* * * CLICK HERE FOR FAN CLUB TICKETS * * *

Ladies and Gentleman and “kids” of only adult ages, welcome to what promises to be the spectacle of all spectacles better known as the Queensryche Cabaret.

A fun-filled evening like no other full of freaks and shrieks.

What good is sitting alone in your room?

Come hear the music play.

Taste the wine and swing from a vine in a place that’s only eclipsed by the echo in your mind.

It’ll be Geoff Tate, Scott Rockenfield, Michael Wilton, Eddie Jackson and Parker Lundgren performing a show-of-shows with a bunch of their friends who have a tendency to only come out late at night.

The Queensryche Cabaret will be art, lust, dancing and naughty fun with the band performing their hits and never-heard-before selections accompanied by Go-Go dancers, burlesque dancers, drag queens, a juggler, ballet dancer, aerial artist, contortionist and much more.

Sit back and enjoy the music and theatrics or be a part of the stage show!

Audience members will have an opportunity to participate… but prior written consent will be required as it won’t be for the faint of heart.

It’ll be sights and sounds coming at you from all angles like never before!

See some evil, hear some evil, speak some evil and have some fun.

Be prepared… be very prepared.

Life is a Queensryche Cabaret, old chum, come to the Cabaret.

FAN CLUB EVENTS:

Insania White Wine Tasting w/ Geoff Tate
Please call Amy at Three Rivers Winery (509) 526-9463 and register for this VIP tasting event to be held before the shows at the Snoqualmie casino and pay your $15.00 tasting fee. This fee will be waived if you purchase 2 bottles of the upcoming Insania Red or Insania White to be released in 2010. You must also have tickets to the performance the same night as your tasting to the Queensryche Cabaret. Geoff and other members of Queensryche will be present at both tastings.

Cigar Bar Meet & Greet
Thursday, February 4th – Details announced soon.

Superbowl Party
Sunday, February 7th – Details announced soon.

Hand on Heart

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Real World

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The Real World

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Every Move We Make

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By Doug Fox of Daily Herald (Salt Lake City)

As if Geoff Tate wasn’t already busy enough. The Queensryche lead singer is in the middle of putting the finishing touches on the band’s latest studio concept record, for starters. Additionally, he’s in the process of mixing and dubbing a new solo album that will be released later next year. He’s also gearing up to shoot a role in an MTV-produced movie in October.

On top of all that, Tate and his wife are launching their own brand of wine — called “Insania.” It’s actually the wine project that led Tate to form a side band that will perform a limited number of dates on a mini-tour that kicks off tonight at the Depot in Salt Lake City.

There is a promotional barrel tasting for the wine on Saturday in Walla Walla, Wash., and Tate’s wife suggested he also do a show there.

“That sounded like a fun idea,” said Tate in a recent phone interview from his home in Seattle, “so I just called everybody that I’ve been hanging out with lately. ‘Hey, you want to get together and play some songs?’ And it kind of turned into a show.”

Tate ended up putting together an eight-piece band that includes a few familiar faces — notably Queensryche drummer Scott Rockenfield, vocalist Pamela Moore (who sang the role of Sister Mary in Queensryche’s “Operation: mindcrime” production), and former Third Eye Blind bassist Jason Slater. Rounding out the band are vocalist Jason Ames (an Italian pop star), keyboardist Ben Anderson, and guitarists Parker Lundgren and Joe Mulkern.

“It will be really fun,” Tate said of tonight’s Salt Lake appearance — the opening date on the four-show promo tour. “One thing that is kind of neat about this show is although I’m doing a lot of my solo material, I’m also doing a lot of Queensryche stuff. What we’re doing is, we’re doing kind of re-arrangements on some of the familiar songs, and then we’re also playing songs that Queensryche doesn’t normally play live. Kind of giving our Queensryche fans something special, you know.”

Any band that has churned out as many hits as Queensryche — which reached its commercial peak in the 1990s with songs such as “Silent Lucidity,” “Jet City Woman,” “Another Rainy Night,” “Empire” and “Anybody Listening?” — faces the same dilemma in concert. Namely, feeling locked into a certain number of songs that fans expect them to play.

“It’s more like demand that you play,” Tate said with a laugh, noting that it’s been a lot of fun working up some of the band’s deeper album cuts in rehearsals for this tour. “It’s actually very satisfying because they’re songs I’ve always wanted to perform live, but never had the chance to — and the same with Scott. This is really a treat for us as well.”

As for the stage show, Tate said fans should expect “an elegantly casual presentation,” and not the elaborate visual productions that Queensryche is known for.

