Todd La Torre urges those who only want to hear old Queensrÿche songs to listen to band’s last 4 albums

Todd La Torre urges those who only want to hear old Queensrÿche songs to listen to band’s last 4 albums

It is always difficult for a band to make a lead vocalist switch after it has experienced success and established itself with its previous one. In addition to the new singer having to gain and earn the respect and appreciation of the group’s legion of fans, the new frontman is often “stuck” singing the songs made famous by the previous lead vocalist in live settings. It’s one thing to become a legacy band’s new singer but seemingly a whole other thing to get fans turned on and accept new music as that group’s new lead vocalist.

Eleven years ago, Todd La Torre joined Queensrÿche after the band parted ways with original singer Geoff Tate. Queensrÿche have released four albums with La Torre — Queensrÿche (2013), Condition Hüman (2015), The Verdict (2019) and Digital Noise Alliance (2022) — but the band has mostly played Tate-era songs during their live sets.

Earlier this month, Queensrÿche embarked on a headline tour throughout the United States of America with support from Marty Friedman and Trauma. For this tour, Queenrÿche included a large amount of songs from La Torre‘s time in the band and it appears that the Seattle rockers have received some push back from certain fans based on the singer’s Facebook post back on March 8, 2023 since he stated:

“Thank you Florida for the first batch of shows!

So many of you have really appreciated the set list, particularly that we are pushing more songs from the new album and the one’s that I have been a part of. While we love the songs we typically play, it really was time to make a fresh new setlist especially for this tour.

To those that only want to hear only the old stuff, I urge you to listen to the last 4 albums we have made and really get into what we have done for 11 years now. Most seem to really like the current set list we are touring on, but there will always be some that just don’t want to move beyond the past and could care less about anything remotely new.

The band is on fire, enthusiastic, and happy doing what we are doing.

Thanks for your support

Respectfully,

Todd“

Queensrÿche’s setlist in San Antonio, Texas, USA on March 9, 2023 (as per setlist.fm):
01. In Extremis
02. Lost In Sorrow
03. Spreading The Disease
04. Child On Fire
05. En Force
06. Don’t Look Back
07. Light-Years
08. Sicdeth
09. Forest
10. Jet City Woman
11. Inner Unrest
12. Empire
13. Behind The Walls
14. Queen of The Reich
15. My Empty Room
16. Eyes of A Stranger
Encores:
17. Delivrance
18. Roads To Madness

Based on the aforementioned setlist, Queensrÿche played one song from the Queensrÿche EP, four from The Warning (1984), three from Operation: Mindcrime (1988), two from Empire (1990), one from Queensrÿche (2013), two from The Verdict (2019) and five from Digital Noise Alliance (2022) on March 9, 2023 with eight out of 18 songs stemming from their last four albums with La Torre.

On the other hand, when Queensrÿche played the Culture Room in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA back on January 17, 2020 (as per setlist.fm), their 18-song set consisted of two tracks from the Queensrÿche EP, two from The Warning (1984), two from Rage For Order (1986), four from Operation: Mindcrime (1988), four from Empire (1990) and four from The Verdict (2019) with four out of 18 songs coming from their last four records with La Torre.

Queensrÿche performing “Lost In Sorrow” live at the Culture Room in Fort Lauderlade, Florida, USA on March 4, 2023 (video from taps_13‘s YouTube page):

Queensrÿche performing “Sicdeth” live at The Florida Theatre in Jacksonville, Florida, USA on March 5, 2023 (video from Dave Cozine (ERODE)‘s YouTube page):