FORMER Queensryche vocalist Geoff Tate will perform the 1988 classic Operation: Mindcrime in full in Australia for the final time during an Australian tour in April.
Tate, 67, and his band will play just three shows – one each in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide – next April. As well as the Mindcrime album in sequence, fans will also hear the Queensryche’s self-titled debut EP from 1982 before finishing up with a greatest hits bracket.
On May 3 this year, Tate released Operation Mindcrime 3 after doing a sequel in 2008.
Tate left the band in 2012 and the split was often acrimonious but in 2017 he watched for the first time as the band perform without him in Barcelona.
He told the 92 Minutes Of Hair podcast: “It was the first time I’d seen the band play without me. I’d never heard their new singer [Todd La Torre], but I watched them play and they were great, and that singer is fantastic.
“He’s amazing. He sounds just like me. It was eerie and weird. And then I met all the guys afterwards and shook hands with them, we hugged and said hello, and it was a really nice little reunion, you know, get-together.”
LaTorre later told Eddie Trunk: “I knew he was standing there watching. So afterward, the show was done and he came over, I exited the stage and he came over and kind of tapped me on the shoulder or something and said, ‘Hey,’ and put his hand out and said, ‘We never really had a chance to meet, really.’
“And I said, ‘Sure.’ I shook his hand and he said, ‘With everything that kind of went down…’, and I said, ‘Of course.’ And he said, ‘This is the first time I’ver heard you sing.’ And I didn’t know if he meant at all or, obviously, live.
“And so I said, ‘Okay.’ He said, he goes, ‘Wow! You’re amazing!’ And I said, ‘Well, thank you very much. That’s nice to hear.'”
GEOFF TATE TOUR
Wednesday, April 14: The Gov, Adelaide
Thursday, April 15: The Croxton, Melbourne
Friday, April 16: Crowbar, Sydney
READ AND HEAR INTERVIEWS WITH DOZENS OF ARTISTS VIA OUR PATREON PAGE. EAVESDROP AS WE CHAT TO THE BIGGEST NAMES IN ROCK AND METAL – FROM 1987 TO THE PRESENT!
Features and stories:
Johnny Diesel and the Injectors
Johnny Diesel and the Injectors (1989)
Audio interviews:
Vivian Campbell | Def Leppard/Last In Line | 2016
Markus Grosskopf | Helloween | 2015
Keith Nelson | Buckcherry | 2016