In February 2027, it will be 50 years since this reporter saw British rock legends Queen in concert, at the old Philadelphia Convention Hall and Civic Center.

Tickets were General Admission, which meant the venue opened its doors and we all ran like heck to get as near to the stage as possible. We ended up close for sure, but all squished together.

When lead singer Freddie Mercury greeted us between songs, he said something like, “My darlings, you all look very nice, but a bit like sardines.”

Meanwhile, I was curious about their signature song “Bohemian Rhapsody.” How would they do the “opera” section, I wondered? You know, when the song shifts into all those insane vocals?

Well, Queen left the stage, spotlighted a huge mirrored disco ball, while a tape played all those “Galileos” and Figaros.” The group returned to the stage for the song’s rollicking finale, and it was wild.

When I told this to Mike McManus, guitarist for Queen Nation, he stated that their group, a note-for-note tribute to Queen, does not leave the stage for the opera part of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” no sir.

“We turn it into this big karaoke session,” he says, speaking by phone from California. “We play the music, then point to the audience, and they take it from there. It’s an awesome heart-pumping wall of cacophony. Expect to lose your voice.”

Queen Nation will play Saturday night, June 13 at the Performance Pavilion at Morven Museum and Garden, with such smash hits as “We Will Rock You,” “Somebody to Love,” and yes, “Bohemian Rhapsody” on the program.

But, perhaps there will be some deep cuts from earlier albums, as well?

“Sure, we play the big songs, but we’ll also take a lesser-known song from this or that album,” McManus says. “It keeps things fresh for us, as well as the people who have seen us many, many times.”

“There are two sides of Queen,” he says. “There’s their massive production and studio skills, and then there’s Queen live, just four guys in a rock band. With Queen Nation, we take the studio sound and incorporate it into the show. So it’s kind of half live and half studio, true to what people remember about Queen’s arrangements.”

One of the big differences between Queen Nation and other tribute bands, who base the shows around a star lead singer performing as Freddie Mercury, is that all four members are performing as the guys from Queen.

“We have Greg Finsley as Freddie, but we also dress up like the other members of Queen,” McManus says. “It’s really like you’re going to see Queen around 1980.”

In addition to his guitar work and stage moves, McManus’ garb of black clothes and white vest (or vice versa), his lanky frame and mane of curly black hair help him to really resemble Queen guitarist Brian May. 

Although, May’s hair has gone silver and white, so much so that he resembles Isaac Newton. (Technically, we should say “Sir Brian May,” who was knighted by King Charles III in 2023.)

Lead vocalist and keyboardist Gregory Finsley has an impressive range, and after 22 years sounds so much like Mercury, he might be channeling the late singer from the other side.

Drummer Pete Burke has the same circa-1980 blonde hair and powerhouse chops as Roger Taylor. Bassist Parker Combs allows Queen fans to kind of see John Deacon again who, in reality, retired from the group and the music industry in 1997.  

Queen Nation was formed in 2004 by David Hewitt of Southern California-based DMH Enterprises. Since then, the band has performed more than 1,750 shows over the last 20-plus years, across the United States and internationally. In fact, McManus said Queen Nation had just returned from a private concert in Costa Rica when we spoke.

“We play anywhere we’re invited, even bar mitzvahs,” McManus says. “We do a rock and romance cruise, a ‘70s cruise – and we’ll be there with real bands from that time period, like Cheap Trick, Air Supply, America, Kansas, Don Felder, etc.” 

Born and raised in the suburbs of Boston and loving his dad’s Beatles albums from an early age, McManus could sing every song on “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” by age six. 

It was through this and other classic albums that he acquired a taste for melodic ‘70s arena rock bands such as Queen and Cheap Trick. 

“My dad had all this great music, records by Crosby, Stills and Nash, Mamas and Papas, Simon and Garfunkel, all the cool stuff,” McManus says. “I’m a little kid, and my brain is infused with some of the best music ever written, filled with melodies and harmonies. It’s always stuck with me.”

The first time McManus heard Queen, it was on his father’s car radio. He was doing his homework in the house when his dad called from the driveway, “Come down to the car and listen to these guitars and harmonies.” (But imagine this said with a Boston Irish accent, as he tells it.)

“The song was ‘Killer Queen,’” he recalls. “Then my dad heard ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ went out and bought ‘A Night at the Opera,’ and we listened to the album from beginning to end.”

McManus says his dad also took him and his brother to see Queen in 1980 and ’82.

“That first concert, we had 20th row seats on the floor, and they cost something like $7 a piece,” he says.

After high school, McManus enrolled in the Berklee College of Music in Boston, then went to and graduated from University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He left Boston for Los Angeles, to pursue a professional music career.

Although all four members love the band, McManus is the only one to have encountered an original member in person. He had the good fortune to meet May when the musician and author (who also has a Ph.D. in Astrophysics) had a book signing in Hollywood.

“I thought, ‘I’ve waited 35 years to meet this guy, what do I say to him?’” McManus says. 

He was afraid the line was too long and May was growing weary of nutty fans expressing their love with too much enthusiasm and goofiness.

“Brian was really worn out, and I thought they were going to close things down before I got to meet him,” he says. “Finally, I got him to sign my book, and I said ‘thank you for being the guy who is the reason I play guitar and write music.’”

A true fan who loves the deep cuts and early albums, McManus enthused about the recently remixed “Queen II.”

“I put my headphones on and listened from beginning to end,” he says. “Queen went back and took the original tapes and tweaked them, and the result is phenomenal. This is what ‘Queen II’ would have sounded like if they’d had today’s technology.”

When the nascent Queen Nation tapped him to complete the band’s line-up, McManus buckled down and began learning all of May’s guitar parts as well as transcribing the band’s harmonies, which was not an easy task.

“I didn’t think I could gain any more respect for Brian May and Queen than I already had,” he says. “My respect for them doubled when I sat down to learn these songs.”

Queen Nation, at the Performance Pavilion at Morven, Princeton, Saturday, June 13, 7 p.m. Tickets cost: $50-$135, half price for youths 5-17. (609) 497-0020. www.princetonsymphony.org/festival. Queen Nation on the Web: www.queennation.com.