“We just kind of all got together and started jamming out stuff and working on some of the songs from my upcoming album and also playing some of the solo stuff,” Tate said. “And then we said, ‘Hey, let’s throw some Queensryche stuff in there and see what that’s like.’ And it was really fun to play these different versions, you know, different people’s interpretations of the songs, which I always like. In fact, when I hear cover bands do our stuff, I love hearing that — other people’s versions of it, because it’s very difficult, apparently, from what I’ve been told, to cover Queensryche.”

After this short run of solo dates, which ends Sunday in Spokane, Wash., Tate will simply pick up one of his many other irons in the fire — completing the next Queensryche album, currently titled “Bob.”

“Bob?”

“Yeah, ‘Bob.’ It all started years ago when we recorded our first demo on a cassette tape that belonged to this guy named Bob,” Tate said. “And he’d written his name in, like, really dark pen, and he wrote it, actually, on the case that the cassette was in, so it never came off. So after that, we always put each demo in that same case, and we called it “Bob.” And it became this weird tradition that every album is called “Bob” until we actually have a title.”

Geoff Tate, the talented frontman of the multiplatinum progressive metal band Queensryche, will perform at The Depot Sept. 18 with an eight-piece band of virtuosos backing him.
But enough about music. Let’s talk about the wine.

Tate’s touring to promote Insania, a Bordeaux-style wine he developed at Three Rivers Winery in Walla Walla, Wash.

“I’m a wine collector but not a wino,” Tate said in an interview from his home state of Washington. “I’ve tried it in so many countries that I’ve come to appreciate it.”

Several years ago, Tate met Holly Turner, a winemaker at Three Rivers Winery. They struck up a friendship, and eventually Geoff Tate in concert at The Depot. Turner offered the singer the opportunity to try his hand at crafting a wine blend.

“He had been thinking of making his own wine,” Turner said from the vineyard, harvesting grapes as she talked on a cell phone. “There’s no reason not to do it.”

Tate had loved the Bordeaux wines he sipped while on Queensryche tours in France, so he worked with Turner to make a Bordeaux-style wine blend of four grapes – Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot – cultivated in Washington state.

After trial and error, Tate said, he found a flavor that “expresses how I feel about wine,” which he said was a great dark fruit, with a nice, long finish. “When you taste it, you’ll know why it’s called Insania,” Turner said.

Futures of Geoff Tate’s Insania Red Wine are available at $35 per bottle by contacting the winery at 509-526-WINE. Wine will be bottled and shipped in February.

It will still be in the bottling process when Tate comes to perform at The Depot, so the wine won’t be available, but speaking of music, his one-of-kind, soulful voice will be.

He’s bringing an eight-piece band that includes the drummer of Queensryche and a member of the 1990s rock band Third Eye Blind. Together, the musicians will perform much of Tate’s 2002 solo album, as well as some Queensryche material the group has never performed live before.

But even with the winemaking and solo tour, Tate still has time for Queensryche. Right before he arrives in Salt Lake City, Tate and Queensryche are schedule to record their next album during the day, with Tate rehearsing his solo band at night.

And, if the mood strikes him, he’ll stop and sip a glass of wine.

David Burger writes about popular music. Contact him at dburger@sltrib.com or 801-257-8620.

Hot on the heels of his Insania wine collaboration with Walla Walla, Washington-based 3 Rivers Winery (www.threeriverswinery.com), Geoff Tate of Queensryche has announced that he will be performing a series of exclusive solo shows in conjunction with its slated release.

On Saturday, September 20, a special performance will take place at 3 Rivers Winery with three additional performances taking place the Thursday and Friday before and the Sunday after at the Depot in Salt Lake City, Utah, Knitting Factory in Boise, Idaho and the Knitting Factory in Spokane, Washington, respectively.

The September 20th show at the winery will include dinner and there will be a pre-show wine tasting for those interested. http://www.threeriverswinery.com/events/?event=119

The forthcoming September shows will mark his first solo performances since 2002 and it’s likely that more promotional tour dates surrounding the official launch of the new red wine signature blend will be announced shortly.

Joining Geoff on stage will be his 8 piece band with Scott Rockenfield on drums, Parker Lundgren and Joe Mulkern on Guitars, Jason Slater on Bass guitar, Ben Anderson on Keys and Jason Ames and Pamela Moore on Backing vocals.

Orders for “Insania” (a Latin word meaning insanity, irrationality, madness) are now being taken by the winery although the wine will not be available until sometime early next year.

“Insania is a creative project similar to the process of making music,” comments Tate who has been deeply involved in the wine making process with 3 Rivers Winery. “Wine has been an important part of my life and the creation of Insania is yet another avenue to express my creativity and give my fans something more they can enjoy. With a limited production, I hope everyone who loves wine will join me in this wonderful new venture.”