One Night of Queen at the Opera House

Gary Mullen and The Works delivered on the promise made in one of the songs they cover, “We Will Rock You.” For many, One Night of Queen was new territory. People were not sure of what to think of a live band, in a building that normally houses broadway, covering one of the most well-known bands of all time. If Queen were shoes, then they would be size 25 boots, and those are some big shoes to fill (see what I did there?). It is definitely not easy to live up to the legend of the band, or the lead singer Freddie Mercury, so you can understand why people were dipping their toe in the water to test it out. Not a single person in the crowd went home disappointed. If you came with low expectations then you were blown away, if you came with high expectations then you were still ‘WOW’ed.

I had the extreme pleasure of getting to sit down with and interview the lead singer of the show, Gary Mullen. He definitely had plenty of interesting things to say (as you could imagine) about cities he had been to before, shows they had done, and inspiration for various moves he does on stage. Listen in on the interview and get a little insight into Gary’s life.

Click to listen, or right click and select “Save As” to download.

Of course whenever I attend something, I bring along a camera that may as well be permanently grafted to my hand. I managed to snap quite a few shots from my seat which will give you a taste of what the show looked like. We also had a house photographer on hand who I am sure got some UH-MAY-ZING photos of the show from a variety of places around the theater. Those photos as well as mine will be uploaded to our Flickr account soon where you can browse through them. In the meantime, here are some photos I captured from the audience.

The show was amazing, and even though some people were not as energetic at first since they were taking it all in, everyone was on their feet begging for more by the end of the show. All the songs got a great reception, but some of the really popular Queen songs made the crowd go wild, such as We Are the Champions, Another One Bites the Dust, Fat Bottomed Girls, and Bohemian Rhapsody to name a few. Gary did an amazing job of keeping the audience involved throughout the night. He had stage-side chats with everyone between songs and got the audience to sing sections of some of the songs. The crowd returned the enthusiasm when they encored by stamping their feet then clapping. It was an intense moment to have the lights out with everyone stomping and clapping in unison, only to see a light shine on drummer sitting on his stool. As the crowd continued, the drummer, Jonathan Evans, started wailing on the drums, matching the crowd’s beat. The other band members all found their way back on stage with Gary holding an American flag as a cape. It truely was a powerful experience.

Lots of thanks and admiration goes out to Gary Mullen and The Works (Davie Brockett on guitar, Billy Moffat on bass guitar, Martin Campbell on keyboards, and Jonathan Evans on drums) for an amazing performance. They are picking up steam and getting more and more recognized and popular around the world. Rightly so since they seem to be the only group that can give a true tribute to one of the greatest bands of all time, Queen. Stay tuned for more photos from the show as they are linked to here, and added up to our Flickr site. Hopefully this won’t be the last time we see Gary and The Works, and maybe we can get more than one night of them some time in the future.