Judas Priests Hammersmith Apollo concert reviewed

[KiwiCoromandel]

Wednesday night, I went to see Judas Priest at the Hammersmith Odeon. I got there during the intermission, having missed The Scorpions, who according to the guys sitting next to me in the Circle, two middle-aged French metalheads, Jerome and Denis from Orleans (whose accents I was mortified that I had trouble understanding), were actually rather good. With both bars being full and the stairs crowded, I was already in a sweat by the time I got to my seat. But I was amused to see the family sitting two rows in front of us - Mum (with denim vest and Judas Priest back patch), Dad and two sons, all bedecked in tour t-shirts. Heavy Metal is hereditary!

Judas Priest started with "Electric Eye" which certainly got the crowd revved up — Rob Halford singing the first couple of verses from the eye of angel of the backdrop before being elevated to the riser. They then progressed to Metal Gods. The band were tight, and after a song I didn't recognise (TBH, I lost interest in JP after "Defenders of the Faith"), they launched into "The Ripper", Halford having changed into a rather spiffy brocade frock coat. It was at this point we discovered that he's lost his upper register, also made clear during "Hot Rockin'" and a slower, mostly acoustic, rendition of "Diamonds and Rust" which is now much more in the spirit of the Joan Baez original.

The concert was the first opportunity for me to hear songs from the new album with Halford on vocals, "Angel of Retribution". The overall impression I got from the new material was mediocrity, although "Hellrider" was a glimpse of the JP of old. I was very suprised that they included "Victim of Changes" in the set considering that Halford is just not up to the task, although I was delighted as it's probably my favourite JP song. As it was, they gave Rob a chance to rest his voice thanks to a lacklustre solo from Tipton. Another surpise inclusion was "Turbo Lover" — which I never really warmed to, possibly due to the awful video that accompanied it. I lost interest in the band during the '80s and '90s, but "Painkiller" was one of the highlights of the night.

It is Judas Priest's 30th anniversary, and like another band celebrating their 30th anniversary this year, Motörhead, they had a profound influence on the emergent speed metal genre of the '80s, especially the twin guitar riffs of Glenn Tipton and K.K Dowling. Tipton was in particularly good form last night, and as one of my metal heroes was a joy to watch performing live. However I did hear one glaring mistake during the second half of the night, when the band were starting to get tired and it showed. For the encore we got Rob coming out on the Harley, singing "Hellbent for Leather" and "Living after Midnight", which had me in fits of giggles as the kink/cruising content of both songs had not occurred to me in my younger, naive days ... The final song was "You've Got Another Thing Coming", and then it was all over, but by then I was completely shattered. Overall, I wish I'd got a chance to see them 21 years ago, but I'm still glad I went.

Source:RockNerd