Geoff Tate’s love affair with San Antonio, and in particular the Aztec Theatre, continued last Saturday night before a devoted, sometimes raucous crowd of approximately 1,000 fans.
But unlike Tate’s three prior Aztec stops, the Dec. 17 show with special guest Mark Daly spanned most of his iconic 30-year stint as Queensryche’s vocalist rather than singling out albums performed in their entirety. No, Tate’s sixth Aztec visit since 2014 in his last seven San Antonio stops — a 2019 trip to the Rock Box being the exception — featured a cornucopia of hits from various albums during a rocking, and Christmas-y, 1-hour and 39-minute showing.
Eleven months removed from performing Rage for Order and Empire from beginning to end last November (coverage here), and only half a year since requiring open-heart surgery as we discussed in our pre-show interview below, Tate continued to amaze as only he can.
Opening with the title track to 1990’s Empire (setlist in photo gallery), the former Queensryche vocalist dug into his vault on seldom-played tracks “Desert Dance” from 2003’s Tribe, “Sacred Ground” off of 1999’s Q2K (ATM Facebook Live footage here) plus “Cold” from 2013’s Frequency Unknown and the emotionally moving "Bridge” courtesy of 1994’s Promised Land (watch both here).
Other than omitting the entire introductory buildup on 1984 classic “Take Hold of the Flame,” to the point where the start of Saturday’s version was nearly unrecognizable, Tate’s and his band’s performance was nearly flawless. The inclusion of deep cuts mixed with Operation: Mindcrime standouts “Breaking the Silence” and “I Don’t Believe in Love” (ATM footage of both below) plus Empire staples “Jet City Woman” and “Silent Lucidity” made the evening as well-rounded as it could be.
And before one reads this and thinks they don’t need to hear the latter ballad anymore and be perfectly fine with that, let it be known that the best note emanating from Tate’s oft-imitated never duplicated voice came when he sang the “will protect you in the night” part. The last word of that stretch wasn’t held. It wasn’t screamed. It just sounded as perfect as it could get, enough to raise these eyebrows as the ears perked up. It was one of those moments where you just had to be there to see and hear it.
With the exception of a slight backing track on opener “Empire” — a song that calls for it given the abundance of mixes of Tate’s vocals particularly during the chorus — and a brief echo on finale “Queen of the Reich,” the entire show was devoid of distracting, lengthy delays.
In fact, Tate’s reinsertion of “Queen of the Reich,” a tune he had said he couldn’t relate to lyrically anymore — necessitating an elaboration on his part during our interview below — was a pleasant surprise given that he had insinuated fans would never hear him sing that tune again. Donning a Christmas hat and handing out more to his bandmates, Tate and his crew played a metal version of “Silver Bells” prior to ending the night with that first track from the 1983 self-titled debut EP (ATM footage of both below).
The fact that he not only played the song but attempted the patented opening scream on “Queen of the Reich” especially since he no longer tries it on “Take Hold of the Flame,” and specifically at that point in the show and given his open-heart surgery reeked of Tate sending the message to critics: “Yep, you bet your sweet ass I can still do it if I want to.”
And speaking of Tate’s band . . .
Guitarists Kieran Robertson of Scotland, Alex Hart from Boston and James Brown of Ireland, bassist “Smilin’ “ Jack Ross of Scotland, keyboardist Bruno Sa of Brazil and drummer Daniel Laverde from Cincinnati have also been coming to San Antonio with Tate the past several years. Sa, in fact, played guitar during the 2018 Operation: Mindcrime band performance.
On this night, all but Sa and Robertson pulled double duty as Ross, Brown, Hart and Laverde played with opening act Daly.
The Irish singer and guitarist released four-song EP Nothing to Lose two weeks earlier and hooked up with Tate for this tour thanks in large part to having songwriting credits on Tate’s trilogy of Operation: Mindcrime band albums from 2015-17.
In addition to putting on a stellar showing, Daly impressed perhaps even more with his sense of humor and banter with the crowd. Most of it can be seen via ATM’s footage of his Highly Suspect cover of “Lydia” and the EP title track below, so we won’t give it away. But another non-filmed dose of funny came when he introduced the band and got to Brown.
Referring to him as The James Brown, Daly asked his fellow Irishman how he felt. When Brown shrugged and said, “I feel alright,” the crowd serenaded him with tongue-in-cheek boos.
There’s not much left to say when it comes to Tate performing in San Antonio that hasn’t been mentioned in this space previously. He’s a model of consistency that always gives the crowd what it wants yet still has the gumption to mix things up with obscure tracks when he’s already performed the same classic albums repeatedly.
The fact that Daly opened up the audience’s eyes and ears to his talented musicianship as well made the evening a double whammy of fun and entertainment for those who continue to be dedicated to one of the Alamo City’s virtual adopted sons. And it appears musician and fans wouldn’t have it any other way.
GEOFF TATE SETLIST: Empire, Another Rainy Night (Without You), Desert Dance, I Am I, Sacred Ground, Best I Can, Real World, Breaking the Silence, I Don’t Believe in Love, Cold, Bridge, Screaming in Digital, Walk in the Shadows, Take Hold of the Flame, Jet City Woman, Silent Lucidity. Encores: Silver Bells, Queen of the Reich
