Here I sit, staring down the barrel of a major life decision I don’t wish to make. The hammer is cocked and there’s nowhere to run… nowhere to hide. What I need, Dear Reader, is a distraction, something that will captivate me, fire my imagination and assuage my emotional distress. Perhaps a return to simpler times is in order. With that, I pop in my Queen: Live at the Rainbow ’74 Blu-ray and pull the trigger. Suddenly, everything old is new again.
There is the incomparable Freddie Mercury, in the lone, oscillating spotlight, cape billowing like a super-hero, “Now, I’m here…” long, raven hair flowing, “Now, I’m there…” guy-liner and fingernails black as coal, “Here I stand…” makeup accentuated, angular cheekbones, sharp as a knife, “Look around, around, around, around, around…” resplendent in white, “But you won't see me!” Sheer magnificence!
It’s working… I’m transported through space and time and given a front-row seat to something I’m woefully too young to have ever experienced in reality. So, this virtual reality will have to do. No matter, in this moment, I feel like I’m seventeen years-old, stoned and in London, not necessarily in that order. That’s what this collection offers: a chance to feel like you’re there. This set showcases crystal-clear video quality, audio clarity that is far better than expected, particularly in the depth of the bass and drums, areas that are notoriously thin in recordings from this era. Hell, I can almost smell the weed!