Queen dial it up to 11 in capital
Queen + Adam Lambert Sky Stadium, Wednesday Reviewed by Kylie Klein-Nixon
Folks will tell you stadium rock died the day people exchanged their lighters for the torch on their cellphones. Those folks have never seen 10,000 glittering phone torches waving about at Wellington’s Sky Stadium to the sound of Queen and Adam Lambert.
‘‘That’s right, light ‘em up,’’ legendary guitarist Brian May says at one point. ‘‘That is what iPhones were made for.’’ It was Queen’s first show in Wellington in their 50-year career and the city put on the perfect balmy, breezy, summer evening especially for it, it seems – it was hiffing it down the day before but you would never have known it on Wednesday night.
Something else that was perfect was the carnival atmosphere in the stadium.
There were fans in full regal regalia, dolled up to the eyeballs, velvet capes, tiaras, crowns – it was a regular right royal command performance.
The finery in the crowd matched what was going down up on the stage too, as animated curtains rose on a baroque ‘‘set’’ that would make the Opera House blush.
The visuals hinted at past incarnations of the band, late lead singer Freddie Mercury cast in gold, the band’s coat of arms, crowns and Metropolis-style robots – the nostalgia vibe was delightfully strong.
With the theatrics dialled all the way up to 11, the band kicked off with a blistering rendition of Now I’m Here.
Give Lambert his due, while his voice is never as strong or unique as Freddie Mercury’s – in fact that vibrato of his turns a little High School Musical a couple of times – his stage persona is just as large and flamboyant.
The fact he owned his un-Freddie-ness from the get-go, addressing ‘‘the pink elephant in the room’’ just a couple of songs in, made it easy to let that go and enjoy the show for what it is: the rock equivalent of a hearty, heart-warming, nostalgic sing-along, on a massive gilt and spangle-covered scale.
From there, they rolled seamlessly into a medley of 1970s bangers, including a far too short snippet of Keep Yourself Alive.
But why stick to the classics, when you have got a 50-year catalogue of hits to choose from?
On this night, they played the absolute lot, the singles, the ballads, a couple of adorable B-sides, even duets. Don’t Stop Me Now had the crowd all but frothing at the mouth. You have not lived until you have heard an entire stadium chanting: ‘‘I want it all and I want it now!’’,
As for Fat Bottom Girls . . . apparently Wellingtonians really like big butts and they cannot lie.
Drummer Roger Taylor and Lambert dueting on Under Pressure, with Taylor taking David Bowie’s part and giving it an added poignancy with his tremulous, breathy voice, is a standout. As is the epic hysteria of Somebody To Love and an absolutely killer version of Who Wants to Live Forever complete with Neon Demon-meets-The Highlander-on-acid lightshow.
Across it all strides May, the lanky, silver ringmaster of this rock circus, whose scorching solos are the real spectacle we are here to see.
Every time he comes to the front of the stage, the crowd goes absolutely bonkers.
In return, May is gracious, affable and affectionate – not for nothing is he considered the favourite wacky uncle of rock. Sorry, the wacky, nerdy uncle of rock. His rendition of Last Horizon/New World Symphony, delivered spectacularly from atop an asteroid hurtling through space – no, I am not kidding – as the planets wheel around his head and he recreates the sounds of radio waves bouncing around the solar system, is literally one of the best things I have ever seen on a stage in my entire life.
As the band members take their bows to a Brian May version of God Save The Queen (natch), there is another, more abstract feeling to go with the throat that is raw from singing and feet numb from stamping and jumping. It is satisfaction.