The weather was beatiful, sunny and not a single cloud in sight - and hot on Finnish standards, around 26 degrees Celsius! I had my sister with me, mainly because she rarely goes out and wanted to experience at least one festival this year (the festival where she usually went in the summers doesn't exist anymore). I was on Glenn's side, about 15 meters from the stage, so unfortunately I didn't get to see Richie as much as I wanted to, and the pics I took (or more like my sister took) didn't come out so good. But here's an individual review of each member of the band (+audience). Setlist was identical to previous shows, but with Living After Midnight being played as an extra encore. Lots of smoke, fire and flames, but not much lasers.
The entrance was great, they first put out Battle Hymn through the speakers, after which Glenn and Richie started playing Rapid Fire, still behind the Epitaph curtain, and as soon as Rob sang "pounding the world..." the curtain was ripped down and the show kicked off!
Rob:
He was absolutely on fire. Some of the best vocals he has sung during the 2000s. Of course my only previous concert was the 2008 tour start where his voice was absolutely shot and my seat was quite far from the stage, which might affect my review a bit. But he was still top notch yesterday! "But she won't find a newAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRR RRRRRRRRRRRR!" I really thought the PA (and my ear drums!) couldn't take it much longer! Stage banter was pretty much the obligatory stuff we can hear from the Netherlands and Sweden concerts, with "Finland" being added in there every now and then, of course. But he moved quite actively on the stage, so everyone got to see him properly.
Glenn:
Bloody hell, is this guy really 63 years old? He was jumping around like a teenager! You could easily see that he really enjoyed himself and how the audience responded. His guitar work was flawless, and every time he had the chance he was really active with the crowd. And on the stage too; like I wrote a bit earlier he literally jumped around the stage at times.
Richie:
He's really started to accustom himself with the band. Any sort of nervousness he had in Holland was gone, and more than once he and Glenn could smile at each other after they had both nailed the tricky sections of the songs. And his nearly two-minute solo during HBFL was simply awesome. Of course it was a little strange to see such a young guy among these 60-year olds, but Glenn really was correct when he said that no-one else could have been a better replacement to KK.
Ian:
Well what can you say? Stood in his place as usual, doing his job and swinging his bass around like a maniac. Nothing out of the ordinary, a solid performance like he has done the past 40 years.
Scott:
Much like Ian, he didn't get much of the limelight. But when he did, he really took the crowd as his own. This time he didn't lose his drumsticks like in Holland, haha. Although he nearly forgot to change to the rock version of Diamonds and Rust!
Audience:
Man we were crazy! Everyone was putting their hands in the air and shouting like maniacs! We sang some of the choruses so loudly that you could barely hear Rob at all! I'm usually a calm person, but the athmosphere was so great that I swung my arms and shouted so much that currently my shoulders hurt like hell and I can barely speak! But it was well worth it.
All in all it was a great gig and the athmosphere was just phenomenal - no wonder, considering that probably 70% of all band-related shirts I saw in the festival were Judas Priest-related. The band gave us everything they got and they seemed to have really enjoyed themselves, as did the crowd.
Here's some pics (taken on two cell phone cameras, low quality sorry)
Some of the stage equipment, pre-show
The Epitaph curtain
Richie & Glenn
Glenn
Rob
Rob & Glenn
Ian & the Judas Priest background
Rob
Rob & Richie
Rob
Glenn. The funny thing about this guitar is that in all of the photos and DVDs I've seen it, it looks completely black & white, just like in here. But in the nature it's actually a little yellowish, as you can see in a later pic.
Rob
Glenn & Richie (here you can see the yellowness of Glenn's guitar)
Best shot I got from Rob
Glenn
Glenn
The stage
The Priest Cross
Glenn & Ian
Richie
The band
Edited at: Sunday, June 12, 2011 7:47:02 AM |
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