ACIDICA's Site

Wednesday, October 28, 2026

October 28th

The ticket stub and handbill from the Greg Keelor of Blue Rodeo and The Sadies show I saw on October 28th, 2006 at the Power Plant in Edmonton.

Sunday, October 25, 2026

October 24th

My ticket stub from the Supersuckers show I saw on October 24th, 2014 at the Pawn Shop in Edmonton. Opening the show was local rockers Dolly Rotten.

Saturday, October 24, 2026

Geoff Tate's Operation: mindcrime Live in Edmonton October 7th 2026

Damn, it's been almost three weeks since my buddy Nazz I went to see Geoff Tate play The Venue at the River Cree Casino. Where the hell is time going?

It's been 35 years since I last saw Geoff Tate in concert and that was when he was fronting his old band Queensryche. Since then that band had a nasty break up where lead singer Geoff walked away with the rights to the Operation: Mindcrime album and the rest of the band went away with the Queensryche name. The break up was a lot like what happened between Roger Waters and Pink Floyd where Roger walked away with the rights to The Wall album and remaining members got the Pink Floyd name.

I had no idea that former lead singer of Queensryche Geoff Tate still toured or even put out new music for that matter. So ii was a big surprise to me when this show was announced. hell ya, I'm going! The 1988 album Operation: Mindcrime has always been one of my favourite concept albums ever. I remember when this album was released in May of 1988 my buddy Nerraw and I driving around in his yellow VW trying to find this album on cassette, we finally found it at Hudson's Bay in Southgate Mall of all places. With a fistful of hash and wicked stereo system in his car, we were ready to give this album a listen. We were hooked on this album for a long time, and even to this day I still play it on a regular basis. That cassette is one of the best sounding cassette's ever produced in my opinion. have a listen, you might just agree. But anyways, enough of my ramblings. On with the concert review.

Nazz and I got to the show early as we didn't want to miss anything, little did we know that there would be an opening act. Nothing on the poster or ads we saw mentioning this but yes there was an opening act. The opening act was an Irish husband/wife couple Tomas and Clodagh McCarthy. Tomas on guitar and wife Clodagh on saxophone and vocals. This was certainly not what I was expecting for an opening act for Geoff Tate. They were good but felt really odd listening to Irish songs before a heavy metal show.

Tomas and Clodagh McCarthy.

After a short intermission it was time for Geoff Tate. I wasn't sure what to expect from Geoff and his band but holy shit, right from the opening song of Operation: Mindcrime "Anarchy-X" there was no doubt that he had a great band backing him up. Then into "Revolution Calling" I was very surprised at how good Geoff Tate's vocals were, at 67 years old Geoff can still carry a song, his vocal range hasn't aged one bit. Geoff and his band played all of Operation: Mindcrime in it's entirety and did an awesome job of it. Playing the part of Sister Mary and playing keyboard during the show was Clodagh from the opening act. She too nailed it, it was note perfect the whole show in my opinion. Apparently Tomas and Clodagh have been the opening act for Geoff for three years now and she has played the sister Mary part the whole time as well. That album is as relevant today as it was when it came out in 1988.

After doing all of Operation, Goeff and the band did a small set of greatest hits including "Empire", "Jet City Woman", "Take Hold Of The Flame", "Silent Lucidity", both Silent and Jet City got huge applause. They even did a couple songs from Operation: Mindcrime III. I didn't even know he had done a part 3. To close out the evening they did "Queen Of The Reich" from their 1982 EP, and holy fuck did he ever nail that song, the heaviest song of the night and Geoff hit all the high notes, just an awesome job by all.

this show was way better then I had expected. One thing though that I noticed is that on the poster and ads for the show it said it would be a string ensemble and laser show, which there was not, not at this show anyways. Still no qualms here. This was an excellent show. Good times!!!

Geoff Tate.