Judas Priest / Queensryche

Tweeter Center, Chicago, IL - 6/3/05

by Dark Starr




When I had the chance to interview Judas Priest’s Glenn Tipton, I suggested that Queensryche would make a great opening act for their forthcoming headlining tour. Now, granted, I’m not suggesting that I was the one who gave them the idea. I’m just establishing the fact that this was what I considered to be a dream tour. Well, sometimes, dream and day should not unite. While both bands put in solid performances, there was a huge difference. I have seen The Ryche play much better than they did at this show. On the other hand, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better Priest show.

It seems to me that Queensryche alters their set when touring metal shows (singer Geoff Tate told me that of the Halford/Maiden tour in an interview I did) to focus more on the metal part of their career. Frankly, I think they are more at home doing a more mixed set. These guys normally put in a top notch show, but here it was on the good end of mediocre. Some of that problem was caused by poor sound on their mix – perhaps the majority of it, but still the band didn’t seem to be as fired up as I’ve seen them be in the past. Unfortunately that contributed to a bit of audience apathy as well.

Overall this show saw a slightly better than good performance from Queensryche and a stellar one from Judas Priest. Nothing to complain much about, but it wasn’t what I was hoping to see. Part of that may have been from undue expectations on my part. In any event, what follows are more detailed accounts of each bands’ show.

One certainly can’t complain about Queensryche doing the same set year after year. In fact, if you see The Ryche on more than one tour, the odds are you will see very different sets. I’ve seen them several times myself, and each show has been quite a bit different than the others. This time out was no exception. Their hour long set opening for Priest was in some ways very similar to when they opened for Halford and Iron Maiden quite a few years back, focusing more on their metal side. When I interviewed Geoff Tate later I asked him about that, and he said that they had adjusted the set more towards the audience and other bands on the tour. My guess is that this time out a similar choice was made. Still, this set was not the same as the one they did that time out, by a long shot.

Overall, the show was good, but could have been much better. I gave them a listen from quite a few places in the venue, and wherever you went, the sound was poor. I would have chalked it up to the venue(The Tweeter Center, one of the worst places to see a concert in the country--Dr. Mality), but Priest had no similar problem when they came out later. That said, bad sound is not something you usually get with Ryche, so my guess is that it was something specific to that night’s show. I would have to say also that the band seem to do better in less musically restrictive circumstances. They just didn’t seem to be as into it as they usually are, and the result was that the audience didn’t respond as well. Part of that could have been the fact that many in this crowd were waiting for their first chance to see the triumphant return of Rob Halford to the Judas Priest fold and were saving their energy for the headliners. All in all, Ryche were playing to a tough crowd, and they put in an admirable, if not flawless, stab at it. By the end of the set the crowd was more responsive and fired up, but earlier on there was less audience energy .

As to Ryche’s set, they opened with songs from their first couple albums, and these rocked out quite well. “The Whisper” might not have been an obvious opener, but Geoff Tate and company made it work much better than I would have expected. Interestingly enough, playing to a crowd not made up predominantly of Queensryche fans, the band made some very chancy choices for their set. While the metal texture of most of the songs certainly fit this audience, they stayed away, for the most part, from their two most commercial albums, Operation Mindcrime and Empire. This probably meant that a lot of the audience had never heard much of this material before.With that in mind, the crowd response was actually quite strong.

In addition to the material from those first couple discs, they put in a very strong rendition of “Open”, arguably the strongest cut from their latest Tribe. They even debuted one song from the upcoming and highly anticipated sequel to Operation Mindcrime. This song, “I’m American” didn’t do much for me, but I’m waiting on the studio version to make a definite vote on the track. Certainly the muddy sound on this particular night contributed to the track falling flat. Musically this one rocked out quite hard, and was very fast. In fact, Tate’s vocal performance lost a bit of power due to a combination of the speed of the piece and the lack of clarity in the mix. Again, I’ll be anxiously awaiting the release of Operation Mindcrime II to give that one a fair listen.

Fortunately, for me, they did not do their most recognizable song, “Silent Lucidity”. That one to me, although a solid number, has been played into the ground, and feels a little too much like Pink Floyd. As mentioned before, only the title track to Empire was played on this run through. In fact, if you add in Rage for Order (their third album), nearly every track in the set came from those first two discs (Queensryche and The Warning) and that third one. The only exceptions in addition to the ones previously mentioned were “Desert Dance” from Tribe and “The Needle Lies” from Operation Mindcrime. They pulled it together nicely for the ending with the anthemic and very well received “Take Hold of the Flame”. For my money Ryche tends to play much stronger sets as headliners than opening, but this was a potent, if not killer showing.

Judas Priest stormed onto the same greater Chicago area stage that The Ryche had occupied on their Angel of Retribution tour, and although the evening air was on the hot side of warm, their performance was even hotter.

