While I'm a big Paul Rodgers fan, I, too, wondered about how he would sound in place of the late Freddie Mercury.
They ran excerpts of these shows on PBS here in Nashville last week, and it IS wonderful. PR sounded just great on this material. Different, certainly, and he wisely steered clear of some tunes where FM had sung with lots of falsetto, etc. It actually reminded me that FM, like a lot of singers, was good at his material, but probably wouldn't sound so hot on other material, and I certainly mean NO disrespect to Freddie's memory. But there's lots of singers in that category. PR is one of those singers that can reach across a lot of different styles and make it work.
But to tell you the truth, what REALLY blew me away was Brian May . . . he sounds better than ever. Must be in the same club with David Gilmour and Jeff Beck, the older they get, the hotter they burn!
Danny Miranda 'played the gig', but looked out of place visually, and geez, if I was making that kind of money, you can bet your last dollar I'd hardly be playing a PBass and SVTs!!! Don't know why they weren't using Dave Bronze or Pino or Guy Pratt. Tony Levin would have been PERFECT for this. Oh well . . .
J o e y