar solo, The Needle Lies, NM 156, The Lady Wore Black, My Empty Room, Eyes of A Stranger, Empire. 

 

Encore: Queen of the Reich, Jet City Woman, Take Hold of the Flame. 

 

Once again, Queensryche (Deb's all time favorite band for the record) reigns supreme! We know the band is opening for the Scorpions for their upcoming tour, a date in the Tampa area has not been announced yet, but we are keeping our fingers crossed! If they come back around, we will be there for sure!