Forty-eight minutes into Saturday night’s inaugural show, featuring the Queen tribute band Celebrating Queen at the newly renovated Rockwell Theater, the lights went out.

The band was thumping their way through a high-energy rendition of the high-energy “Tie Your Mother Down,” with the audience singing along when the sound and lights blinked off and did not come back on, a consequence of a lighting strike.

Fans were not deprived, though, because the signature moment of the night occurred during the power outage. Lead singer Joe Archambault, without missing a beat quickly changed gears.

Accompanied by Shane McDonald on piano, Archambeault entertained the audience by providing an impromptu performance of several songs. The highlight was the audience sing-along of Queen’s most note worth composition, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which featured the introduction, operatic passage, the hard rock section, and the ballad-like coda.

“Joe was fantastic,” said Tom Burns, who drove from Westbrook for the evening show. “The people around me were all smiling and happy and excited and singing themselves.”

“I knew the power of Joe’s voice and his acoustic abilities so when the power went out, I was hoping he would sing without the mic, and he did beautifully,” he said. “‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was off the charts.”

Following the sing-along, Archambault told the audience that the emergency power, which was a few lights, would only last another 15 minutes and everyone had to leave.

The power went out at 8:50 p.m. The cause was reportedly lightning hitting a transmission line, knocking out power to 14,000 Bristol homes.

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