Aardschok America June 1987

L'amour Far East, Long Island, NY 21 February 1987

This was the grand opening of a new Metal club in the New York area. And God knows we need as many Metal Clubs as we can get, but I found out that this particular club was the worst club I'd ever stepped into (like dog-shit no doubt). But I will explain why this club sucks later on in this review.

This was QUEENSRYCHE'S last tour gig of 1987 after which they were headed straight home to relax and unwind before recording their new album. The fans knew this so they were particularly screaming for QUEENSRYCHE to come on. Instead they were exposed to a new band called SURRENDER a melodic five piece which is supposedly managed by this shitty club and whose set list is composed of half originals and half covers. Now the band is quite good, but to tell you the truth I get really bored by any band that does cover tunes. So my advice to this promising band is to drop the covers and take up new management at once.

Waiting for QUEENSRYCHE to come on seemed like an eternity. The fans were getting tired of waiting so long. Kids were getting violently thrown out for no really good reasons (basically just because they were getting a little psyched up for the "Show!!"), which validated my suspicions about this new Club.

QUEENSRYCHE hit the stage. They played all their material with perfection which is quite hard to do for most of the songs with the funny sounds on RAGE FOR ORDER." Songs like "The Whisper," "Neue Regel," and "London" amazed me how perfectly they were played. Even "Roads to Madness" sounded twice as exciting live. As QUEENSRYCHE was playing I was watching kids getting bounced around like beach balls due to the guards causing more darmage than good. They were abusing KIDS and seemed to be getting a kick out of it! They were also throwing kids out for the most ridiculous reasons (like headbanging too much!), I could not believe it! I saw kids getting treated better by the police in some of the famous riots of the 60's! Then Tate made an excellent speech. "You know, I can't help but get angry at times. There is so much bullshit that is going around today that I'm so sick of. Bullshit from governments, record companies, club owners,.." Holy shit! It's like Geoff read my mind...like he was God or something. I felt like throwing myself onstage as a human sacrifice. Ha Ha! But on a more serious note, obviously QUEENSRYCHE also had problems with this beat club. I was pissed off and the band's rebellious attitude made me a happy man. Then they broke into "Chemical Youth" and I shouted the lyrics like it was the National Anthem! The song was then followed by excellent guitar solo harmonies by both Chris DeGarmo and Michael Wilton. Pity it Wasn't followed by a drum solo though, because Scott Rockenfield is a superb musician! The night was then closed by an excellent put together medley of their debut EP. And even though Geoff Tate is probably the best vocalist on the scene today, he even had trouble hitting extra hard high notes in gems like "Queen Of The Reich" and "Blinded". Then for the grand finale the band closed with "Take Hold Of The flame." They even put more feeling into this song than "Chemical Youth"! Brilliant!

So closed a once in a lifetime experience by one of the best rock bands today. I can't wait till they come back! Hopefullyy it won't be to this club!! I know I will never go to L'amour Far East again and highly recommend you don't either. Unless you are a masochist! by Pat Prince