Review by: Val Tapia
Photos © Fred Kuhlman 2025, All Rights Reserved
Sitting in the historic Celebrity Theatre on Wed. March 18 waiting for former Queensryche lead vocalist Geoff Tate to take the stage, I had inevitable flashbacks to a sold-outshow on Feb. 15, 2005— billed as An Evening With Queensryche at the same venue.
In other words… no opening act. Frankly, by that point in their career, they didn’t need one. It was the first time the band re-visited its 1988 landmark album Operation: Mindcrime in its entirety on tour— performed during the second set of the night.
Presumably, not only did the band want to introduce that album to a new generation of fans. They also used the opportunity to tease a then-upcoming sequel to a very pivotal album that was never intended to have a “sequel” in the first place– at all.
As an encore that night, a video of an early version of a song called Hostage was played as a preview of the upcoming Operation: Mindcrime II album, eventually released in April 2006.
That same year, Queensryche then embarked on the Operation Mindcrime II tour, which featured both O:m and O:m II performed front-to-back. More on the latter album shortly.
Fast forward to 2025, and Tate— as a solo artist since 2013– is once again performing Queensryche’s Operation: Mindcrime in full for a third time with his own band. And he claims… for the last time.
Not only that, but he’s also releasing a new album at some point this year. It’s “tentatively” called, you guessed it, Operation: Mindcrime III.
Ugh! But I digress.
In a recent interview with Larry Mac of KLPX radio in Tucson, Tate stated that his current tour would feature “a few new songs” in the set. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen at neither the tour’s opening night in Tucson on Tuesday, nor the next night in Phoenix either.
At 9:00 p.m. sharp, Tate and his current band took the stage as I Remember Now segued into Anarchy-X, followed by Revolution Calling, a song still as viable and relevant today as it ever was.
On the outside looking in, I’d say that Operation: Mindcrime was probably the song that Tate seemed the most confident on vocally.
Others like Speak and Spreading The Disease were likely a little more demanding for Tate to sing. Some of the material was noticeably played in a lower key, or the vocal melody was changed, take your pick.
The Mission and Suite Sister Mary always go down a storm when O:m is played in full. Regarding the latter, one could rightly argue that it’s the best song that Tate ever co-wrote with original Queensryche guitarist Chris DeGarmo. In short order, those two nailed what an epic should be.
I imagine that it wasn’t an easy task for vocalist Clodagh McCarthy to replicate the vocals of the one and only (See what I did there?) Pamela Moore on Suite Sister Mary. Still, she did an impressive job overall. She certainly had the audience’s attention for sure.
Tate kept his onstage banter to a minimum during the O:M portion while taking in all the rousing applause before asking the nearly sold-out crowd…
“Shall we continue?”
With that, the band tore into The Needle Lies. By the way, Tate’s current band consists of guitarists James Brown, Amaury Altmayer, and Dario Parente, bassist Jimmy Wynen, drummer Robert Baker and Clodagh McCarthy on keyboards.
Breaking The Silence is probably the other song on O:M where Tate seems most confident singing live these days. Of course, I Don’t Believe In Love and Eyes Of A Stranger still bring the house down without fail. They also remain two of the top 100 rock singles of the 80s, in this writer’s humble opinion.
I’ve gone on record to say that Operation: Mindcrime II isn’t a bad album… on its own merits. It does have a few shining moments, and some of them were featured live for the first time in almost twenty years.
However, as a so-called “sequel” to the real Operation: Mindcrime, it’s an absolute zero. Truthfully, the vast majority of the audience sat down when Tate introduced, I’m American, a not-so-subtle (or perhaps satirical?) commentary on American consumerism and materialism. Or rather, flat-out greed.
A nice change of pace in the show was when lead guitarist James Brown did a vocal duet with Tate on The Chase, taking over the verses that were originally sung by the late, great Ronnie James Dio. I’ll state the obvious. Brown was hamming it up, and rightly so.
By far, Murderer? is the best song on O:m II. It was good to have it back in the live set, along with If I Could Change It All, where McCarthy would once again duet with Tate remarkably well.
Looking back, I think An Intentional Confrontation should’ve been in the set. Or perhaps Hostage and The Hands could also be added at some point during the tour as well?
Of course, Tate can’t leave the stage without a few tunes from 1990’s Empire. Yes, the “big three” of Jet City Woman, Empire and Silent Lucidity (which closed the main set) remain staples, if you will, to this day. There’s not much more I can say about that.
For the sole encore of the roughly 105-minute set, Tate goes back to 1984’s The Warning, telling the crowd he’s “feeling a little nostalgic”. With that, Take Hold Of The Flame concluded the night.
Okay then, what’s the final verdict of The Final Chapter tour? I’d say three out of five stars. It was solid but not great– yet it’s still a fun night out.
To conclude, fairly or unfairly, there really isn’t a diplomatic way to say this. Operation: Mindcrime and its legacy will always belong to five people on this entire planet ….
DeGarmo, Jackson, Rockenfield, Tate and Wilton.
Photos © Fred Kuhlman 2025, All Rights Reserved
