4D z FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 2019 z USA TODAY LIFE
We all have those musical acts –the
indisputable “greats” of their genre, be-
loved by millions of fans around the
world, whose popularity you may un-
derstand and talent you can appreciate
on an objective level, but whose music
you just viscerally don’t enjoy.
That’s my relationship with Queen.
Sorry, but it’s true.
As someone who gets paid to write
about music, it’d be professionally irre-
sponsible of me not to acknowledge
Freddie Mercury’s greatness, or that
several of their hits are top-tier rock
songs – those are just facts.
And yet, I always change the station
when “Bohemian Rhapsody” comes on.
Last year, I cringed my way through the
Oscar-winning run of their biopic. I gen-
erally think they’re among the more
overrated bands of their generation.
That’s how I ended up at Madison
Square Garden on Tuesday night, with a
dancing-in-their-chairs group of Boom-
ers next to me and several screaming
teens behind me, genuinely curious
whether Queen and Adam Lambert’s
current live show could make me more
of a believer.
I swear, I wanted to see the light. I
rooted for Adam Lambert during his
“American Idol” run, and when he was
announced as the band’s touring front
man eight years ago, I thought the deci-
sion was smart. And while I don’t have
an encyclopedic knowledge of Queen’s
discography, I’ve listened enough be-
yond the hits to make what I consider an
informed opinion, that their music was
largely brainless pastiche and has been
elevated to classic status on the
strength of Mercury’s dynamic pres-
ence.
Lambert has toured with founding
Queen members Brian May and Roger
Taylor for years, and executing a concert
on that scale is no easy feat. In that re-
gard, the show’s two hours unfolded
without a hitch, despite Lambert allud-
ing to “technical difficulties” early in
their set. The impressive visuals were
there, with Lambert emerging from a
trapdoor lounging on a motorcycle to
sing “I Want to Ride My Bicycle,” and
May rising to the rafters on top of an
enormous screen to play a solo guitar in-
terlude as projections of planets floated
around his head.
Dripping in sequins and gold, Lam-
bert channeled the more opulent as-
pects of Mercury’s persona in his cos-
tuming, rather than actually wearing
the tight muscle tees best associated
with Mercury’s own onstage looks. And
the songs were dutifully faithful rendi-
tions of the versions fans know and
love, asLambert is blessed with the kind
of voice that can replicate any of Mercu-
ry’s most difficult vocal runs.
Going into the show, I feared the
songs’ magic would be lost, and I wasright, but not in the way I thought. Lam-
bert and Queen’s performances –like
those any skilled cover band –were
pitch-perfect. They were also soulless.
Several songs into the show, Lambert
walked to the front of the catwalk to ad-
dress what he called the “pink elephant”
in the room.
“I’m not Freddie,” he told the Madi-
son Square Garden audience. “And
there is no replacing the rock god known
as Freddie Mercury. I’m just the same as
all of you. I am also a big fan; I’m just up
here in the suit.
“So if you can make me a promise to-
night, that we will celebrate Freddie and
Queen, together, I will make you a prom-
ise,” he finished, before singing his first
few words of “Don’t Stop Me Now,” amp-
ing up the energy after an opening run of
songs that drew a relatively-subdued
crowd response.
“Tonight, I'm gonna have myself a
real good time ...”
While a speech of that sort was need-
ed in the context of the show, Lambert’s
choice of words struck me as borderline
cynical, telling an audience that boughttickets to see Queen, the band, that the
night was really “a celebration of
‘Queen, the band,’” absolving them from
delivering a show that anyone could
judge as sub-par.
I thought, "This isn’t a jukebox mu-
sical, which celebrates a band’s hits
while removing the expectation that the
actors will mimic the real-life musicians
they’re playing."
I signed up to see a rock show, with
the actual members of Queen, alongside
Lambert, a singer they hired to best rep-
resent Mercury onstage. I expected to
see, if not a Mercury-level performance,
a show that was actively striving to
come close. Was this a cop-out?
Perhaps that’s why I left the show
wanting more, and feeling disappointed
for any actual Queen fans who walked
out of the venue wanting the same. I
wanted to see the life, and the effort,
that made Mercury an iconic front man.
I wanted the perfect falsetto, but I want-
ed it delivered with fire. I wanted to see
Lambert sweat, and yell, and at the very
least, move around the stage with more
dynamism than the deliberate amble he
kept as his pace throughout the show.
Instead, I got a concert-hall version
of Queen with a choir-boy Freddie Mer-
cury when, as I increasingly realized as
the show went on, all I really wanted
was something remotely authentic.
