Wednesday I treated myself to the Queen & Adam Lambert concert.  Today (Friday) I could have seen them up the street in Brooklyn’s Barclay Center, but I have family visiting, so instead I trekked out to New Jersey’s Prudential Center (only twenty minutes on NJ Transit from Manhattan’s Penn Station, a thirty minute subway ride away from home, no biggie, but when it could have been a simple ten minute walk in total…).

Yes, I’m the guy who brings opera glasses to a rock concert.  Didn’t need them this time, though.

Anyhow, original Queen band members, guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor have invited openly Gay American Idol alum (and solo star in his own right) Adam Lambert to do the vocal honors.  Stepping into the legendary Freddie Mercury’s footsteps is a daunting task, yet Lambert takes on the responsibility with a light touch, never presuming to replace what is irreplaceable, and serving the songs beautifully with his own impressive vocal chops and friendly insouciance.

Unlike in the Madonna concert I only sorta saw because the video screens were invisible from my high offsides seat, the Queen screens were, in addition to the back-screen, a wrap-around strip above the stage, bending towards the sides as well as the front.  If I had been sitting in those same Madonna nose bleed seats, these would have given me more to see.  As it is, I managed to snag a pretty good floor seat without paying through the nose.

Adam Lambert’s arms have achieved full tattage:

Killer Queen:

Lambert made a joke that included the phrase “good head”.

Taking a short excursion away from the Queen catalog, Adam Lambert sang his current single “Two Fux”:

“I want to ride my bicycle”

Brian May sang “Love of My Life”, accompanied only by his guitar on the catwalk, the stadium filling crowd singing along, and then, movingly, Freddie Mercury joined in on the video screens.

Then May had fun with a “stereoscopic selfie stick”:

After the main trio of May, Taylor and Lambert played a set on the catwalk, Adam announced that it was Roger’s birthday and got the stadium to sing “Happy Birthday”.

A combination of raised platform and video trickery created the illusion of May being raised high on the robot’s hand during a blistering guitar instrumental:

Lambert sang live during the first and final sections of “Bohemian Rhapsody”, yet the complex middle section was left to video back-up and the original recording, the only time (except for the resurrection of Mercury) that music apparently wasn’t played live (additionally, Taylor twice pointed out that the musicians were playing “without clicks”):

“Bohemian Rhapsody” ended with Lambert and an on-screen Mercury sharing:

(Mercury): Nothing really matters
(Lambert): Anyone can see
(Mercury): Nothing really matters
(Lambert): Nothing really matters to me

The encore, to surely no one’s surprise, was handed over to “We Will Rock You” and “We Are The Champions”, for which Lambert wore a queen’s golden crown.  Confetti filled the stadium for the final chords.