| Review
by Collectors
music reviews
Queen began their longest tour of Japan on
April 13th in the Budokan in Tokyo. And while the open night
doesn’t have a tape source and remains shrouded in mystery, the second
night has several tapes in circulation. One of the sources, which is
good but muffled and thin sounding, was released on Pride
And Joy (Wardour-047) several year ago.
Bootleg Race on Tarantura debuts the
Mr. Peach recording for the show. Like other Peach tapes, it is very
close to the stage and picks up the charisma and force of the
band at this time. Queen sounds too loud for the recorder since
the tape has slight distortion. It’s not too serious an issue,
however, and is still better than Wardour.
Queen’s aesthetic changed throughout their
career depending upon their whims and movements in pop music. The Killers
era is the logical extension and summation of the seventies. A
certain brutality surrounds their music, but also nods to their theatric and
comical side too.
Freddie’s voice would deteriorate throughout these two weeks (reaching a
nadir on April
25th), but is not too bad this night and is able to keep up with the
rest of the band
The opening sounds much too loud for the
recorder to handle as they come onto stage for the fast arrangement
of “We Will Rock You” which, after a curt greeting, is followed
by “Let Me Entertain You,” a mindless rocker followed by a
self-conscious parody of arena rock.
After ”Somebody To Love”
Freddie introduces the next song as a song “from a new album called
Jazz. Ah, you recognize it” after there is some
cheering. “Much better than last night.” The John Deacon
composition is alternated in the set with “Fat Bottom Girls”
throughout the tour, and this is assumed to be the first performance
in Japan.
Freddie introduces “Death On Two Legs”
saying, “we call him motherfucker. What does motherfucker
mean in Japanese? Well, you get the gist of it…” The
medley has a similar structure to the News Of The World medley
except that ”Good Old Fashioned Loverboy” is dropped in
favor of ”Bicycle Race” and “Millionaire Waltz” is dropped
altogether. It is a shame the single from Jazz is
truncated in the set, but they do manage to include bits of all of the
song’s sections in the ninety seconds it’s played. Included also
are the bicycle bells.
“Don’t Stop Me Now” and “Spread Your Wings” are their two
massive piano driven numbers, and is followed by the three song acoustic
interlude ending with “‘39.”
After that much fun, they return to arena rock
starting with the playlet “It’s Late.” It’s such a
melodramatic number that Freddie’s enthusiasm becomes infectious,
sucking the listener in.
While introducing “Brighton Rock”
Freddie makes fun at the band’s expense by introducing them as
“the backing combo.” May’s solo is brilliant, but is actually
quite overshadowed by Taylor’s Götterdamerung tympani
interlude. It’s so loud it seems to shake the rafters of the
Budokan, and the audience’s reaction boarders on the hysterical.
Taylor has another, more conventional drum solo in the following song
“Keep Yourself Alive.”
Freddie’s voice seems to weaken as the show
progresses, forcing him to reinterpret the melody to “Bohemian
Rhapsody.” During the final encore set, the audience sing
along to “We Are The Champions” and, at the very end, the second
closes to Mr. Peach serenade the band with their bicycle bells.
It’s a true spontaneous show of support for the band and a great way to
end the show.
Tarantura package Bootleg Race in a
gatefold sleeve, utilizing the tour poster on the front cover and photos
from the Killer tour in the inside. Since Freddie’s voice is quite
alright in this show and given the sound quality,
this is perhaps the best show to obtain for this era.
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