Geoff Tate to Rocklahoma, "You Guys Suck"

thejokeriv wrote:

FF - sounds like you have nothing to worry about:

http://legacy.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=174680

CRIMSON GLORY vocalist Todd La Torre has released the following statement regarding today's announcement that he has joined forces with QUEENSRŸCHE members Michael Wilton, Eddie Jackson, Scott Rockenfield and Parker Lundgren in a brand new band called RISING WEST:

"Just for the record and for those asking about CRIMSON GLORY, I am NOT leaving CRIMSON GLORY, I am embarking on another musical endeavor with the members of QUEENSRŸCHE. I am proud and honored to be a part of this! CRIMSON GLORY is still writing new material for our record, DO NOT WORRY This is going to be an amazing new chapter. \m/ Thank you for all of your support!"

La Torre, who says that QUEENSRŸCHE has been his favorite band since he was 15 years old, first met Wilton at this year's NAMM convention in January in Anaheim, California.

RISING WEST will make its live debut on Friday, June 8 and Saturday, June 9 at the Hard Rock Café in Seattle, Washington. The band will perform rare and classic hits from the first five QUEENSRŸCHE albums — from the 1983 EP to 1990's "Empire" — and plans on hitting the studio sometime early summer to begin recording its first release

Oh yeah, sure, he says this NOW. But just wait a while, till this Queensryche/Rising West thing takes off and becomes very active and starts recording and touring regularly... unlike Crimson Glory, who move about as fast as a glacier, and THEN we'll see what he sez....

Well, if QR was the dude's favorite band since childhood, I think he has the right to make his own choice. CG are known procrastinators, taking decades to put an album out. They aren't a touring band either, so I'm sure he can handle both, even if this Rising West picks up speed.

I love Queensryche, I take it this is the end of the band? I wanted to end their career on a better album then "Dedicated to Chaos' or whatever that musical abomination was called

manny wrote:

I love Queensryche, I take it this is the end of the band? I wanted to end their career on a better album then "Dedicated to Chaos' or whatever that musical abomination was called

I doubt seriously this is "the end of the band", seems like they want to go out and play some shows while Geoff is doing his solo album and Vegas gigs. They'll probably play a bunch of tunes that Geoff would never perform again.

But as soon as they need some cash there will be another Queensryche tour.

S.D. wrote:

manny wrote:

I love Queensryche, I take it this is the end of the band? I wanted to end their career on a better album then "Dedicated to Chaos' or whatever that musical abomination was called

I doubt seriously this is "the end of the band", seems like they want to go out and play some shows while Geoff is doing his solo album and Vegas gigs. They'll probably play a bunch of tunes that Geoff would never perform again.

But as soon as they need some cash there will be another Queensryche tour.

Should n't these guys be loaded, their songs are now a staple of classic rock radio

you know what, I love first-four-albums Rÿche more than almost anyone I know, but this nostalgia stuff just really isn't that interesting. Yes...the man can sing the songs...so can Roberto Tiranti, Nils K Rue, Chris Salinas, and so forth......... it would be cool to hear at a show, but I'm not going to flip out unless it's Geoff singing the stuff because it is undeniably Geoff stuff and that is just how singers and songs tend to work. And that being said, I've made (uncomfortable) peace with the possibility that I will never see 'En Force' live (but I did see 'NM 156!!).

The original material they are planning, on the other hand, I would definitely like to check out. Way more interesting.

I don't understand the hate these guys get. Dedicated to Chaos is a fantastic rock album.

MEGATRON wrote:

I don't understand the hate these guys get. Dedicated to Chaos is a fantastic rock album.

Uhm... no
Great news this is. Todd sounds as good on Ryche tune as he did with Crimson Glory (I've found some bootleg of his singing classics from CG. Only to think I thought Midnight was irreplaceable...)
As for Ryche, they are supposedly working on a new album, so I don't think Tate will be left alone in the band. I still have hopes for them (or its better to say him) to release something good, cause obviously Tate can still write a great song - "At 30 000 ft", for instance.

After watching the video of Tate he was obviously trying to be funny/flippant trying to get the crowd a little excited. But you can also see that he's so over the whole retro-metal thing...

Interesting article, prior to all of this:

Operation Knifecrime? Geoff Tate is alleged to have attacked his band mates in Brazil with a knife!

A recent article was published out of Brazil HERE that alleges a incident that took place with band members Geoff Tate, Michael Wilton and Scott Rockenfield. The article goes on to say, that Tate pulled a knife on his band members before their set. We at Metal Sludge cannot confirm this, but there have been related posts regarding "the incident".

A translation from Portugese to English is noted here.
Something very strange happened in the recent passage of Queensrÿche for our country. The band played in Sao Paulo, HSBC Brazil, last April 14. Before the show, Geoff Tate, lead singer of the group, caught other members plotting his removal on the set.

