Judas Priest Live with all the leather you can imagine and more.
CONCERT REVIEW
Artist: Judas Priest
Supporting Acts: Corrosion of Conformity, Alice Cooper
Date: October 12
Venue: Utah First Credit Union Amphitheater
City: West Valley City Utah
There was a Saturday afternoon in the spring of 1986, as was the custom in my house, to watch “BBC In America” music segments for all of us die-hard fans of British music. They played a special retro clip of Judas Priest at the BBC. There they were, decked out with awesome hair, leather everywhere, and Rob Halford looking totally bad-ass. Having seen the Live Aid performance a year earlier, and some other live clips, I was thinking this was gonna be something. Only it wasn’t. Halford looked absolutely bored, barely awake, uninterested in what he was doing, and I think he was even chewing gum in this performance. After these other live performances where they just killed it, brought the house down, and were, by even just a few concert film standards, one of the best live acts in metal, why did they look like they were just there practicing for a couple of dozen high school kids? Well, I found out a while later the answer, Rob Halford is one of the greatest metal voices of all time, and he is kind of a simple guy, he just wants to sing heavy metal. Why did he look like he hated that whole experience? Well, they were all lip-syncing (Which was the practice at the BBC at the time), and Halford was not really allowed to do what he loves so much, and do what he loves the most, that is to SING, and make use of those amazing vocal chords he was blessed with.
Rob Halford has fronted the legendary metal band Judas Priest since 1969 (aside from a gap in the ’90s), giving them roughly 55 years as a powerhouse act. I have covered them before, on their tour in 22, at their delayed “50 Years of Metal” tour (A heart attack on tour for a guitarist, and that pandemic pushed that tour back a bit), letting all of you know that one of the greatest metal vocalists of all time Rob Halford is an extremely proud gay man, opening the door for queer folk and fans alike into the metal culture.
This year, Judas Priest has just completed their “Penultimate” tour, as a sort of dress rehearsal for their “One Last Ride” tour to kick off next year.
Never a band to rest on their laurels, though they could easily do that, I think they just love playing live, as their gig in West Valley City, Utah, showed us; it might as well be 1980.
Opening for Judas Priest on this tour was one of my high school fave punk bands “Corrosion of Conformity” doing a crossover metal set, and long time rock theatrical icon Alice Cooper, who is known for his appearances in “Wayne’s World”, also for impaling people on stage, electrocutions, a guillotine, and god knows what else over the years, they have been at it long enough to be friends with Judas Priest, and make an evening of unreal happiness for metal fans.
With the stage looking like it was built, not for “Ego Ramps” but an actual METALFEST, the intro tape played “War Pigs” By Black Sabbath, one of those longtime rock bands that hatched onto the scene at similar times as Alice Cooper and Judas Priest. With band members walking onstage playing their instruments, the tape switched to “Painkiller” for a much different experience than the last time I saw them.
With Halford on stage and everyone ready, the Judas Priest set began with “All Guns Blazing.” I was already having a good time with the switchout of the setlist. Though the night was cold, it was really warm in the photo pit. I was snapping away, and had my artillery unit earplugs in, I learned from the last time the regular ones weren’t gonna do it for Judas Priest (I’m being honest, guys).
With “Hell Patrol” coming in hot, it was a relatively “new” song from their catalog. With Rob Halford being much more animated this time around (He had a brace on his leg at the last gig in 22), he moved all around the stage with ease and interacted with his band more like I was used to seeing over all the years. To tie it off in the pit, they played the great classic “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin”. I was enjoying this set so far, with all these classics being tossed into the mix. It was during this song that I saw up close Halford kept pointing at someone in the audience and giving them a thumbs up. I turned around and saw a massive rainbow flag, and Halford was giving his approval to see it. I tried to get a shot, but it came out too dark.
We left the photo pit, during “Freewheel Burning” (With Rob Halford switching out a leather), and getting back to my seat they brought the house down with one of the most iconic numbers “Breaking The Law”, a great song that is a fave of all Judas Priest fans, with an equally silly video to it from the 1980 album “British Steel” (which I have made reference to here). This was going AWESOME to hear the staples for any live gig.
I noticed there were a lot of members of the queer community out there, several denim jackets with patches of all these death metal acts, there were plenty of equality flag patches, and rainbows stitched onto these jackets.
With a few fun numbers, in-between Rob Halford doing a leather change, “A Touch Of Evil”, and then an ancient gem that hasn’t really been played since 1981, “Solar Angels”. Having ONLY heard this song on the record, and a clip from a concert review, it’s on the setlist now, and I have just died and gone to “Judas Priest Heaven”. Pulling these from the vault, I was thrilled to hear them, but also how good they sounded playing something for over 40 years live. If I had been thrilled about the show, from the last time I saw them, this setlist alone was just hitting us with fun album tracks.
“Gates Of Hell” closed out the first set, for a sort of … Intermission, I guess. It wasn’t very long, but longer than what a band would wait for an encore, and we all knew more was coming.
