Geoff Tate is returning to Australia with a set that reaches from the earliest days of Queensrÿche through to the album that became the band’s defining conceptual work. Presented by Hardline Media, the tour will see Tate perform ‘Operation: Mindcrime’ in its entirety for the final time in Australia, alongside the complete ‘Queen of the Reich’ debut EP and a selection of career favourites.
The shows will visit Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, giving Australian audiences one last opportunity to hear ‘Operation: Mindcrime’ performed from beginning to end. Released in 1988, the record helped establish Queensrÿche at the forefront of progressive metal, combining a continuous political narrative with a collection of songs that have remained central to Tate’s live repertoire.
Its story of manipulation, disillusionment and political extremism unfolds across tracks including ‘Revolution Calling’, ‘Operation: Mindcrime’, ‘Spreading the Disease’, ‘Suite Sister Mary’, ‘The Needle Lies’, ‘Breaking the Silence’, ‘I Don’t Believe in Love’ and ‘Eyes of a Stranger’. Nearly four decades later, the album remains one of the records most closely associated with Tate and his distinctive vocal style.
The Australian shows will also travel further back into Queensrÿche history. For the first time in Australia, Tate and his band will perform the band’s 1983 debut EP ‘Queen of the Reich’ in full, including its title track and ‘The Lady Wore Black’.
That early material captures Queensrÿche before the increasingly progressive direction of the albums that followed. Hearing the EP alongside ‘Operation: Mindcrime’ effectively puts two very different points in Tate’s career on the same stage, from the band’s early heavy metal foundations to the more elaborate songwriting that would emerge later in the decade.
Tate’s career with Queensrÿche brought multi-platinum sales and Grammy nominations, with his vocals becoming one of the band’s most recognisable elements. ‘Operation: Mindcrime’ subsequently developed a reputation well beyond its original release, with Kerrang! placing it at number 34 on its list of the 100 greatest heavy metal albums.
The tour will be rounded out by a best-of set, expanding the shows beyond the two complete releases. With ‘Operation: Mindcrime’ being retired from full-album performances in Australia after this run, the dates offer a final chance to hear its narrative played in sequence rather than represented by a handful of individual songs.
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