By the time Tate retired and was silent, but during the soundcheck, he violently assaulted guitarist Michael Wilton, knocking down the musician. Then Tate armed with a knife broke up drummer Scott Rockenfield, but was restrained by security guards of the house, who, along with the crew and some Brazilians who watched the soundcheck, witnessed the whole shack.

Dissatisfied with what happened, Wilton locked himself in the dressing room saying he would no longer play, but was convinced by the production of the event to do the show.

This was also reported on Metal Talk. It has also been blogged on Rock Pages. We say, where there is smoke, there's fire. Summon the lead singers, we're guessing QR is headed for a heartbreak.

Now this past weekend at M3, a Sludge insider was on hand, and back stage. His report about Queensryche is as follows.

There seems to be some truth to that Queenryche thing. They put on a very stiff, cold performance at M3 this past weekend. Wilton looked less than happy to be there, and there was zero interaction between any of the band members. Tate seemed disgruntled when the reaction from the crowd for the first 2 songs was less than enthusiastic. ( a new one, and a song off Promised Land). The end of the show was what I found interesting- Tate left the stage before the end of the last song and did not return. He made motions to the crowd and almost insinuated that he was saying goodbye. The band did a bow without Tate and left. Like I said, a totally flat and emotionless show.

Here's a clip of Eyes of A Stranger at the M3 Festival, at the 4:30 mark is when Geoff Tate starts to make his exit:

With the lukewarm, Sunday night (after a multi-day festival) crowd reaction, he probably felt like the gig was a waste of time.

Really sad to see one of your favorite bands go down this far. Yeah, they're older and all but even Don D seems to have figured out how to put out halfway decent albums at this point.

It appears that QR has disintegrated. I was aware of the knife incident and the rumors are also out that Tate's wife was fired as manager. The Rocklahoma gig was probably a contractual obligation the band had to fill as well as M3 and that would explain Tate's bizarre behavior. Not that I care that much as the band has sucked for decades.

I don't know, I find that knife story hard to believe, this is Queensryche not Motley Crue, I am sure the direction Geoff Tate was pulling the band in, was not something the rest of the band agreed with, but the knife story, I have a feeling that is b.s., these are intelligent 50 something year old men, not 20 something year old trailer park trash.

From Billboard:


Indeed, Queensryche.com just announced on May 29 that Tate was kicking off the next leg of his solo tour on May 30 at South Side Music Hall in Dallas, while the band's 30th anniversary tour is scheduled to continue June 11 in Valley City, Utah, at USANA Amphitheater. Tate's solo dates intertwine with Queensryche's touring commitments.

What a long, strange trip it's been.

manny wrote:

I don't know, I find that knife story hard to believe, this is Queensryche not Motley Crue, I am sure the direction Geoff Tate was pulling the band in, was not something the rest of the band agreed with, but the knife story, I have a feeling that is b.s., these are intelligent 50 something year old men, not 20 something year old trailer park trash.

age & status in life doesn't really matter. anger makes you do crazy things. not saying the story is true, but it could be.

mc666 wrote:

manny wrote:

I don't know, I find that knife story hard to believe, this is Queensryche not Motley Crue, I am sure the direction Geoff Tate was pulling the band in, was not something the rest of the band agreed with, but the knife story, I have a feeling that is b.s., these are intelligent 50 something year old men, not 20 something year old trailer park trash.

age & status in life doesn't really matter. anger makes you do crazy things. not saying the story is true, but it could be.

That sadly is true, I have done some moronic things out of anger

manny wrote:

mc666 wrote:

manny wrote:

I don't know, I find that knife story hard to believe, this is Queensryche not Motley Crue, I am sure the direction Geoff Tate was pulling the band in, was not something the rest of the band agreed with, but the knife story, I have a feeling that is b.s., these are intelligent 50 something year old men, not 20 something year old trailer park trash.

age & status in life doesn't really matter. anger makes you do crazy things. not saying the story is true, but it could be.

That sadly is true, I have done some moronic things out of anger

I am willing to bet that a knife wasn't involved, but the pushing and shoving wouldn't surprise me. The rest of the band (minus the hired gun on guitar) probably decided to fire Tate's wife and he was pissed and thought he was next. Someone had to take the fall for DOC and Tate has been the driving force of the band since DeGarmo left. Dedicated to Chaos was all Geoff Tate and is largely considered the worst Queensryche album and it is the worst selling and lowest charting Queensryche album.

Maybe it will all work out and Queensryche will realize they have been sucking for years and actually put out a good record.

Maybe I have remained a loyal Queensryche fan and other then Dedicated to Chaos I have liked or at least alot of their music interesting since 'The Promised Land'.