Returning to the stage, and a different leather on Rob Halford, we heard “Electric Eye,” which signaled we were in the final stages of the show. Usually, these shows go like clockwork to push these live staples into the set, in a certain order, even. We have all these songs reserved for the MOTHER OF A BLOWOUT (You can tell I’ve listened to a lot of live Judas Priest recordings, and YouTube vids of other shows). What I was expecting didn’t happen; I was wrong this time. This was also very unexpected. They played a song, “Giants In The Sky,” off the new album called “Invincible Shield”.
I have said for most of my life, there is a “HOLY PENTAVERIT” of heavy metal vocalists, which said brotherhood consists of Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Bruce Dickenson (Iron Maiden), and these 3 masters who have passed on, Ronnie James Dio (Dio) passed 2010 Lemmy Kilmister in 2015 (Motorhead), and so devastating just 2 months ago, Heavy Metal lost “Ozzy Osborne” AKA “The Prince of Darkness”. The song “Giants in the Sky” was written about the heavy metal world, and everyone being inspired by these giants, and how so many bands today are standing on the shoulders of those giants. Judas Priest was asking us to join with them in paying tribute to these three lost 3 giants. Judas Priest were good friends with all of them; these guys had toured with them, performed with them, and just loved them. By the end of the song, we were chanting “OZZY! OZZY! OZZY!”. I’m not gonna lie, I had tears in my eyes over this one, the visuals, and the way they paid tribute to these greats. Halford asked everyone to hold a spot in their hearts for those guys. I am sure these are hard moments for someone who has seen their best friends die, of old age, natural causes, or passing the torch on to new bands. I don’t see myself ever getting emotional at a metal show, but this really touched a nerve. Well done, fellas.
The screen behind the stage was blood red, showing what looked like Los Angeles destroyed, with the graphics of the city burning. There was a text rolling across the apocalyptic landscape, like out of a horror film monologue: “The Remnants of civilization screamed out for salvation. Redemption roared across the burning sky, THE PAINKILLER”
Scott Travis fired up a great drum solo, while Richie Faulkner went into his guitar line, Andy Sneap was playing his rhythm line underneath, then Ian Hill laid down the bassline (All of this within one measure, it was AWESOME), this was put in the end of the set, with Rob Halford showcasing his vocals, high pitched, screaming, and still not going falsetto, this is vocal talent rarely rivaled. With his voice so high, and the guitar playing the higher notes, all of this was a symbiotic musical experience; not one element was over another.
The band played out the song, and Halford went under the stage and emerged, in yet another leather, this was a long black trench coat, with chains and studs on it, wearing a leather man’s biker hat, he drove his specialized custom detailed JUDAS PRIEST HARLEY DAVIDSON, with the microphone in his pocket, and his token leather horse whip between his teeth. The band was playing it, but we waited for Rob Halford to sing it out, “HELLBENT FOR LEATHER”. He sang the entire song sitting on the bike, he dismounted as the drum beat into the one song we couldn’t live without, “Livin’ After Midnight”.
My history with this song goes back to the Judas Priest performance at Live Aid in Philadelphia, July 13, 1985. They stole the show that day for the Philadelphia stagehands. I was captivated by that brief set, and they held nothing back. (Go watch it on YouTube, you will see that even back then, Rob Halford was sporting that leather man look, with pure metal style.) That is one of their biggest hits, and as an all-time favorite, it closes the show. Tonight was no different, but when the singing and guitar lines went silent, and only the drums pounded out, Rob Halford shared the spot light with us, as the lights from the stage came onto the entire crowd, he held his microphone out to us, and asked us to sing the chorus with him “LIVING AFTER MIDNIGHT, ROCK ME THROUGH THE DOOR”, the look on his face was pure love, love of what he was doing, and love for us, the fans who have been there with him so long.
With the epic end to this show, a curtain call and a bow from these guys, they walked off the stage with the outro, Queen’s “We Are The Champions”.
With the heavy metal world having to do a double-take and shed some homophobia to keep Rob Halford on his throne, so much time had passed since he came out as gay, and he put the burden of acceptance on the fans. They accepted him, and he was able to live his truth. Recently he surprised us all with an announcement, that he had married his longtime boyfriend with an instant wedding. (So unprepared, just a couple of friends, and they did it by a cactus in his backyard…. I love it) I have all the respect in the world for him, because he said openly to any queer kids who like metal, they are welcome to stand on his shoulders and that there is room for them in the heavy metal circus. Rob Halford is a simple guy, really, a gay man with legendary pipes who just loves to sing heavy metal. He doesn’t ask for much more than that. I am proud of him for living his truth, living his best life, and giving us such great music and so many wonderful memories.
So with this tour over, and they are right now, (or so the internet says) prepping for another one, this is your last chance to catch “One Last Ride” with these legends, 50+ years strong. And you all need to listen to more metal and punk anyway.