And while I came into a concert that I
was predisposed to hate with the most
open mind I could muster, I fully gave up
hope when Lambert shrugged his way
through one of my all-time favorite Mer-
cury moments, the line in “Under
Pressure”where he sings “Can't we give
ourselves one more chance?” like the
life is being squeezed out of him.
I'm genuinely happy for any Queen-
adoring fan who comes away from the
band's current tour with their beliefs
about the band's legacy confirmed. Un-
fortunately for me, Tuesday's show con-
firmed mine.REVIEW
Queen concert has skeptic wanting more
Maeve McDermott
Columnist
USA TODAYAdam Lambert leads Queen at the band’s Aug. 7 show in New York.
GREG ALLEN/INVISION/APtions control center.
Spirit has a new clock at the airline’s
operations control center with the num-
ber of days, hours, minutes and seconds
since the last flight cancellation within
the airline’s control. When it’s reset, the
department that was to blame has to
push the remote, Christopher said.
Flying Spirit around the country
To test fly Spirit, I picked seven
flights across the country over five days
in late July, departing on a Friday after-
noon and returning late Tuesday. The
itinerary: Chicago-Las Vegas-Los Ange-
les-Dallas-New York-Fort Lauderdale-
Raleigh-Chicago.
There was a mix of short and long
flights, including two of the airline’s
busiest routes, Chicago-Las Vegas and
New York-Fort Lauderdale, duringpeak
and nonpeak times (1:30 a.m. arrival
into Dallas, or 6:30 a.m. flight from New
York’s LaGuardia Airport, anyone?).
Until then, I had taken only one Spirit
flight: an uncomfortable 30-minute hop
between Florida and the Bahamas in
2011.My knees were jammed into the
seat in front of me. (The airline has since
gotten new seats, going from a flat back
to a curved back to offer more legroom,
and even better seats are on the way,
Christopher said).
But I knew what I was getting into.
Spirit pioneered the a-la-carte model –
it now calls it “a la smarte”– that has
been gradually copied by major airline
competitors in the past decade. The
only major things Spirit charges for that
American, Delta and United still offer
for free: carry-on bags and in-flight
snacks and soda, juice and water. (Unit-
ed doesn’t allow a free carry-on with its
basic economy fares.)
It also crams more seats onto its
planes than other airlines and has zero
in-flight entertainment, no Wi-Fi,
movies or even an airline magazine.
It’s worth noting that I booked the
flights last minute, all but a couple less
than a week out, so in most cases didn’t
nab any of those eye-popping fares
Spirit advertises. Translation: I didn’t go
into the trip with an “I can tolerate any-
thing because I paid virtually nothing’’
mentality.
The priciest trip, from Dallas Fort
Worth International Airport to New
York LaGuardia and, a day later, New
York to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was
$400, or $562 including a bag and Spir-
it’s comfy, first-class-like Big Front
Seats on each leg. The base fare was
about $100 cheaper than competitors
were offering at the time.Booking : An exercise in patienceThe most stressful part of flying Spir-
it, in my experience at least, was buying
tickets on the airline’s website.
It’s not as simple as picking your
flights and pulling out your credit card.
There are so many decisions to make.
Join the $9 fare club, which offers
discounts on airfare and bags, or not? I
did because I was booking multiple
flights and recovered the $60 one-year
club fee in fare and baggage-fee savings
on the first flight.
There’s math: buy a bundle of perks
called the Thrills Combo or pay for
things like bags and seats separately? I
only purchased it for one flight, from Los
Angeles to Dallas, for $54 and that cov-
ered a carry-on bag, a checked bag, an
exit-row seat, priority boarding, double
frequent-flyer miles and a one-time
waiver of Spirit’s $90 change fee. I
didn’t need most of those perks so prob-
ably overspent.
Another decision: pay for a seat or
chance it? If you don’t pay for a seat,
Spirit assigns one for free during online
check-in or at the airport, as its compet-
itors do with their basic economy fares.
Spirit passengers can reserve, in or-
der of price, a regular seat, exit-row seat
or one of the Big Front Seats, if available.
The fees vary by flight and are dynamic,
so you’ll pay more as the flight ap-
proaches if it’s full. My seat fees for sev-
en flights totaled $147, the bulk of it to
reserve the Big Front Seats on two
flights.
Yet another decision: pay for bags
now or at the airport? I paid in advance
for a carry-on bag for every flight be-
cause a) I couldn’t cram my clothes, toi-
letries and laptop into the “personal
item’’ Spirit allows for free, b) didn’t
want to check a bag, even though it wascheaper and c) Spirit charges more for
bags at the airport.Repacking stationsI never had to wait in a check-in line
since I was traveling with a carry-on bag
but did notice this before almost every
flight: travelers yanking stuff from their
suitcases in the airport lobby because
their bag was overweight. Spirit’s
weight allowance for checked bags is 40
pounds, versus 50 at most carriers.
