Queen took the stage with Adam Lambert on the Sunday of Thanksgiving Weekend, proving that even 70-year-olds can rock and roll.
The line outside of Scotiabank Arena’s gate one formed rather quickly following the arrival of the 6 p.m GO train at Union Station. The general age of the crowd hung around 50; the occasional young person dotted throughout what was quickly becoming a scattered mass of people rather than a uniform line. Fathers and daughters wearing the same shirt, husbands and wives in Sketcher’s shoes and bulky winter coats.
While the old postal building provided a warm alcove for the crowd to wait in, the door to the street opened as if it was on a rotation, leading the chill from a particularly wet Toronto night to bluster in.
The line’s mutterings varied, some concertgoers complained about the line, which was at a standstill. Others exclaimed their love for the band. In an attempt to beat out the man standing behind her, one woman detailed the time she had seen the band play their infamous set at Live Aid in 1985 when she was just 13.
Although previously strangers, the man and woman had gotten to chatting when the man had explained he had seen the band five times prior. His five concerts had nothing on the women’s Live Aid experience; in fact, he probably would have had to have seen the band at least ten times to be on her level. The man’s astonished reaction seemed to satisfy the woman as she stashed her story back into her pocket to share with another unsuspecting stranger later on that night.
Inside the arena, the crowd fluttered around one another with cans of beer in hand. People hung around in groups of three or four, glancing around nervously as though the concert might start before they’d gotten a chance to get to their seats.
Still, the venue filled slowly, audience members meandering through aisles and hung off the barricade. As the clock ticked down anticipation grew, and the crowd started to get antsy. One man called for the band to get the show on the road, shaking his fist in the air as if he were watching the Maple Leafs play rather than waiting for one of the most legendary rock bands to ever take the stage.
With a flash of light, robots began to crawl their way through the body of a machine that was projected onto the large screen that wrapped around the entire stage. Freddie Mercury’s voice echoed throughout the arena as a recording of “Machines (Or ‘Back to Humans’)” gave way to “Radio Gaga.” The screen lifted, revealing Brian May and Roger Taylor, the only remaining members of the band to play with Queen, and Adam Lambert, all of whom were ready to rock and roll.
The band played their greatest hits, falling back on songs like “Another One Bites the Dust” and “Fat Bottomed Girls.” The stage functioned like a set, moving to accommodate the musicians as the concert progressed. During “Bicycle Race,” Adam Lambert donned a leather riding jacket and performed on a chrome motorcycle that had been built on the B-Stage. When Brian May performed his guitar solo, he rose above the screen and joined a series of planets that came down from the ceiling. There was no doubt that the set design had been well thought out, perfectly complementing the band’s bigger-than-life setlist.
At the beginning of Act 4, the rest of the band disappeared to allow Brian May to play a stripped-back, acoustic rendition of “Love of My Life.” Towards the end of the song, a recording of Freddie Mercury joined May on screen and for the first time that night, the audience went completely silent. There was absolutely no doubt that Mercury had been there in spirit that night.
The band played another eight songs before leaving the stage. The encore started with another recording of Mercury, who led the crowd in his signature “Ay-Ohs” for upwards of a minute. The recording, which came from a concert the band had played at Wembley on July 12th, 1986, transcended time. The audience was transfixed with Mercury in the same way they had been nearly three decades earlier, following his every moment intently.
The band left with a blast of energy that was impressive for 74-year-old Taylor and 76-year-old May. Both men were completely engaged with the crowd and the music they were creating, playing just as well as they had in their youth.
The moment the concert ended, the crowd disassembled, full of energy. Some ran for trains while others ran for another beer. Everyone was in complete agreement that the show had been stellar.
Giving it all they had, Queen and Adam Lambert held both the crowd’s attention and Freddie Mercury’s memory in their hearts all night long. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that they had just lived through the experience of a lifetime.