Drew, Terry, and I went to see Judas Priest in Washington DC a few weeks ago, and they did not disappoint. It's almost two years since Drew shared his renewed Judas Priest appreciation with me, and he set up the trip to DC so we could reenact our own version of "Heavy Metal Parking Lot", some 33 (!) years later. At this point only bassist Ian Hill and more importantly singer Rob Halford remain from the classic lineup (guitarist Glenn Tipton remains a member of the band but has retired from touring due to Parkinson's). But as long as Halford's there, it's still Judas Priest and they still rawk.
They had a good set list that featured most of their "hits" and none of their stupid songs, so I was pretty happy. Furthermore, they dug deep in their catalog to come up with early, less well-known tracks "Killing Machine", "Starbreaker", and "Victim of Changes". This inspired me to share what is probably their earliest TV performance, from the BBC's "Old Grey Whistle Test" in 1975, which is in between their forgettable debut LP "Rocka Rolla" and right before their tremendous sophomore LP "Sad Wings of Destiny". For this performance they played the title track "Rocka Rolla", which will give you an idea of why they no longer play songs from that LP, and "Dreamer Deceiver / Deceiver", which is a good representative track from "Sad Wings of Destiny" as well as revealing their musical debt to Black Sabbath. It also shows their hippie fashion debt to Black Sabbath, since this is before they adopted their renowned biker / punk / leather look ca. 1978.
While they may have aged since then, it's a good thing we haven't. Here we are looking like teenagers...
Heavy Metal Parking Deck!
Heavy metal pre-concert tacos! (Dave joined us for dinner but not the concert)
Very metal game faces.
One of many wardrobe changes for Rob Halford.
The concert isn't over until the Harley comes out.
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