The Rÿche

I admit that I have a soft spot in my heart for cheesy ’80s prog metal. If you perused my collection of old cassettes, you’d find all sorts of stuff featuring intricate dual guitar leads and operatic vocals, all performed by dudes with ridiculous poodle hair. Heir Apparent, Crimson Glory, Fates Warning — it’s all there, collecting dust in the guestroom closet. But the one band that defined prog metal in the 1980s was Queensrÿche. From their goth-leaning early work to their magnum opus, Operation: Mindcrime, to their commercial breakthrough, Empire, Queensrÿche made thoughtful, if melodramatic, music in an era when most bands just wanted you to talk dirty to them. Still, Queensrÿche isn’t the first band you’d expect to inspire a tribute act. They’re not exactly KISS or Van Halen, after all. Fortunately, that didn’t stop Phoenix’s The Rÿche from stepping to the plate. The Rÿche does a spot-on Queensrÿche set that focuses on the latter’s heyday, without all that pesky post-Empire shit that nobody cares about anyway. If you’re looking to take a trip back in time, this show sure beats trying to squeeze into those old acid-washed jeans.