(Travelers who buy one of Spirit’s com-
bo packages get a 50-pound allowance.)
The airline has set up repacking sta-
tions, complete with signage, to try to
keep things orderly.
One of the few wrinkles in my trip
happened ahead of the first flight, from
Chicago to Las Vegas. I had problems
checking in on Spirit’s mobile app (a
problem that would resurface) so
switched to my laptop and checked in
without a problem.Now boarding Zone 1A big plus of paying for the carry-on
bag fee: you get to board first, in Zone 1,
regardless of where you’re sitting on the
plane or whether you paid for your seat
assignment.
The Zone 1 line was the shortest
boarding line on each of my flights, and
if you somehow missed the call to board,
you still got to jump the line after regular
boarding started. Not paying for a carry-
on? You can pay a “shortcut boarding
fee” to get in Zone 1.
Even though the gate areas were
packed with passengers, the overall
boarding process was orderly, better
than I’ve seen on some Southwest Air-
lines flights. (Southwest famously
doesn’t assign seats, instead, assigning
boarding positions, and passengers
then are free to pick any open seat.)Tiny tray tables, $3 CokesI got lucky, and Spirit assigned me
aisle seats on the first two flights after I
declined to pay to reserve a seat, despite
several nudges that it was an option.
Both were in the back of the plane,
which didn’t bother me because that
was closer to the bathroom.
The first thing I noticed when I
plunked down in seat 29D on the Airbus
A320 from Chicago to Las Vegas, my
first flight, had nothing to do with leg-
room or seat comfort or the lack of a tra-
ditional seatback pocket. (Let’s call it a
seatback net, which holds nothing more
than the safety information card and
the drink and food menu.)
It was the tiny tray table, about the
size of a business envelope or smallclutch. It’s sturdy, but a laptop swallows
it. It fits a drink, a phone and a snack. In
seven flights, I don’t recall seeing any
passengers using laptops on the tray ta-
ble. One passenger in front of me awk-
wardly opened his laptop on the empty
seat next to him.
About those much-maligned Spirit
seats: Unless you’re used to flying first
class or paying up for cushier seats on
other airlines, they are perfectly fine. I
was in an ordinary seat for four of the
seven flights (three aisle seats and a
window).
About those much-praised Big
Front Seats: Splurge if you can afford it,
especially if you nabbed a cheap fare. I
paid $60 for one of the seats from Dallas
to New York and $41 from New York to
Fort Lauderdale. The large, comfy seats
are in the first couple rows of the plane
with no middle seat. Leg room and el-
bow room are plentiful, and there’s a
headrest and traditional seatback pock-
et. Note that these seats don’t recline.
A happy medium: an exit row seat.
An exit row seat came with the Thrills
Combo I purchased on one of the flights.
The asking price for an exit-row seat on
my flights was $14 for a short flight (Las
Vegas-Los Angeles) and $32 for a long
flight (Chicago-Las Vegas.) Prices vary
by flight and other factors.
Hungry or thirsty? Bring your own
(except alcohol) or pull out your credit
card. Friendly Spirit flight attendants
wheel the food and drink cart down the
aisle like flight attendants on other air-
lines, but their trips are quicker be-
cause, at least on my flights, sales of $3
cokes, $4 peanut M&Ms and $9 Buzz-
Ballzpremade cocktails weren’t brisk.
Another passenger asked if anything,
including water, was free? “No,” the
flight attendant replied. Flight atten-
dants also warn passengers that they
are not allowed to drink their own alco-
hol on the flights.
BYOE: Bring your own entertain-
ment.With most major airlines offering
Wi-Fi (usually for a fee) and many, in-
cluding Southwest, offering free mes-
saging, it was hard to be disconnected
on Spirit flights. (The airline says Wi-Fi
is coming, but it’s taking longer than ex-
pected.)
My flights were all on time: Chalk it
up to a combination of good weather
across the country, good luck and Spir-
it’s focus on its operation, but my seven
Spirit flights went off without a hitch.
And, aside from a lengthy delay on a
flight from Los Angeles to Chicago at a
neighboring gate, I didn’t see a spate of
Spirit flight troubles in my travels
through seven airports. I’d fly the airline
again even if my employer wasn’t pay-
ing, especially if Spirit’s fares were
cheaper and it wasn’t a red-eye.Spirit
Continued from Page 1D
A Spirit Airlines Airbus jet at McCarran
International Airport in Las Vegas.
DAWN GILBERTSON/USA TODAY