By Ralf Kuhling
Freddie Mercury was brought to life twice on Friday evening with old recordings in the Mercedes-Benz Arena.
High up on the big video screen under the ceiling he was laughing, he joked. And could be quite content with the way his old band buddies Brian May and Roger Taylor, their backing musicians and vocalist Adam Lambert, managed his legacy down there.
Lambert pointed out early on in the show that Freddie is actually “the irreplaceable one.” But it is precisely this burden of making the impossible possible that the American has been carrying on his shoulders for ten years now. And has established himself as an independent entertainer who knows exactly how to interpret the Queen songs and how to animate the fans. And they, it seemed on Friday, see him as anything but an emergency solution.
May, 74, and Taylor, 72, could see the excitement in their eyes. They weren’t here to top up their retirement savings, they were hot. And so Queen anthems like “Another One Bites The Dust”, “Crazy Little Things Called Love” or “Love Of My Life” (May: “Für Freddie!”) all sounded very fresh, never like yesterday. And May was always happy to demonstrate with impressive but never overly long solos why he and his guitar created a sound for eternity.
Queen is always optics, and it was on Friday. A huge load of videos rained down on the viewers, kidnapping them into space and other beautiful worlds. It was never cheap sensory overload, no, it was artistically valuable.
But Queen is also: Rock and Roll. And why did the interior have to have chairs, after all, we weren’t in the opera here. And Brian May, who always liked to sprint to the front edge of the catwalk with his guitar, his heart should warm up when he is greeted by surging crowds of fans. He will know why chairs are the solution.
The sound in the hall could have been a bit louder for rock fans, but that’s a matter of taste, of course. And if the fans sing along themselves, as so often this evening, the problem is lifted anyway. Of course, they also sang along to “We Are The Champions”, which was of course the final song.
Champions, that was Queen that night. With a nostalgic bash whose songs have not developed any patina. The show must go on, and for years to come, it certainly wouldn’t be a mistake.