Judas Priest / Testament Show....review

[gemini8026]

So, I bought my tickets the day they came out. After going to a packed Maiden show a few weeks ago I decided I couldnt miss Priest + Testament....

I took lotsa pictures, but NONE turned out (double rye's with no camera flash = useless)

Anyhow, Testament came on with tons of energy. The mix + arena acoustics sucked ass. IT sounded like a long rumble on every song. The guys played with lots of energy, and I enjoyed their performance.


Anyhow...

Next up Priest.

Lights go out, set lights up...... Crowd goes nuts..... Crowd quickly silenced because they open with one of the new songs that no one knows....

Crowd doesnt know what to do......

Judas played a song off the new album followed by an older song all night.

The crowd went from pumped to pissed off every few minutes.

The new stuff IS NOT WHAT WE CAME TO SEE. Priest shoulda done what Maiden did, play the classics people WANT TO HEAR!!!

I dont MIND the new album, but Im pounding drinks with my lady friend beside me and my friends there, and I cant rock out to the new stuff.

It was a HUGE let down. But the fact that the arena was 1/4 full didnt help. Completely TERRIBLE turn out. The show was poorly marketed and I would guesstimate 2500 people. The people that came were ready to rock though, it was the die hards that came out, but Judas Priest managed to silence them by playing half of their set on songs that no one knew.

Needless to say, a HUGE let down. The buzz around the arena and afterwards was quite negative.
Im not sure what to think, I LOVE priest, but you could also tel the band wasnt into it. Rob went through the motions and I never heard any ear piercing screams. Bruce screamed and put on a WAY better show at the Maiden show a few weeks prior.

Bottom Line....


Big disappointment, and a disappointed fan

[Rsmacker]

Lights go out, set lights up...... Crowd goes nuts..... Crowd quickly silenced because they open with one of the new songs that no one knows....

This is one of the things that really pisses me off when I go to a gig keen on seeing the band. I can appreciate the band think that their latest release is the best thing since sliced bread, but in this day and age no-one is queueing outside the record shop on release day eager for the new LP (last time I did that was for Powerslave). In fact, no-one jumps to buy anything, there is so much choice, it takes months and months to get round to buying even "must-have" LPs.

Even the most Classic LPs sometimes started off with slow sales, in fact, apart from the aforementioned Powerslave, Use Your Illusion, and maybe St Anger (for bad or for worse), I can't think of any releases that have been hot shit sellers from the word go. Surely the next tour is the one that should have more tracks from this LP, after people have time to get it and decide themselves what the killer tracks are, the cream will rise to the top. They will know by the end of this tour what was a winner, people will be calling for them.

This is why Priest ARE Spinal Tap, they are famed for being fucking clueless - I think it was the "Screaming....." tour in the UK that they hadn't even released the LP but played a majority set from it. Nice one chaps, that won you loads of fans, people who get home from work, then go out to have a good night with familiar music, not go out to critically review a new LP.

They don't even have the common sense to see the crowd reaction and do a swift set list change.

I can see Priest sitting in an empty shop for a signing, with Arty Puffkin apologising and asking Nigel Tuffnel, sorry Glenn Tipton, to kick his ass.

[zeegler]

Just got my tickets. I don't really mind if they play a bunch of new stuff. You're right though, this show has had zero advertising (other than in rags like Revolver, who I doubt anyone buys anyway). It's really a shame, because it's a big fucking deal to me. If I hadn't been actively looking for a show to go to, I wouldn't know about it. I've seen all the bands before, but it's years since I've seen Testament, and I haven't seen Dio with Sabbath. I saw Dio a couple years ago, and Sabbath with Ozzy at Ozzfest, but anyone who knows me (and calls me a blasphemer for it) knows that I like Dio Sabbath better than Ozzy Sabbath. Not that I dislike Ozzy Sabbath at all. I love all the Ozzy era albums, especially the first 3, but my absolute favourite Sabbath album is Heaven & Hell. I've seen Motorhead about 872 times (okay maybe not quite that many), so that's not a big deal, although it's always good to see Lemmy up there kicking ass.

[fr0sty]

Bummer to hear. The show was almost the opposite in Minnesota last week. They played a small club (4,400 capcity). It had to have been close to full. They only played two songs from the new album. The intro (Dawn of Creation, Prophecy) was high energy and the crowed loved it. The only other new song was Death. It sounded great, but the crowd energy was lower.

I have been listening the shit out of the new cd and really love it, after initially not liking it much.

Best Priest show I ever saw. My first was defenders of the faith.

http://www.youtube.com/user/gdomeier are some short videos I took. You can't hear much for music, but you can get an idea of how the crowed was. The band was into it too.

[Inazone]

Frosty, did you catch the Testament show at Epic in Minneapolis too, or just Priest?

The Testament off-day show here was 90% older stuff (two songs from The Gathering, none from Low or Demonic, lots from the "classic" era) and a couple of new tunes. They mixed it up extremely well, and the audience definitely liked it. However, I expect that they are playing more of the new material on the dates with Priest, as they have a shorter set and want to push the album.

[fr0sty]

No, I didn't get to see them. Sounds like it would have been a good show. I was surprised not to see them at priest.

[MetalMedal II]

I missed the Preist/Testament and recent Maiden tour, but I was a victim of the "new cd push" on the last Maiden tour where they played the ENTIRE new CD from start to finish, with a few well-known classics before and after that set. I didn't even have that new CD at the time and didn't know 1 track. Man, that was a huge letdown to me. Regardless, I do want to see the currnt tour, but I don't think it's gonna happen.

[fr0sty]

That was kind of my situation when I saw zappa plays zappa at first ave in June. I only knew one or two of the songs they played.