Last night I FINALLY got to see Judas Priest's twice-postponed New Jersey stop on their "50 Years of Metal" tour. The first date (Spring 2020) was canned because of COVID, then the rescheduled date (Fall of '21) was cancelled when Richie Faulkner had his heart attack.
The last time I saw Judas Priest was (gulp) 31 years ago (on the "Operation Rock & Roll" tour in Summer of '91) so between that and the delays/cancellations, obviously this gig was a LONG damn time coming for me. Thanks to his connections, my reporter friend who graciously invited me to come along to this gig landed us some pretty frickin sweet seats on the right side of the floor, 12 rows back. Awesome! (Metal Nerd Moment: fellow Jersey natives Mark Tornillo of Accept and Jack Frost of Metalium/Seven Witches were sitting across the aisle from me.)
Queensryche came on at 7:30, sounding great and putting on a set of all killer, no filler. I saw them last August headlining a small theater and that gig was badass, but this was a much stronger performance. As expected, their set was all old school, kicking off with "Queen of the Reich" and then concentrating mostly on "The Warning" ("Warning," personal fave "NM156," "Take Hold of the Flame," and "En Force") and "Rage For Order" ("Walk in the Shadows," "The Whisper," "Screaming in Digital") with a few Mindcrime songs towards the end to cap it off. A good friend of mine who was also at the show and was seeing QR with Todd for the first time texted me during intermission like "WOW. You weren't kidding. New Guy is legit!"
Priest opened with a surprise deep cut ("One Shot At Glory" from Painkiller) and did almost two hours of all the expected hits ("You've Got Another Thing Comin'," "Sentinel," "Victim of Changes," "Hellbent For Leather," etc.) mixed with some surprises like "Rocka Rolla" (!), "Blood Red Skies" (from Ram It Down), "Turbo Lover," "Desert Plains," "Green Manalishi," "Freewheel Burning" and more. The only song I could've done without was "Touch of Evil," cuz I've never been crazy about that one, but the crowd ate it up.
Halford looks like a metal Santa Claus nowadays with the white beard but he can still scream his ass off, and the new guitar team of Richie Faulkner and Andy Sneap filled the Downing/Tipton shoes most admirably.
Priest's light show and staging is suitably whizz-bang and high tech; the backdrop looked like a beat up old metal foundry (complete with smokestacks and stacks of 50 gallon drums) surrounding a big video screen that showed clips and animations of things exploding, molten metal being poured, motorcycles roarin' around, sparks flying, and occasionally close ups of the band members while they rocked out. At one point a vintage clip of Glenn Tipton playing a solo appeared on the screen, which caused much mayhem, though I noticed that K.K. Downing was not shown the same courtesy.
Speaking of Glenn, Mr. Tipton came out onstage to join the band on the three encores ("Metal Gods," "Breaking the Law" and "Living After Midnight") before they said "good night," and when Rob put his arm around Glenn and they struck some poses up front for the punters with phone cameras, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. I was very glad that I got to see him in person again.
Needless to say, I had a blast. Hail the Priest, long live Ryche, Metal is alive and well, see this tour!
_________________ "If you're a false, don't entry, because you'll be burned and died!"
Last edited by Fat Freddy on Mon Apr 04, 2022 1:06 pm; edited 3 times in total
Sounds like you had fun, wish I could see them in this tour. I know what you mean about not a dry eye. Last time I saw them, Glenn had just announced his disease and said he wouldn’t be able to play shows anymore. But he did come out for the encore and I never heard a crowd go so crazy. I teared up, and my wife, and people around me, it was really a cool moment.
Glad you had a great time. You got some great pics too!!
Thanks! I probably took between 40 and 50 pix, the ones I posted here were my favorites. I especially like how the one of Tipton and Faulkner came out.
I'm not a pro photog by any means, but every ten or fifteen mins I'd pull my phone out and bang, bang, bang, snap a couple of quick shots and put it back in my pocket. I didn't wanna be one of "those guys" who was watching the whole show thru my phone, I didn't even really look at what I had till I got home.
Of course, a lot of them came out fuzzy/dark, or washed out because of the bright lights, but I took enough pix to boil 'em down to about 15 or 20 good ones.
_________________ "If you're a false, don't entry, because you'll be burned and died!"
Last edited by Fat Freddy on Fri Apr 01, 2022 4:27 pm; edited 2 times in total
Side note: I just took my dog out for his afternoon walk, and as I passed a house a few blocks from me a lady on the front deck yells out to me, "HEY! Did you have a good time at Judas Priest?"
I'm like "??" cuz I have no idea who this person is, but I sez "Yeah, it was excellent!"
She sez "My husband and I saw you there, we were like 'Hey, there's that guy who's always walking his dog!"
Small world.
_________________ "If you're a false, don't entry, because you'll be burned and died!"
Subject: Judas Priest & Queensryche, Newark NJ, 3/30/22 
Thu Mar 31, 2022 1:21 pm
