Retribution (in) 2005 a.k.a. The Priest Is Back!!!
“Fast and furious we ride the universe
To carve a road for us that slices every curve in sight
We accelerate, no time to hesitate
This load will detonate whoever would contend its right
Born to lead at breakneck speed
With high octane we’re spitting flames”
I am currently seated nearly 32,000 feet up in the sky on NWA Flight 3687 to Minneapolis/St. Paul. It is nearly 7.00 AM on the morning of Wednesday, June 8… I am bleary eyed from lack of adequate sleep and my throat is sore from uncontrolled screaming less than 12 hours ago at Judas Priest’s Angel of Retribution Tour 2005 at Darien Lake PAC… Hmmm, let’s rewind a bit, shall we…
Tick…
Its 5.30 PM on Tuesday, June 7 and I am heading out to Darien Lake together with Nandita, Vaibhav and Amol… The atmosphere during the drive is highly electrifying for me, personally… I am really excited to see these metal gods perform live, being one of my favorite groups from the late 70s-early 80s era… I grew up on healthy servings of hard rock and heavy metal that included cult bands – Uriah Heep, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath – at the forefront of the British metal invasion…
As we travel to the PAC, the in-vehicle music is a Greatest Hits album of JP… Listening to the very first track, Green Manalishi With The Two-Pronged Crown from the Unleashed In The East album brought back minds-eye memories of the young Glenn Tipton and KK Downing in their cheesecloth shirts playing lead to the forceful vocals of Rob Halford… Bright images flashing by (like windshields before a fly?) in my mind of the Living After Midnight Tour circa 1982-83 that I watched as a fresh teenager … Without the DVD media those days, my metal-oriented friends and I relied on the relatively cruder VHS format with no THX Surround sound to boot… Not that the absence of either made watching Sentinel or Freewheel Burning any less enjoyable…
Tick…
We arrive at Darien Lake PAC at 6.30 PM… The place is overflowing… Descriptively, “1000s of cars and a million guitars – screaming with power in the air; we found the place where the decibels race – this army of rock will be there – to ram it down, ram it down, straight to the heart of the soul”… It’s a bright Tuesday evening, temperatures over 80F, people in their summer best (read – shorts, tee and sandals, or the absence thereof) are making a beeline towards the concert entrances… A blinding sun beats down mercilessly as we weave our way amongst the crowded masses to the seating area… We get a good spot ~100 feet from the stage with a clear view… The other usual suspects, the Ramans and Bhaskar Esq. arrive as well and we are ready to get this party started…
Tick…
At 7.30 PM, the show starts with… “Got Ryche?”… In case that didn’t ring a bell, it’s the EMPIRE boys… Queensryche opening for Priest… Fact of life – I was in Atlantic City last weekend and on the drive back to Rochester was listening to a 20th Century Masters Collection of Queensryche… Set me thinking as to where these lads had vanished, like they just toppled off a cliff overnight or something… Their trademark sound is almost deafening as they perform songs from their albums of a decade or two passed… They finally finish up with their old hit track, “Queen of the Reich”… Wow!!! Nandita is almost half converted to the Legion of Rock… And Vaibhav has just learnt two relatively important facts of Metal-land – Firstly, Queensryche and Anthrax are two distinct and separate bands and secondly, the former did not (repeat-did-not-for-added-emphasis) release Attack of The Killer Bees…
Tick…
A small break after Queensryche and at last… Its 9.00 PM… JP gets on stage and opens with the hauntingly familiar Hellion followed by Electric Eye, both from the Screaming For Vengeance albums… It’s great to listen to the all too familiar riffs again… Here comes the metal meltdown, run for your lives; Can’t stop the metal meltdown, no one survives… Singer/front man Halford effortlessly proves he can still hit the highest of the high notes at 50+ years… JP continues their first set with Breaking The Law, sending the audience wild, followed by songs (I did not recognize) from their new album Angel of Retribution… Ah well, it’s a Tuesday Night and the Priest is Back!!!
One of the other reasons for coming to see JP perform was to counter a nagging thought that these chappies from Birmingham were on the cusp of the too old to rock and roll, too young to die paradigm… Happily, I was proven dead wrong… Listening to performances from their new album as well as some old favorites from years past – Turbo Lover, their adaptation of (Joan Baez’) Diamonds And Rust (bloody brilliant methinks) and not to forget A Touch Of Evil from their Painkiller album – its reassuring to know they still have it man, they just still have it…
Note to self and readers – get on AMZN or equivalent and order a copy Angel of Retribution immediately!!! The album is way-too-cool if you don’t mind listening to some old fashioned anvil-forged metal… The reviews were spot on as well… And yes, I also have photographic proof that Nandita was actually head-banging to Living After Midnight… Heh, heh, heh… Fool, fool… Look for the answer… Fool fool, you’ve got to bleed for the dancer…
Tick…
Its 10.00 PM and the second set starts… Staccato drumming courtesy Scott Travis and the backing bass of Ian Hill continues to accompany Tipton and Downing on their searing guitar work… These 50-something rockers were just Hell Bent For Leather… Tracks included Hell Rider and Rock You All Around The World… Somewhere during this state of Monotheic Suspended Nirvana, my throat dries up completely here due to “smoking” and absence of any liquid intake to moisten it (the throat, I mean)…
I lost track of time singing along and listening to the guitar outtakes on Exciter (from the album Stained Class) and Victim Of Changes (from the album Sad Wings of Destiny, their second album after Rocka Rolla)… Undeterred, we continue… Halford starts getting the crowd to sing along to You’ve Got Another Thing Coming and…
Tick…
Lights out at 11.00 PM… What an inspiring performance… We drive back and reach Rochester a little after midnight…
Tick…
Well, next up is a complete shift in genres… June 18 features An Evening With The Dave Brubeck Quartet, a headliner jazz performance at the Eastman Theater, Rochester… For those unfamiliar, Mr. Brubeck is an all-of-85-years-old ambassador of jazz who continues to delight aficionados worldwide with signature works unusual to the genre… Just listen to Take Five and Blue Rondo a la Turk and you’ll know what I mean… As for me, I now need to quickly make reservations on Ticket Master, once I deplane…
Peace
S