Queen and Adam Lambert kick off tour with pomp, vigor and the spirit of Freddie Mercury

BALTIMORE – Who knew we needed the dazzling showmanship, the unmatched catalog of layered pop rock and the undiminished musicianship of Queen + Adam Lambert this much?

The band rooted by original guitarist (and noted astrophysicist) Sir Brian May and suave drummer Roger Taylor hasn’t played stateside in four years, when their Rhapsody tour first launched.

On Wednesday, at the first of two shows at Baltimore’s CFG Bank Arena, the Queen + Lambert extravaganza reignited for a 23-date tour that will run through November in all of its garish glory.

Here are some highlights from the tour kickoff, a 27-song master class in potent songs and delicate homage with the magnetic Lambert its humble ringleader.

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What songs do Queen + Adam Lambert play on the 2023 Rhapsody tour?

Playing off the futuristic feel of the staging – lots of chrome and robots on video screens – the band kicked off the two-hour-plus show with “Radio Ga Ga,” their hand-clapping 1984 hit that found the platinum-haired Lambert strutting the stage in a silver breastplate and cape.

Though the band brought the Rhapsody production to Europe last summer, they’ve jiggled the set list and peppered it with some different songs, including the rough riffing “Stone Cold Crazy” – played for the first time since 2018 – and the magnificently theatrical “The Show Must Go On.”

Queen also unveiled “Is This the World We Created…?” from 1984’s “The Works” album, which has never been played in the decade that Lambert has fronted the band. Sitting at the end of a catwalk with only May, 76, on acoustic guitar, Lambert showcased the purity of his versatile voice on the ballad.

The multigenerational crowd also lapped up plenty of well-worn classic rock radio staples. “Another One Bites the Dust” only needed its opening bass notes from Neil Fairclough for recognition; “Somebody to Love” spotlighted a soulful Lambert spreading his multi-octave voice across the song; and “Bohemian Rhapsody” wrapped the pre-encore set instilled with Lambert’s dramatic entrance from beneath the stage, May sporting a mirrored jumpsuit amid a blizzard of lights and the original Queen video for the song employed to handle the tricky operatic passage in the song.

How does Freddie Mercury factor into the Queen + Adam Lambert tour?

The naysayers who contend that Queen has been nothing but a cover band with Lambert at the helm need to take a seat. Lambert’s respect for Mercury has always been palpable, and at Wednesday’s show, you could see his subtle nods to the original Queen frontman, who died in 1991.

Mercury surely would have swooned at the ornately decorated rotating motorcycle that Lambert sat atop – complete with a crotch cam – for the pairing of “Bicycle Race” and “Fat Bottomed Girls” and grinned at Lambert’s shoulder shimmies worthy of Liza Minnelli in her prime during an adrenalized “Don’t Stop Me Now.”

But Mercury was remembered in a more direct way when Lambert, 41, praised the “two rock ‘n’ roll legends” sharing the stage with him and continued with, “We do this with Freddie in our hearts and I know he’s in your heart.”

A couple of songs later, May, as he’s done on past tours, took a solo turn at the edge of the catwalk to sing “Love of My Life” in a tender voice. It was a chill-inducing moment when he asked the crowd to hold up their lighted phones (“In the old days it used to be cigarette lighters,” he joked) while footage of Mercury crooning the ballad appeared in split screen with May on the overhead curved video screen.

Who else is playing with Queen + Adam Lambert?

While the sweetly grinning May mesmerized with his distinctive guitar lines throughout the show and Taylor, dapper in a black tie and vest, steamrolled through demanding songs at age 74, the multilayered construction of the band’s songs require a bit more of a lift.

Joining May, Taylor, Lambert and Fairclough were longtime keyboardist and musical director Spike Edney and percussionist Tyler Warren, who frequently jammed alongside Taylor on these musically precise classics.

With a combination of exceptional lighting and voluminous slices of lasers, the scorched-earth singing of Lambert and the continued expert presentation from May and Taylor, this Rhapsody tour doesn’t feel like a victory lap, but, rather, a deeper solidifying of Queen’s legacy.

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