QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT Kick Off North American Tour In Chicago; Video Available

QUEEN has returned to North America for a 24-date arena tour with "American Idol" finalist Adam Lambert once again fronting the band. Video footage of the kick-off concert, which took place last night (Thursday, June 19) at Chicago's United Center, can be seen below.

"On the technical side, it's definitely more of a production than two years ago," Lambert told RollingStone.com. "We've got a lot more cities to visit and so I think we all decided to build up the visuals and the stage accordingly."

Regarding the prospect of filling late QUEEN singer Freddie Mercury's shoes, Lambert told RollingStone.com: "It's not an easy feat. I think a lot of the apprehension has faded because we've done this a number of times in the past couple of years. That's not to suggest I'm getting cocky at all, because I will never compare to Freddie Mercury. He's one in a million. At this point, I know how to strike a balance between honoring the way these songs were originally meant to be sung and my own instincts, my own choices."

QUEEN members Brian May and Roger Taylor recently admitted that their current collaboration with Lambert is a better fit than their previous involvement with legendary rock singer Paul Rodgers.

In 2008, May and Taylor, who had been touring with Rodgers as QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS, released the chart bomb, "The Cosmos Rocks", before calling it a day as a trio and a recording entity — despite a string of globally sold-out concerts.

"Paul has one of the greatest rock voices but it's more blues- and soul-orientated I would have thought," Taylor told the Toronto Sun. "I would say, with all due respect to Paul, that Adam is more suited to a lot of our material and whereas we had great tours with Paul, I think Adam is more naturally at home with us." May concurred and added that Lambert's remarkable range and flamboyant stage presence are much more in line with those of QUEEN's original singer, Freddie Mercury. "Yeah, I think the styles match more closely in a sense," May said. "But we had a great time with Paul, no doubt about it, and it kind of stretched it to a new place and, I think, a thoroughly good experience. But Adam is really… Like us, he has many, many colors, so we can explore some of those strange excursions that QUEEN likes to."

QUEEN's North American tour with Lambert winds down on July 28 at Toronto, Ontario's Air Canada Centre.

"It's surreal," Lambert told the Toronto Sun about performing with QUEEN. "Having auditioned with 'Bohemian Rhapsody' on 'American Idol', and this weird full-circle gorgeous dream come true. When we did our first [tour] run, like giving a full set, it was definitely was intimidating. The idea that I would be in front of QUEEN die-hard fans and I was taking on a large chunk of the catalogue and it was a short time to put it together. And we did it and I think it turned out really, really beautifully, and then when the Vegas thing happened [September 2013 appearance at the iHeartRadio Festival], I feel like it really grounded itself a little bit more."

The threesome first shared the stage during "American Idol" in May 2009 for a performance of "We Are The Champions". They teamed up again in 2011 at the MTV European Music Awards in Belfast, Ireland for an electrifying eight-minute finale of "The Show Must Go On", "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions" and in the summer of 2012, Lambert performed a series of shows with QUEEN across Europe as well as dates in Russia, Ukraine and Poland. They also performed three sold-out gigs at London’s Hammersmith Apollo.