Silent Lucidity

Monday evening, I dragged SJ to see QUEENSRŸCHE. Or as Joe called them Drama Queensryche. I'll explain in a second.

In the late 1980s, Queensryche was known as the "thinking man's heavy metal band." Instead of writing songs about booze, women and sex, they wrote about social injustice, introspective pieces on how the mind works and esoteric subjects.

In 1988 they released a concept album called Operation: Mindcrime. It's way too complex to give a description but let me steal a sentence from Wikipedia: It is about a man becoming disillusioned with American society, and joining in a conspiratorial plot to assassinate its corrupt leaders, with spoken dialogue between songs that advances the story and ties the songs together. (Click here for a paragraph on the storyline--it's actually quite interesting).

When I was sent to Kuwait, I listened to this record almost every day. It saved me from the intense boredom of being stuck in the desert for months. I dissected all of the words and tried to piece parts of the story together.

The words are dark and angry and fitting. For example, here's a sample from Speak:
Seven years of power
The corporation claw
The rich control the government, the media the law
To make some kind of difference
Then everyone must know
Eradicate the fascists, revolution will grow

The system we learn says we're equal under law
But the streets are reality, the weak and poor will fall
Let's tip the power balance and tear down their crown
Educate the masses, We'll burn the White House down

Fast forward 18 years. Queensryche wrote the sequel to the first album. It's even more angry at the political situation than the first one. Ironically, the first was written when Bush was in office. The second one was written when his son was in office. Bush sucks!

This past Monday, Queensryche performed both records in their entirety back to back (with an intermission) at the Dodge Theater. Instead of the normal concert routine though, they had a set, actors, and extensive video and lighting. It was pretty damned cool.

Of course, it was a little difficult to follow for Joe. At one point, Geoff Tate (and the crowd) was singing Revolution Calling. Joe didn't know what the "C" word was. He thought it was coolie.

In other news... we're going to Flagstaff tomorrow to play rugby in a tens tournament. This is a little different way of playing rugby. There's a lot more running in the open field. I'm really looking forward to it. I didn't get to go last year because of a wedding.

I missed Tunesday. So here's a video from the Ryche. This is from their album Empire. Silent Lucidity was their biggest song from the biggest record.