I like the fact the band never played it safe and did not try to recreate Empire II, the one time they attempted this with Operation Mindcrime II the results in my opinion were uneven.

Even if they do disband, the band has had an incredible run, a few their songs have ( at least in my area) have become classic rock radio staples and in the world of heavy metal/hard rock no band stays broken up forever.

I really hope they do just disband. They are only USING the name. I appreciate the fact that they don't want to put out the same album every time and thats fine. A lot of bands have been able to change what they have done and created something else and people have accepted it. I don't think that is the case here. Their songs go absolutely no where and they just don't have that same emotional feel like they used to. I loved this band since Empire (when I started getting more into metal) so unfortunetly I wasn't able to enjoy the band while everything was taking place with the first half of their career. Promised Land was a huge dissapointment for me when it came out. I remember a friend of mine saying how he liked to listen to it cause it helped him fall asleep. The album eventually grew on me but I already sensed that things weren't going to be good. Hear in the now frontier I think was a great album. The only thing that killed it was the overall sound. It didn't have the signature Queensryche sound, everything just sounded flat. After this album it just got worse. Q2K complete garbage. I thought I liked Tribe but listened to it not too long ago and I didn't really find much to like. Mindcrime 2 was ok, one thing that bothered me was the drum sound, why did they use an electric kit? They couldn't just recreate the same sounds from the first album, which is what they were trying to do? I don't even count the covers album. American Soldier, sounded like an interesting and cool idea but where were the good songs? And lastly you have Dedicated to Crap. I held off so long on buying that album. I got the deluxe for like $5 but I should have waited til it was a penny. I couldn't even get through it. My gf was even laughing at the stupid lyrics, which doesn't take much for her to do with my music, but this was Queensryche whos lyrics always seemed very inspiring.

So I really do hope they just break up and call it a day. Stop wasting everyones money. Geoff can go and make another solo album no one will give a rats ass about and the rest of Queensryche can go and make the music they probably have wanted to all along. Oh and it probably wasn't a knife in Geoffs hand... probably looked more like this , well not a banana... whered the dancing pee pee go? haha

manny wrote:

Maybe I have remained a loyal Queensryche fan and other then Dedicated to Chaos I have liked or at least alot of their music interesting since 'The Promised Land'.

I like the fact the band never played it safe and did not try to recreate Empire II, the one time they attempted this with Operation Mindcrime II the results in my opinion were uneven.

Even if they do disband, the band has had an incredible run, a few their songs have ( at least in my area) have become classic rock radio staples and in the world of heavy metal/hard rock no band stays broken up forever.

LOL - me too, I think their record has been spotty since Promised Land, some good tracks here and there. I liked American Solider, OM:II had some good moments, but was mostly like "The Two Jakes" (the sequel to Chinatown) - unnecessary.

Personally, I would be happy if they just release a great album, it doesn't have to be metal

QUEENSRŸCHE's Publicist Downplays Rumors Of Strife In The Group - May 30, 2012
In the wake of a series of bizarre rumors about QUEENSRŸCHE's relationship with lead singer Geoff Tate, the band's publicist is downplaying reports of strife in the group.

Metal Talk and Metal Sludge recently reported on unsubstantiated rumors that Tate assaulted guitarist Michael Wilton and pulled a knife on drummer Scott Rockenfield at an April 14 gig in Brazil. The incident allegedly took place after Tate overheard his bandmates discussing plans to oust him from the group.

On Tuesday, four members of QUEENSRŸCHE — Michael Wilton, Eddie Jackson, Scott Rockenfield and Parker Lundgren — announced a new project called RISING WEST, which will make its live debut on Friday, June 8 and Saturday, June 9 at the Hard Rock Café in Seattle, Washington. Tate had previously announced his plans to spend the summer focused on a series of solo acoustic shows.

"In regards to the current state of QUEENSRŸCHE, the fact of the matter is that Geoff Tate is concentrating on his acoustic solo performances this summer while the other members of the band have formed a new outfit called RISING WEST with Todd La Torre of CRIMSON GLORY," publicist Jeff Albright said in an email to Examiner.com Wednesday morning.

"Everyone wants to stay busy, try new things and do what they do best . . . and, of course, that's rock in front of the masses.

"As you're probably aware, QUEENSRŸCHE are slated to perform select dates throughout the year."

QUEENSRŸCHE's web site lists the band's next scheduled performance for June 11 in Valley City, Utah.

RISING WEST will perform rare and classic hits from the first five QUEENSRŸCHE albums — from the 1983 EP through 1990's "Empire" — and plans on hitting the studio sometime early summer to begin recording its first release.

Geoff entered the studio on February 29 to begin recording his second solo album.

Tate released his first solo CD in 2002 on Sanctuary Records. Self-titled, the LP was a huge departure from the work he had previously done with QUEENSRŸCHE.