Opening Number - Queen Extravaganza (Somebody To Love) American Idol 2012

I 'spose it's only fair that I elaborate. Somebody to Love has a wonderful solo in it, but I mean it's not his hardest one to play - by far. It doesn't justify too much grandstanding, especially when it compromises them actually getting it bang-on accurate - which, by their ability, it sounds like they'd be able to do.

It's TV, though - a different beast. They obviously want to make an impression, and that's their way of doing it.

Well, it was pretty coo- OH WAIT, WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE GUITAR SOLO?! O_O

The Read Wizard FTW.

Although Zebonka is right about the harmony vocals. Could be/should be much better. I think I'll see them in Philly with my nephews...

[QUOTE]

[b]The Real Wizard wrote: [/b] GratefulFan,

Sometimes you are so bang on, but other times you say a whole lot but say a whole lot of nothing. This is unfortunately one of the latter.

Like I said, this is not a debate of numbers. No need to nitpick my posts by saying I wasn't able to count exactly how many kids watched Queen videos on youtube today. Obviously nobody can acquire the data to do that arithmetic. And no need to bring up outlandish possibilities either. Of course I realize people of all ages watch AI and that there are an infinite number of possibilities of what exposure to a new song could lead to. I get it. But it really isn't relevant. It's just verbal masturbation.

The point is - when Bri and Rog do AI, it's for publicity, particularly to expose Queen's music to the next generation.

These days, teenagers tend to hear new music on youtube. And they text. A lot. Put those two things together, and there are a ton of kids who learned about this old band called Queen over the last couple days. Can we at least agree on that, without it turning into a sparring match of semantics?[/QUOTE]

The problem is not whether it was a million or five hundred thousand or twenty-eight.  The problem is that you, and others, have become so accustomed to the arrogant practice of dismissing people that disagree with you as 'whiners' and 'complainers'  that you don't even perceive any need to justify your crappy arguments with anything more sustantial than air and fake numbers like 'a million'.   And 'a million' is a special fake number isn't it, meant to impart both weight and magnitude to the piece of fluff you're presenting as an axiom: that 'Bri' and 'Rog' are there to 'promote their music to the next generation', like it's  some kind of humanitarian mission.   The only thing we can know for sure it that they were there to promote ticket sales for the Extravaganza, and that it fits into a general pattern of these kinds of appearances and gimmicks being related to the desire to shift product of some kind, on behalf of either themselves or their record companies.  Like all advertisers, they primarily want access to the flush decision making adult demographic, not tweens. Perfectly legitimate music business practice of course that can likely only benefit the immediate goals, but the overall effect on the legacy long term is most certainly up for debate.   That is, your idea that the 'whiners' and 'complainers' either have to come up with some alternative for 'Bri' and 'Rog' to 'share their music with the next generation' or shut up, is crap.  There is an opportunity cost to everything, and appearing on a largely cheesy talent show is no exception. People are unlikely to  get away with stifling alternative viewpoints and discussions by dimishing people as 'whiners' and 'complainers' very often going forward because people just as thoughful and invested as they are are just tired to death of it. So if you use it, plan to defend it. That and your crackpot numbers too.

I thought I might see them when they came to my area but after seeing them on AI thought their performance was mediocre, Martel was better in a room alone on his you tube video, the rest of the band unimpressive, just not worth going to see. I believe at some point old age makes you try to recapture your youth and this is the result. It's no Extravaganza.

Even from the Ellen performance it became apparent that Martel singing in his room on tape and Martel singing live were not going to be quite the same thing. There's no question he's talented and suited for the job, but I guess I didn't expect so many rough spots at this stage of things, on that song, that is a 'signature' of sorts for him, and the Extravaganza. If they stay cohesive personally and professionally they can likely only get better with practice and reduced nerves.

The biggest challenge for any serious Queen tribute is capturing the power of those three voices and the harmonies they produced. In this case that has lead to four singers on the stage in addition to all the musicians. If STL on Idol is any guide that will lead to cheesy musical style moves like each of them dancing around and singing a line or two in parts. Yvan Pedneault is right from the Canadian version of WWRY, and so is Tristan Avakian, so those sensibilities are already there and clearly directly sought by somebody. Tristan auditioned, but they went and got Pedneault all on their own. If it was local I'd almost certainly go for the inevitable good spots, but gas to Toronto and back and accommodations and food and all that jazz is just not in the cards for something that there is a very real risk of me cringing through.

The man singing somebody to love does not have a very good singing voice

Just watched it. It was far worse than I imagined it would be. I thought Martel could sing better than that.

Still better than +Lambert though.

Dammit, I'm really trying to get a feel for what this is like, but I missed the American Idol thing and now those videos aren't up because of stupid copyright crap, so I don't know what to think about them because I haven't seen them! My problem right now is that when I first heard about this I thought it was something completely different from what it really is, and when I told my family about this thing they were totally on board right away and ready to buy tickets (for the whole family) before I even got a chance to do a little more research into it. Now I feel like the whole thing is going to be a stupid waste of time, but there's no way to know for sure until the thing starts up (I'm going to Detroit on May 31st, only a few days after the tour starts). A lot of me is unhealthily pessimistic of how this is going to turn out, but there's always the optimist in me saying that it might actually be somewhat worth watching. Mainly, I'm just excited to see what the setlist is, and all I really want to do is be a apart of the wonderful chorus singing along to Love of My Life, even if it's not Freddie Mercury leading it! (If they don't do LoML right, I am going to be super pissed off). As it is, I'm going whether I really want to or not, so it had better not suck.

@waunakonor ... here you go: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?3mts99c2hrmftij

Thanks, inu-liger!

Honestly...I kind of like it. The singer gets the job done well enough. I sort of agree with Zebonka that the guitar could be better, but for some reason it just doesn't bother me that much. Also, I hear no problem with the backup singers; they sound pretty good to me. I'm actually feeling optimistic about this now.

I suspect the backup singers are not really traditional backup singers. Both JSS and Yvan Pedneault previously held lead roles performing Queen material and it's unlikely they'll be relegated to support for Marc Martel for all selections. They'll probably each feature on songs best suited to their skills. It will be interesting to see how they use Jennifer Espinoza.

I'll be seeing Queen Extravaganza on May 31st (hello waunakonor)!