Killer Queen
March 5, 2025 11:01pm
I grew up listening to Queen albums and hearing their hits on the radio. I retain vivid memories of November 1975 as a ten year-old boy in California when my friend Mike Carlson's older brother purchased Queen's new album, "A Night at the Opera." He let us sit in his bean bag chair as he cranked up the volume of Queen's newest release on his stereo. Mesmerized but somewhat confused by its second-to-last track "Bohemian Rhapsody," I sat there in bewildered awe. Was it rock? Was it opera? Whatever it was, its uniquely segmented arrangement was simultaneously both. And it became one of the best rock anthems of all time.
At age 14, as a radio disc jockey in Virginia, I played Queen on the air. But I never saw the band in concert. I still haven't. And I suppose I never can. But I did see the next best thing this evening. Tonight, the Queen tribute band "Killer Queen" took the stage at Pensacola's Saenger Theater for a night of great rock music.
In June 1993, Queen superfan and Freddie Mercury look-alike Patrick Myers performed Queen songs on stage at London University. All he and his friends wanted to do was put on a show to honor Freddie Mercury. That one show lead to another... and to another... and finally to international stardom. The tribute band has sold out around the world at some of the same arenas Queen performed in.
Tonight, he and the band belted out Queen songs and took fans back to the 70s and 80s with Queen classics "We Will Rock You," "We Are the Champions," "Another One Bites the Dust," "Don't Stop Me Now," "Under Pressure," "Killer Queen," "Fat Bottomed Girls," "Bicycle Race," "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," "You're My Best Friend," "Radio Ga Ga," "Somebody to Love," and of course, "Bohemian Rhapsody." For more than 90 minutes, Killer Queen rocked the Saenger Theater with those hits and other great Queen songs.
Did Patrick Myers sound exactly like Freddie Mercury? Mercury was one-of-a-kind. So, no. But he and the band were close enough to make the concert fun and memorable. Queen took a break from touring in 1983. But they got together for Bob Geldof's "Live Aid" concert in 1985, and they released two subsequent albums ("The Miracle” in 1989 and "Innuendo" in 1991). Freddie Mercury's death on November 24, 1991 permanently silenced the original band. But the music lives on. Killer Queen is not Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon. But if "Killer Queen" comes anywhere near your town, buy tickets. Go. Queen is dead. Long live Killer Queen!