Review: Adam Lambert and Queen Brought the Park Down in Tel Aviv

As part of their 2016 European Summer Festival Tour, this evening Queen and Adam Lambert performed at The Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv in front of an audience of over 55 thousand people.

The evening started with "Seven Seas of Rhye", "Keep Yourself Alive", "Hammer to Fall" and "Stone Cold Crazy", each one right after the other. These songs are less known for most of the Israeli audience and though you could feel the excitement in the crowd, it was only when "Fat Bottomed Girls" followed by "Don't Stop Me Now" and "Killer Queen" were played that the show really started to get into motion.

Following these songs, Adam Lambert finally took time to talk with the audience, starting by saying one of the Hebrew expressions he said throughout the night, "L'chayim", a drinking toast in Hebrew, while raising a cup.

"Are you hot? Hello! Erev Tov [Hebrew- Good evening]", he said on the rather quite chilly evening for an Israeli summer. "Oh my goodness, we made it to Tel Aviv! Such a happy day. Toda Raba [Hebrew- Thank you very much]", he continued.

"I want to thank Legends Brian May and Roger Taylor. Four years we've been doing this together and I still cannot believe my luck and the honor that they have given me to be able to sing the songs of the greatest rock band of all time."

Afterwards he addressed the elephant in the park, mentioning Queen's late, great lead vocalist and co-principal songwriter, Freddie Mercury. "That's what's so crazy, is that I get to be out here and get to sing the songs that Freddie Mercury introduced to all of you and it means so much to me that you in the audience are giving me this chance and that Brian and Roger are giving me this chance... There can only be one Freddie Mercury!"

It's not that he didn't until then, but from that moment on Lambert completely won the crowd over, especially by following his words with "Somebody to Love".

During Adam's well needed break, given his contagious high energy and nonstop dancing in every song, Queen's legends took to the stage, starting with Brian May's lovely rendition of "Love of My Life", followed by Roger Taylor singing "These Are the Days of Our Lives" and ending with an epic drum battle between him and one of the tour's additional musicians, drummer Rufus Tiger Taylor.

As Lambert returned to the stage they continued playing the well known "Under Pressure", dedicating it to the song's cowriter and its recording's guest singer, David Bowie, who passed away this year. Afterwards, they continued with "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" as well as "Dragon Attack", "Another One Bites the Dust" and "I Want it All", showing off Adam's incredible riffing skills and impressive vocal range.

At this point Brian May returned to the stage center with an epic guitar solo of almost 12 minutes, which could be something a bit heavy for such a large Israeli audience but nevertheless their huge appreciation for May was noticed over and over again throughout his solo.

Afterwards the band continued with "Who Wants to Live Forever" as well as "The Show Must Go On", "Tie Your Mother Down" and "I Want to Break Free", leading to "Bohemian Rhapsody" that was declared this week by a major Israeli radio station as the country's number 1 Queen song, which wonderfully connects to the evening's ending song, "Radio Ga Ga".

Of course the show couldn't end there without the two major songs that the band brought during the encore, "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions", which left the crowd roaring with praise and definitely wanting more.

Photo Credit: supplied by Edge publicity and Ronit Suzan.