Los Angeles 3/1977 review by José Luis Pluma - Spanish magazine, 1977

by José Luis Pluma

Days before my return to Mexico, I had the opportunity to witness one of the two concerts that the Queen group offered at the Forum in Los Angeles, California. The curiosity I had to see this English quartet was accentuated when I heard their album "A Night At The Opera", the same that brought me crazy for the existing way of vocalizing by their members. The group had been good received on his previous tour and the critics had treated them very well. For this occasion, Queen presented themself as a promotion of their recent album "A Day At The Races", which continued the musical line of their previous work. It wasn't very difficult for Alberto, Agustin and me to get tickets for that show and soon we got confused in the middle of that young audience of that unforgettable night. The group that opened the show was Thin Lizzy, musicians from California who have recently managed to place somewhat in the popular taste of North America. Even though I hadn't actually listened to them, it seemed indifferent to me whether they had good music or not. So when they started playing they didn't impress me. Their rock falls within the heavy metal style and their act resembles that of Grand Funk. So the defect of this quartet is too loud and the abuse of the distorter. Sometimes something positive can be glimpsed in them, but in general they have disappointed me and even bored me. The same thing hasn't happened to a large number of kids who generally accept the strength of heavy rock, whoever it comes from. The intermission came, during which they joked about dreams that concerts of this kind could one day be held in our country, and soon after they announced Queen. The lights went out completely and the four musicians dressed in white appeared on stage. They opened with their "Bohemian Rhapsody" from the album "A Night At The Opera" and surprised people. The sound was crisp and clean and the band shimmered under the array of chromatic lights that flooded the stage. Singer Freddie Mercury looked elegant and refined, singing moving from side to side with his baton-shaped microphone. His greeting in the classic English accent (he pronounced the word Los Angeles as Les Anyellis), had some groupies screaming (although this word is already out of use) and followed up with several cuts from the same album. The group works well live and shows great skill on their instruments. Their voices are impressive in the way they are handled: and for the record, they didn't rely on tapes, choirs or orchestra, as it was just the four of them. Since some of his songs have a piano, Freddie was in charge of playing it, while guitarist Brian May occupied the stage making back and forth movements. There was a collage of various songs from the "Sheer Heart Attack" album and then the continual presentation of their compositions from "A Day At The Races" whereby. Freddie changed out of his white clothes for black ones. At this point smoke bombs were dropped and there was a champagne toast to Freddie. Big cheers. There was no shortage of guitar solos, drums and vocals (the important thing was their "echoplay" which is a sound repetition device, because with it they obtained stupendous effects). Several numbers played and the show ended, before great cheers and . The crowd asked more and Queen came out again to play something from their second and first albums. Freddie, this time, put on the dressing gown that looks Japanese, then he took it off and ended up in striped shorts. They got lost again and again we shouted for more. They went back to rock and roll (most do, remember Procol Harum and Chicago) and that was it. Upon exiting, the comments were listened to with great satisfaction. And we all agree that Queen are a group that contains that spark of sobriety and sophistication that sets them apart from others in rock.