They have been screaming for vengeance. They have been breaking the regulation. They have been dwelling after midnight.
OK, the final two are lies. However Judas Priest kicked ass and took names all the identical on Tuesday at San Antonio’s Tech Port Middle + Enviornment, their first of a two-night stand within the “Heavy Steel Capital of Texas,” as Rob Halford described it. They even had the courtesy to wrap the present simply after 11 p.m., as a result of even steel maniacs want their magnificence relaxation.
Judas Priest is winding down the present North American leg of their 50 Heavy Steel Years Tour, however they confirmed no indicators of fatigue as they barreled by way of a career-spanning set of each hits and deep cuts that was markedly completely different than the set listing they used through the first half of 2022. Flanked onstage by towering smokestacks that paid homage to the G. & R. Thomas Ltd. foundry in Halford’s native Walsall, England, the Birmingham blokes gave an entire new which means to the phrase “metallurgists,” performing with surgical precision and pulverizing depth.
Following a muscular, career-spanning opening set by Queensryche (whose lead singer since 2012, Todd La Torre, gave Halford a run for his cash together with his glass-shattering screams on classics like “Queen of the Reich” and “Operation: Mindcrime”), Judas Priest’s onslaught started with “The Hellion / Electrical Eye.” Guitarists Richie Faulkner and Andy Sneap (who additionally co-produced 2018’s Firepower) lunged throughout the stage as they blasted Glenn Tipton and Okay.Okay. Downing’s epochal riffs with type and ease. Sneap took the primary dizzying solo of the night, proving he is simply as important onstage as he’s behind the blending console. And as Halford bellowed the “I am fabricated from steel” pre-chorus, Faulkner pointed to the scar on his chest ensuing from the a number of open-heart surgical procedures he underwent after rupturing an aorta onstage in 2021.
Like the remainder of Priest’s set, the gesture was each poignant and difficult as nails.
Halford, in the meantime, appeared to nonetheless be driving the excessive from Priest’s Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame induction earlier this month. The 71-year-old frontman stalked the stage, pausing periodically to flash the satan horns on the feverish throng of roughly 3,000 followers, who fortunately reciprocated. Halford has naturally adjusted his phrasing and supply on sure songs to make them extra bearable to sing night time after night time for half a century, however his husky, mid-range growl nonetheless packs a punch, and his piercing falsetto shriek stays peerless. The latter was particularly evident on Stained Class gem “Past the Realms of Loss of life” and newer cuts like 2014’s “Halls of Valhalla” and 2018’s “Firepower,” proof that getting gentle with age has by no means crossed Priest’s thoughts.
Credit score additionally belongs to drummer Scott Travis, who joined Priest for the career-rejuvenating Painkiller and has lent a extra metallic edge to every successive launch together with his indefatigable double-kick work and supersonic fills. Travis and co-founding bassist Ian Hill locked right into a lurching groove on the hard-rocking “Satan’s Little one” and propelled the double-bass-heavy “Judas Rising” off 2005’s triumphant reunion album Angel of Retribution.
Between driving his Harley-Davidson onstage for “Hell Bent for Leather-based” and sidling up subsequent to the huge, inflatable bull that dominated the stage throughout “Residing After Midnight,” Halford thanked the viewers for 50 years of assist. “It is all about you. It’s all the time been about you,” he mentioned. “With out you guys, we have nothing.”
A Heavy Steel Centennial Tour is likely to be a stretch, however to borrow the identify of their 1986 Turbo trek, Judas Priest nonetheless has loads of Gas for Life left within the tank.
Judas Priest, 11/22/22, Tech Port Middle + Enviornment, San Antonio
1. “The Hellion / Electrical Eye”
2. “Driving on the Wind”
3. “You have Bought One other Factor Comin'”
4. “Jawbreaker”
5. “Firepower”
6. “By no means the Heroes”
7. “Past the Realms of Loss of life”
8. “Judas Rising”
9. “Satan’s Little one”
10. “Genocide”
11. “Steeler”
12. “Between the Hammer and the Anvil”
13. “Halls of Valhalla”
14. “The Inexperienced Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)”
15. “Screaming for Vengeance”
16. “Hell Bent for Leather-based”
17. “Breaking the Legislation”
18. “Residing After Midnight”
Judas Priest Reside in San Antonio, Nov. 22, 2022
Steel Gods convey 50 Heavy Steel Years Tour to Alamo Metropolis.
