The hatred for Geoff Tate that has been expressed by Queensryche fans these days is astounding to me. Possessing the mentality of middle school bullies, the things that these people have had to say about Geoff Tate are as asinine, pompous, and downright ugly as how they feel Tate himself is. It’s not that
In all reality, the hate towards this Geoff Tate is absolutely staggering and almost completely based on 2nd hand word of mouth information. If you don’t like Tate or what he’s done artistically with Queensryche that’s fine and you have every right to not like that but let’s be honest here, those guys are all big boys. If they truly hated the direction that QR was heading in (starting as early on as Hear in the Now Frontier), they could’ve jumped ship a long time ago or done what they needed to do to part ways with him. Instead, they hung on and went along with everything. At the end of it all, Tate is as much entitled to use the QR name as those other guys are. He is as much responsible for the legacy of their creative output as the other guys are.
Anyways, as I said before, the Hate for Tate is borderline comical and not even Jon Leon of White Wizzard has ever received this kind of hate. Not too long ago I went to my Brainfart Facebook page and I asked on question: Why The Hate For Tate? Well, the replies were amazing and just to give you an example of them, I chose my favorite ones and thought I would do the editorial thing and offer my own $0.02 on the hate. Here we go:
“Geoff Tate did well with Queensryche in the beginning. He did very well for Queensryche up until, and including, EMPIRE. But after Chris DeGarmo left Tate changed. The whole band changed, and it wasn’t for the better. Now 20 years later they’ve moved on without him, and they sound awesome whereas Geoff’s version is just a sad parody of a cover band with an overweight, bald, has been singer.”
Ok. First off, here we go again with the whole “The band changed when DeGarmo left.” Well, last time I checked DeGarmo was still in the band when they released “Hear in the Now Frontier” which was horrible and even returned to do “Tribe” which in all honesty are two of the worst things the band ever did. I know Tate and Co. changed and that Tate lead a lot of that change. The guy wanted to go in new directions and didn’t always get it right but deal with it. He’s an artist who doesn’t want work within the same box constantly. Also, I love the classy name calling here. This is always a great way to make your point. Do your best to sound like a 3rd grade nenny nenny booboo name caller and people will take you seriously!
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“Since Tate had nothing to do with the naming of the band and in fact wasn’t even an official member of the
band when they signed a management deal and released the EP, he really has no rights to the name. The whole band is intact minus CDG, and that my friend is the ORIGINAL founding members. Tate can’t even call himself that. So tribute? No no, not here. Spuds and the Sarzos and Oven Mitts are a tribute band, and I’ve heard better in a bar.”
Spuds? Oven Mitts? You got to love this broad. Her name is Danae and you’ve probably seen her mug on FB ranting about how much she hates Geoff Tate and showcasing her freakish and at times borderline psychotic fanaticism of Todd LaTorre and Co. Watching her YouTube rants and attempts at being funny are similar to seeing someone whose friends say is funny flop at an Open Mic Night. Anyways, Danae was so wrapped up in her fandom and clever name calling that wasn’t even funny (cue the crickets) that she stated this classic “fact”: “The whole band is intact minus CDG (Chris DeGarmo).” Well, the band is not “intact” if it’s missing one of its key founding members. That’s like saying, “This cheeseburger is completely intact except for the half that I ate.” And to call Tate’s version a cover band (or lack thereof) is fine but why not call the other version a Tribute band? I mean after all, they got a singer that sounds exactly like Tate did about 10 years ago. Oh people! Again, the hate is so comical while they remain completely unfunny.
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“The year we played Rocklahoma he insulated the entire audience continuously because his performance was putting them all to sleep. He was an ass. I would have fired him from my band too after that. I’m glad he treats you well but you don’t treat fans like that who pay good money to see you.”
Ok. So Queensryche went on last on the last of 3 long days of “rock” and I saw the footage of that crowd and guess what? That crowd sucked. It’s no lie that these days rock audiences are lame as fuck and ya know what? I think it’s about time people start calling them out for that. Geoff just said to that crowd what we all wish either we could say to a crowd or what more bands would say to their crowd? Remember that story about how back in the Sabbath days Ozzy got pissed because everyone was just sitting there and he picked up Bill Ward’s bass drum and threw it at them yelling for them to, “Get off your assholes and fucking rock.”? Rock/metal crowds are weak these days and they don’t give back nearly what the band gives each and every night. Again, I just see it as Geoff saying what we all think and feel.
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“Not really a hater but the phone tossing incident got me. Also telling the crowd they suck is not cool (I can forgive that more than the phone tossing incident).”
Once again, this is a prime example of Geoff Tate just doing what we all wish we could do ourselves.
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“He’s a pompous ass, albeit a great singer.”
I can name 10 singers off the top of my head who are pompous asses and are HORRIBLE singers. You’re point is?
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The hate for Geoff Tate is a pretty funny thing. At the same time, it’s really a sad thing too as Tate is a human being with feelings. Regardless of what you, the “fan” or “hater”, think you know about him, all you know is what you think you know. The excessive display of hate shares the mentality of a two bit grade school bully. The energy, the message board posts, and the YouTube pages with the horribly failed attempts at humor are all just fuel to the fire. If you truly don’t like something, don’t talk about it, don’t acknowledge it, and maybe it will go away. In the case of Geoff Tate, he is taking that fuel, turning it into fire, and sitting back over a glass of wine while he watches you all make complete asses of yourself.
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