Queen + Paul Rodgers

19.04.2005 - Frankfurt (Germany) - Festhalle

For me as Paul Rodgers fan who has always been sad not to have seen Queen live it was very good news that Paul Rodgers would be the singer on the new Queen tour. And in my point of view he did very well! There were songs where his voice didn't fit exactly but for most of the songs he was a very good choice. But now from the start. Sitting under the roof of the Festhalle we had a very good view at the stage and crowd waiting for the concert to start. There were some empty seats as a lot of guys who wanted to make big money by buying a lot of tickets were still standing outside the arena having big problems to sell the tickets.

When I see it right Queen plays nearly the exact gig in every concert so I will leave the setlist out (I cannot remember it exactly to be honest). The first three songs rocked the hall and showed that Paul Rodgers is doing the songs his way and that it will get a great evening. For me the highlights were 'Love of my life' sung by the crowd and a little bit by Brian May. That performance really sent shivers down my spine. The second and third highlight were '39' and 'Allright now'. The crowd really loved that and sang along with the band.

The middle part without Paul Rodgers was too long for me - a Queen fan might see that different - but it was good to have a real singer back after that. They should leave the guitar and drum solo out and play some more songs instead (Another one bites the dust, etc.)

After a hard rocking encore the band left the stage after a very good gig, that for me was a little bit too professional, but kept me wondering how good it must have been in the old time with Freddie Mercury.