House of Blues Dallas Welcomes
Geoff Tate – Empire 30th Anniversary and Rage for Order
Written and Photographed by Thomas Rosas
In August of 1990 Queensrÿche released ‘Empire’, their fourth and most commercially successful album. Selling over three million albums. In recognition of the 30th anniversary of the album’s release, Geoff Tate announced back in 2019 that he would be heading out on tour in 2020 and performing the album in its entirety. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic his 2020 tour, along with the entire world, essentially came to halt.
Fast forward to 2021 and Geoff Tate along with his band featuring Daniel Laverde on drums, Darren Milton on bass, Alex Hart and Kieran Robertson on guitars is back performing ‘Rage for Order’ and ‘Empire’ in their entirety.
Prior to taking the stage, I had an opportunity to chat briefly with Geoff Tate about his career in the music industry, his writing, and what fans can expect in the near future.
Front Row Center: You’ve been in the music industry for over 30 years. How has the industry impacted you over the years and how has it reflected on you?
Geoff Tate: The industry has changed quite considerably since I started out. Those changes for you to change and adapt if you want to keep working and keep being involved. I see myself having less and less to do with the industry as time goes on because the industry has gotten to a point where I would define it as an industry anymore. Simply because I recognize what it was before, which was an industry that employed millions of people. It did billions of dollars in sales per year. It had a whole mechanism in place that was working and worked really well. Of course with the digital age when everything came up for grabs basically and the record industry was not equipped or unable to keep up with those changes.
Front Row Center: Are you good with those changes?
Geoff Tate: It is what is. You have to adapt or else you just get too frustrated to make it work. You have to learn how the game is played each couple of years because it keeps changing. You don’t have to have a record company in order to sell records anymore. It’s all about you and how creative you can be and how industrious you are as an individual to market yourself and what it is you do.
I told Geoff a story of one of my closest friends, Dave, and how I played him Operation: Mindcrime just before he passed. I told him that his music was a place that brought joy and how it comforted us through tough times.
Front Row Center: How does it make you feel knowing that the music you’ve created the lyrics you’ve written have had such a huge impact on people and their lives?
Geoff Tate: It’s humbling. Absolutely humbling. Makes me very self-conscious of picking the right words. Once you take these ideas that you have and you share them with the world, you never know what the world will do with them. It’s all up in the air and some things you do people latch onto and they hold them very dear.
Front Row Center: The 80’s scene was a time when everyone just partied, and many people joined bands just to meet girls. What was your reason for getting into music and joining a band?
Geoff Tate: I got into it from an art standpoint more than anything. I’ve always been more of a one-woman man…I was never into that kind of thing. I was into the expression of an idea and trying to get this thing across in a musical form. Something that would have impact and make me feel something. Really a lot of art is very selfish. You do it for yourself really [chuckles]. Then you share it and people either like it or they don’t.
Front Row Center: When you write they’re your stories. Your feelings. Does it bother you at times to share your words or do just decide: No. I’m going to hold on to this for myself. I don’t want to share it.
Geoff Tate: Yeah, I have a lot of that stuff. Hopefully it all won’t come out when I’m gone [laughing]
Front Row Center: You’ve recorded albums as Operation: Mindcrime. You’ve done the Sweet Oblivion project. What can we expect to see from Geoff Tate in the future? Will you be recording and albums under the Geoff Tate name?
Geoff Tate: I’m actually working on three projects right now. I have a solo project in the works. Then I have a secret project that I can’t talk about. Then I have another Sweet Oblivion album. I work with this band called Avantasia. They’re kind of this really cool German metal, operatic band. I’ve been on two of their records and I just finished tracks for a third one now.
Front Row Center: Last question. You’ve been asked to perform in front of a large crowd who are new to rock. Never heard of Queensrÿche or Geoff Tate. You can only perform two songs to show them that “this is me. This is Geoff Tate.” What two songs do you play.
Geoff Tate: Only two songs? I think I have about 126 published songs. Wow, that’s tough. [laughs].
Front Row Center: Okay, I’ll give you three songs.
Geoff Tate: Well, you can say an album.
Front Row Center: Okay, what album then?
Geoff Tate: Ohh I would play Rage. Rage for Order is one of my absolute favorites.
Front Row Center: I appreciate your time. It was a pleasure meeting with you.
Geoff Tate: Thank you and it was a pleasure.
November 7, 2021. The inside of the House of Blues Dallas goes dark. Lights from trusses burn down onto the stage as the first chord from Walk in the Shadows carry’s out into the crowd. Seconds later Geoff Tate belts out a near-flawless note and the audience’s journey back to 1986 begins. As they got to the chorus, the singing from the crowd seemed to have almost drowned out the vocals coming from the stage. That energy from the audience appeared to have fueled the band and as it came time for the guitar solo Alex and Kieren played as if they had written the solos themselves. They continued with I Dream in Infrared and followed as closely to the album all the way through some of the heavier tracks like Surgical Strike and Chemical Youth (We Are Rebellion) followed by the hauntingly beautiful London. Before taking a brief break for the ‘Empire’ set they closed the ‘Rage for Order’ set with the ballad I Will Remember.
After about a 20-minute break Geoff Tate and the band returned to the stage with the beat of synthesized piano keys leading a choir of children through the intro to Best I can. The Thin Line followed and as bassist Darren Milton approached the front of the stage the crowd knew what was to come next. Milton leaned forward towards the crowd to draw them closer to experience the iconic bass line of Jet City Woman. Once again, the crowd nearly drowned out the band while singing the chorus. They worked their way through Della Brown, Another Rainy Night (Without You), and Resistance. Geoff entertained the audience with a humorous fan experience which led to the Grammy-nominated hit Silent Lucidity. They played their way through the rest of the ‘Empire’ album before walking off stage. The anxious crowd obviously was not ready for the show to end as chants of “Geoff Tate” roared throughout the venue. Minutes later Geoff Tate and the band return for an encore performing Last Time in Paris and the song that everyone was waiting all night to hear Take Hold of the Flame.
Since 1984 I have been a fan of Queensrÿche. Their sound was original. Their music was innovative and their former singer, Geoff Tate is one of the greatest metal vocalists of all time. Although Geoff Tate and Queensrÿche have been apart for years now; Tate has continued moving in the direction that got him into music in the first place, which was to express himself through music. He and his band performed an amazing show that deserves to be recognized and if there is a time that Geoff Tate is scheduled to perform in your city then I would highly recommend buying a ticket because you will not be disappointed.
