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Review
by Collectors
music reviews
Queen’s first US tour with Mott The Hoople has ascended into
band legend courtesy of “Now I’m Here” from Sheer Heart Attack.
Recently the Dan Lampinski recording of the April 27th, 1974 Providence
concert has surfaced and has been pressed by Wardour.
At Palace contains Queen’s forty-five minute opening set in
fair to good sound quality. It is one of Lampinski’s earliest
tapes and is not nearly as good as the ones he would produce in later
years. It is, however, a very rare and listenable recording of
an important era in Queen’s history. A small cut at 3:37 in
“Liar” is the only significant one on the tape.
Providence was the sixth stop on the tour (following gigs in Denver, New
Orleans and Boston, among others). The taped
“Procession” starts the show before “Father To Son,” the same
progression as found on their latest LP Queen II.
Already the audience are begging for “Liar” from the first album, and
Freddie Mercury has to cool their heels so they can get through the
setlist. “We’d like…’Liar,’ oh yes. We’ll do
that later in the show. Right now we’d like to do something from Queen
II.” “Ogre Battle,” another new song follows, and sound
much more brutal than the studio recording.
Brian May introduces “Son And Daughter” as “I want you to be a
woman,” the first line of the song, and contains his elongated technical
guitar solo. Not as long or as adventurous as “Brighton Rock,”
but it is still effective for such a short and compact set. “Great
King Rat,” which Freddie refers to as about “a dirty old man,”
follows.
“Liar” receives the biggest ovation of the night since it was most
popular in Providence at the time. May’s solo is unique for not
having an echo effect, and the audience clap along to the tune. They receive
a standing ovation afterward the song as well as after “Keep
Yourself Alive.” Freddie tells them ”you just keep
yourself alive” and May interjects, “you young people here in
America are fabulous.”
The reception is such enthusiastic that they return after “Modern Times
Rock ‘N’ Roll” for a second encore of covers. At Palace is
a great Queen release on Wardour, a title definitely worth having.
The work on this tape to speed correct and make it listenable is
tremendous.
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