Judas Priest

Judas shit? That's right metal heads, your beloved metal gods sucked Satan's proverbial thorny red cock last night. Sorry to have to be the one to shed some truth on the matter, but they did. No if's, no butt's and no trying to justify it with bogan logic. (?) I.e. all bogans drink Jack Daniels. bazza is a bogan. Therefore, we can conclude that bazza is Jack Daniels, drives an EA Falcon and his old duck's name is Shazza.
I rocked up to the gates at 8.50 with what I thought was ample time of 300 seconds to get my sweaty little palms on a ticket which was supposed to be left with the chick behind the counter with too much face paint. No dice. After much hoo-ha 8.50 soon turned into 9.10 and with it, me missing the intro of priests opening track.
The crowd seemed pretty worked up and from all reports the opening two outfits of Black Steel and Electric Mary did a fine job of getting them in that condition. Thoughts then shifted to the size of the crowd, which was a pretty disappointing one considering this was Judas Priest and this was their first tour ever with the original line-up. Whoever fixtured priest on a Tues needs to be lined up and skull fucked. Half the crowd there were blokes and sheilas over 30 who clearly needed to be up at 4.30 am the next day to lay bricks for dale alcocks homes in mindare. The downscaling from the dome-like burswood to the logistically convenient challenge stadium was justified in the end.
This was definitely a gig for the purists. The long- time fans. The diehards. If you haven't heard much metal then you would have taken absolutely zilch from this gig. It's like seeing a Da Vinci gallery if you've never seen a painting before. Or watching Jenna Jameson's farewell porno movie before she pops out two mutant twins if you've never seen the art of porn before. I don't think it would have really mattered what Priest offered last night, the army of black jeans and even blacker shirts were going to love it. And love it they did. As demonstrated when I was walking from the carpark trying to locate my way out of this labyrinth only to see a young hoodlum deviate 5 metres sideways to elbow me in the shoulder on his way through. Now that's what I call love for a fellow human being. Going out of your way to make physical contact. Just brilliant.
There were minimum tracks from their latest album Nostradamus which everyone there was thankful for. Dawn of Creation Prophecy could very well have been the only track. Seminal classics such as Painkiller,Metal Gods, Breaking the Law and You've got Another Thing Coming were the most well received numbers for the night and definitely the best executed from the lads. There was a funny moment during Breaking the Law when a bloke got on stage, took a photo with K.K.Downing had a little dance with himself and then mingled back into the crowd without security batting an eyelid. Unbelievable. It was either pure apathy from the rent a cops or pure incompetence.
The theatrics of Priest, always a highlight in the heyday, seem dated and sort of like your on a 1987 version of the Ghost Train at the perth Royal Show. Scary when it first came out but now cute and adorable.

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