Official Website: Judas Priest
Official Website: Motorhead
Official Website: Heaven & Hell Live
Official Website: Testament

Well the rain held off, although we missed half of TESTAMENT’s set waiting for our credentials to arrive. Here promoting their new CD “The Formation of Damnation”, the band was already on stage and tearing it up by the time we finally got in. While I’ve never been the biggest thrash connoisseur, TESTAMENT sounded great and seemed to go over very well. And those fans who’d been waiting for new TESTAMENT music seemed very appreciative indeed.

After a quick turnover, it was on to MOTORHEAD. Over the years, I’ve just been digging them more and more. Unfortunately, being limited to a tight 45 minute set, they didn’t seem to play anything off their great new release “Motorizer”. A shame, too, because it’s a scorcher! Instead they relied heavily on such classics as “Ace of Spades”, “Stay Clean”, “Metropolis” and “Overkill” (Basically half of “No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith”.) Although they did do a crushing version of the modern-day classic “In The Name Of Tragedy”, I’d hate to see them being limited to a nostalgia act. They’ve released have so much great stuff after their late 70’s hey-day. Hopefully when they tour in the fall, all this will be remedied with a headlining set. That’ll be the one to see.

And now for the show I’ve been waiting for all day. HEAVEN AND HELL, bay-bee! Wow, these guys never show any wear and tear. They seemed to be in great spirits and really enjoying themselves in the open-air venue. And they sounded HUGE! There’s little left that can still bring a tear to this old man’s eye and make me feel 12 years old again. God bless Ronnie James Dio. I don’t know how he still does it, but his voice was superb, and he was truly in command of the stage. Geezer Butler lurked at the backline supplying his sonic wall of doom as Tony pierced the din with his icy tone. Aahh, bliss. Fantastic. Damn. And all over way too soon. (The band apologized the next day for dropping “Neon Nights”) No real surprises set list wise, but I say if you only have 75 minutes, pare down “Heaven and Hell” and lose the drum solo... but I’m nitpicking. I could’ve watched them all night.

Concluding the evening’s revelry - JUDAS PRIEST. Now, for some inexplicable reason, I haven’t seen them since their “Painkiller” tour. So I was kinda looking forward to it. Granted, the bloated “Nostradamus” left me cold - but they got that out of the way in the first 10 minutes. And the set list was actually pretty interesting. Delving a little deeper into their mammoth catalog than on recent tours really helped to spice things up. “Between The Hammer and The Anvil”, “Devil’s Child”, “Rock Hard Ride Free”, and “Eat Me Alive” were all pleasant surprises. And while not completely obscure choices, the newer selections did breathe some fresh air into the works. The new production unveiled a pretty cool multi-level stage, enhanced with flags and backdrops, and created a nice mood, bringing some depth to the presentation. And the band sounded flawless. At this point, it must be a well-oiled machine. Like I said earlier, it’d been a long time since I’d seen them so I wasn’t sure what to expect. But damn, Rob sounded great and still hit all the notes. The one complaint I have is his (over) use of the teleprompter. It’s distracting how much he leans on it. I could see maybe for a new song or two, but we’re talking 70% of the set he’s chained there. Very Ozzy-esque and … a little disappointing? But by the end of the night, the pros far out-weighted the cons. PRIEST delivered the goods (hey, I wouldn’t might hearing that one!) and capped off a classic night of old-school head banging, reminding everyone what was so great about these bands in the first place.

(Special thanks to Marc for the assist)

All photos copyright Jennifer Bartram-Schmitt