LIVE! | Judas Priest with Black Label Society

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by Deb Rao
Staff Writer —

October 23, 2011 at The Joint, Las Vegas, NV.

Metal fans came out in full force as Judas Priest’s Epitaph Tour invaded The Joint in Las Vegas with special direct support act Black Label Society for a sold out performance on Oct. 23. Las Vegas is known for bringing the top performers in the music business into Sin City and tonight metal’s finest took the stage for a full metallic assault.

Black Label Society featuring Zakk Wylde hit the stage at 8:10 P.M and got the crowd pumped up for Judas Priest. The Las Vegas Chapter of BLS fans showed up in full force. Zakk Wylde and company took the stage with a vengeance. Highlights of the set were, “Suicide Messiah,” and the 10-minute guitar solo that followed ”Fire It Up” by Zakk Wylde. The guitar virtuoso held the audience spellbound shredding the strings in perfect execution. The guitar solo tradeoffs between Zakk Wylde and Nick Catanese shined. One of strongest songs of the evening was “Concrete Jungle.”

I had the opportunity to speak to Black Label Society guitarist Nick Catanese regarding the tour and Black Label Society’s longevity. Nick comments, “The tour is going great. It has been amazing getting to see Judas Priest perform every night! I can’t believe I have been doing this now for 15 years. We’ll will be out on the road with Judas Priest through Dec. 3.”

Black Label Society Set List:
Crazy Horse
Funeral Bell
Bleed For Me
Demise of Sanity
Overlord
Parade Of The Dead
Suicide Messiah
Godspeed Hellbound
Fire It Up
Concrete Jungle
Stillborn

Veteran rock band Judas Priest has an illustrious career that has spanned over four decades. Tonight one of the greatest rock bands in metal history chronicled their rise to rock stardom in a two and half hour set. Opening with ”Rapid Fire”, Judas Priest front-man Rob Halford took full command of the sold out audience. Amidst a sea of pyrotechnics and smoke, and a stage show that bedazzled the audience complete with lasers and a video backdrop that displayed various album covers of the bands 16-studio album career.

Singer Rob Halford was in great vocal form, introducing every song with a little bit of rock and roll history. The momentum of the night built, as Judas Priest launched into ”Never Satisfied” from Rocka Rolla. One of the highlights of the set was the remake of the Joan Baez song, “Diamonds And Rust,” as the acoustic metal ambiance filled the venue. Perhaps, the most exciting moment of the evening transpired when the audience sang the chorus of ”Breaking The Law” louder than Rob Halford. During the evening, Rob sported many costume changes including a long leather spike metal coat, and a silver metallic cloak during ”Nostradamus.”

The momentum of the night never ended, as Halford hit the stage with his Harley during ”Hellbent For Leather.” The hits kept on coming as ”You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” and final encore, “Living After Midnight” roared through the speakers. Perhaps Rob Halford summed it up best, as he commented during the 2-hour long set, ”We’re a classic metal band. That’s what we do best.” From the response of the audience, this was surely a magical night that will go down in metal history. The lights may shine bright in Vegas, but nothing could outshine guitar virtuoso Zakk Wylde and the spellbinding performance of Metal God Rob Halford.

Judas Priest Set List:
Rapid Fire
Metal Gods
Heading Out To The Highway
Starbreaker
Victim Of Changes
Diamonds And Rust
Dawn Of Creation
Prophecy
Night Crawler
Turbo Lover
Beyond The Realms Of Death
The Sentinel
Blood Red Skies
The Green Manalishi
Breaking The Law
Painkiller
Electric Eye
Hellbent For Leather
You’ve Got Another Thing Coming
Living After Midnight

Photos appear courtesy of Deb Rao