Judas Priest

June 1, Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN

It's been years since I've seen Queensryche and they didn't disappoint. However, I think you needed to be a long time fan to get the most out of their performance. Most of the songs came off their first few albums and they only played a couple of their songs that received radio airplay. Band sounded good although it would have been nice if Chris DeGarmo was still in the band. It was pretty cool to hear old tunes such as "N M 156", "TAKE HOLD OF THE FLAME" and "QUEEN OF THE REICH". I wish Geoff Tate would have tried pulling off the wicked scream/falsetto at the beginning of "QUEEN OF THE REICH". But I suspect there's a reason he doesn't. Tate’s vocals were great as he didn’t miss a note which made for a very solid performance for the group.
The new Priest CD is solid and hopefully they are back together for awhile. Unfortunately there was probably only 3,000 to 4,000 fans in attendance. High ticket prices may have had something to do with that. Very large stage with plenty of room to roam about. Halford looked a little stiff, maybe arthritis is settling in the old boy. Priest has an extensive catalog so unless they play 3-4 hours something is going to be left out. I felt the biggest ommisions were “Sinner” , “Green Manalishi” and a song or 2 off of “Defenders of the Faith”. Highlights included “Metal Gods”, “Breaking the Law”, “Electric Eye”, “Painkiller”, “Hell Bent for Leather” and the 4 songs from the new album “Angel of Retribution”. This was a pretty even performance, solid all the way through so a little tough to pick anything that stuck out more than the rest. If I had to pick out the top moments I would choose “Another Thing Coming” (Yes, a bit played out but still their signature song) and “Hell Bent for Leather” (a classic song and always cool to see the cycle brought out on stage). I really liked the way Priest set the guitar players down on the lower level of the stage, in the forefront. Kind of put them on display. Halford then mostly hung out on the stairs and upper stage level. Halford himself had more wardrobe changes than Britney Spears. Black leather pants and continually changing jackets. He started with a long, shiny jacket that Liberace would have been proud of and then graduated into some type of goofy smoking jacket type thing that made me think that this is what somebody’s gay grandpa looks like (just needed a smoking pipe). Finally at the end of the show he graced us with a kick ass regular length leather jacket. He looked pretty bad ass for an old man. Keep in mind Halford pretty much singlehandedly brought leather into metal and this final ensamble didn’t disappoint.
All in all a pretty cool night. This was pretty much the perfect tour for me to catch Queensryche as they glossed over all the radio songs. Actually, I think both bands geared performances for their long time fans so hopefully nobody went home disappointed.