But in short, it was loud. Apparently their amps go up to 11.
Oh hell.. some quick thoughts..
Both bands sounded good. Geoff Tate still looks and sounds great. Queensryche's set was about an hour long, and they only did 4 songs post Mindcrime. 3 of them were pretty bad, but Empire was okay. Over all, they did a nice job, and really rocked.
But the BIG news is...
How about that? It's due out in January '06. I have reservations, because, like I said, everything after Mindcrime has pretty much sucked, but who knows?
Priest was very good. Lets be honest - it's all about Rob Halford. His voice isn't as ice pure as it used to be, and he's shouting more now then actually just singing, but he can still hit the high notes, and his voice has a lot of power. He's still got that stage presence as well.
Pet peeve - the end of a song should not take as long as the song itself. You know that thing they do when they basically hold one chord, and keep hitting it while the drummer does his thing.... excruciating..
Ian Hill (bass player) was given a 3 foot space on the stage 30 years ago, and to this day, still does not move from that spot.
I saw an interview with Ian once - and he's kind of timmy-ish. He reminded me of Derek Smalls (played by Harry Shearer) in This is Spinal Tap...
"I feel my role in the band is to be like luke warm water."
It's also pretty amazing how far technology has advanced in PA systems. The vocals were crystal clear, which is unusual at a metal show, and sometimes guitars can be shrill, but they sounded quite good.
But, as I said, it was loud as fuck. I'm used to loud music (trust me), but this was one of those shows where the sound pressure moves the hairs on your arms. You can feel it. The bass and kick drum shake your whole body.
Priest played for about 2 hours, and over all, the song selection was pretty good. Notable by it's absence was Screaming for Vengeance. How they left that out is beyond me, and the newer songs were rather "ya.. okay.. play The Green Manalishi.", which they didn't do either...
It's a bit of a dillema for them I think. They must know that the crowd is there to hear the songs they grew up on. They must know the new music sucks and nobody really gives a shit about it. Still, they've got a new CD, so they have to play tracks from it anyway, right?
But, you know, these guys are in their 50's, and they just fuckin' rock. Any criticism is just nit-picking... now innit?
** update **
Best quote on a t-shirt at the show.. "I haven't got enough middle fingers"
1 comment:
Yes, it rocked......I think I could finally start to hear normally around 3:00 pm this afternoon. It was really funny driving home last night, and I would roll the power window in the car up or down....it did so silently, not a noise....I can't remember the last time that happened. When I'm old and wearing hearing aids....I'll say it was the Priest concert in 2005 that did me in! Thanks for bringing me along to the show, Tom! I had a blast!
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