This reviewer has seen Priest many, many times, but this may have been the best performance I’ve ever seen from them. Their sound and stage presence were both right on. Although they didn’t play it entirely safe (they did four songs from their latest, several seldom-performed live numbers and rearranged versions of a couple more), the set list was probably the only issue I had with the show – and even then it’s a minor one. Honestly, with a catalog as vast as the Priest have, it would be nearly impossible to please everyone with a two-hour concert.

The show started with the traditional “Hellion/Electric Eye”, and frankly, that was one of my issues with the concert. Don’t get me wrong, that combination of tracks is an awesome one, and their performance was spot on – even hotter than the studio version. Frankly, though, as great an opening one/two punch as that one is, they have opened with it for many, many years, and I just think it’s time for a change. Really, I think that “Judas Rising” from their latest disc would be at least as strong an opener, and would have the added attraction of novelty. In any case, though, the band was off to a hot start, and it was something that would continue throughout their set.

They continued on with several tried and true numbers, giving the beginning part of the set the feeling that it could have come from any of their tours of the mid-1980’s and beyond. The next three tracks were numbers that I had seen performed live by the band on numerous occasions and while this part of the set was solid, it was nothing new – in terms of material or performance. The next couple songs, though were the first change of pace. The band cut into both “Judas Rising” and “Revolution” from Angel of Retribution. Both exceeded their studio versions in this set. I know there are a lot of Priest fans who aren’t crazy about “Revolution”, but I’m one of those who was convinced by it from the onset, and the strong live take on it did nothing but make me all the more sure of that.

They followed it up with “Breaking The Law”, another Priest standard, but then moved into the next number that is a bone of contention with me, “I’m A Rocker”. Frankly, while they haven’t done this one often (if ever) in the past, I’d say there is a good reason. It’s a weak song in comparison to other material they have done. Frankly, the fact that they put this one (and a couple of other questionable entries) into the set, and left out “The Sinner” is nearly a crime in my opinion. As hot as the band was on this particular night, this one just didn’t cut it in comparison to most of the rest of the songs they did. The band then threw out another surprise. Their cover of Joan Baez’ “Diamonds and Rust” has been a mainstay of their live set for years. This time, however, rather than their usual full on metal take on the cut, they donned acoustic guitars to put in an incredible nearly unplugged take on it. I say “nearly” because for the last segments of the number, both K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton went electric, turning it into a hard rock anthemic take. The tune worked extremely well, and was a great surprise.

They launched next into another new song, “Deal With The Devil”. On the album the song is very strong andfeatures some killer guitar dueling, but that’s just a warm up. This one really comes into its own live, and was one of the strongest points in the show. I hope they keep this one in the set for a long time, as it is one of their best displays of the patented Priest twin guitar attack. The ever solid nearly balladic, nearly epic “Beyond The Realms of Death” came next, and was delivered in a strong, if not earth shattering fashion.

Next up the Priest delivered another of the questionable entries from the set. The Turbo album is almost universally accepted as the weakest effort from the group, and they pulled “Turbo Lover” from that release. This rendition was definitely stronger than the studio version, and held up quite a bit better than “I’m A Rocker”, but it would have been nice for them to have put a stronger piece into the lineup. They recovered well, though, jumping into another new number, “Hellrider”, which, like the other new tracks worked even better live than it does on the AOR album. Considering how strong this one is as presented there, that says a lot.

Another standard, albeit in one of its best arrangements and performances I’ve heard, “Victim of Changes” was up next. This one rocked out very well and proved that the Priest still has it. They weren’t done with surprises yet, though, dishing out “Exciter” from Stained Class next. This has always been a Priest favorite for me, and live it really worked well. I have read reviews that state that Rob Halford lowered his vocal register for the song because he couldn’t sing it as high as he used to do. Frankly, I don’t find that argument to have a lot of merit. While this arrangement is an octave lower through much of the song, he found plenty of opportunities to jump up to his old high notes. That shows me that he can still pull the song off as recorded, but instead chose to make some changes to the performance for some other reason. In any event, the cut worked at least as well this way as it originally did.

They had not hit their apex yet, though. As they tore into “Painkiller” I was totally blown away, as I’m guessing were most in attendance. This song has always been one of Priest’s most ferocious, but I have never seen them on fire as they were here. This one was definitely the strongest point in the show, and real killer. If they don’t release a live version of this, I’d be surprised. The remainder of the show was taken up by songs that one could easily guess. All were delivered very well, but there were no real momentous instances here.

Overall both K. K. Downing and Glenn Tipton were on fire throughout the majority of the show. Halford, while still maintaining his quirky metal God stage presence, found more opportunities to make it personal. He talked to the audience more than I have seen in the past, and his vocal performance throughout much of the show felt more passionate and immediate than other shows I’ve seen. As always, Scott Travis and Ian Hill put down a solid and very dependable and fiery rhythm section. The final tally, this was a killer Priest show – probably the best I’ve ever seen. Here’s hoping they make it back in the fall or winter. I’m definitely game for another dose of the Priest! As for Queensryche, my thoughts are focused on looking towards their next headlining tour. It’s in that venue that they never fail to deliver.