Judas Priest / Uriah Heep - Night #2 in Albany NY - May 19, 2019 - Review with Video and Photos

I didn't expect to be seeing Judas Priest for a third time on the current "Firepower" tour (on Sunday, May 19, 2019 at the Palace Theater in Albany, NY), but unlike most legacy metal bands on the road these days, Priest keep changing up the setlist as the tour goes on.  Also I won tix from Z93 DJ Tigman during his daily Big Hair Scare - make sure you tune in and give him a listen - Tig is THE ambassador of metal in these parts!

 

Back to the setlist changes, when this leg started in early May in Florida, fans were shocked to see 2/3 of the 18 song setlist were tour debuts with numerous songs not having been played in decades or ever!  Then within this leg of the tour, the band continues to throw in new surprises - one of which we would get tonight!

I've reviewed Priest before and much of what I said then I will say again - the band sounds amazing and Halford's vocals are fantastic.  

Opener Uriah Heep were on point as well (there's video and some shots of them towards the end of this review.)

This was the second night of a two night stand in Albany.  The Saturday night show was a sell out.  This show appeared to be about 2/3 full but the crowd was loud and rabid.

So let's take a walk through the setlist and I'll share some pictures and videos I shot that will let you know what it was like to be there.

The show opened with "Necromancer", one of 4 tracks off their newest album "Firepower" played this night.  

Halford's entrance was fantastic - backlit in shadow to be revealed to be in an outfit that I can only describe as half Heavy Metal Willy Wonka and half Screamin' Jay Hawkins!

"Heading Out to the Highway" off of "Point of Entry" was next and here's a video I shot of that one:

Next up was the sole track from my favorite Priest album, "Defenders of the Faith" with a killer "The Sentinel"

"Spectre" was next followed by the classic (and only track from) "Screaming for Vengeance" with "(Take These) Chains".  Here's the video I shot of this one:

"Judas Rising" from "Angel of Retribution" was then followed by "Out in the Cold" from "Turbo".  

It's great to see the band touching on all areas of their 50 year career with selections from 12 different albums on this night.

"Traitors Gate" came next followed by the "Sin After Sin" track "Starbreaker."  

Then came the first "British Steel" track of the night, "Steeler," which led into "Halls of Valhalla" from "Redeemer of Souls"

"Tyrant" off "Sad Wings of Destiny" (my 2nd favorite Priest album for those keeping track) then made a fantastic appearance followed by "No Surrender" and then the biggest surprise of the night, "Hot Rockin'" which had not been played since exactly 14 years to the day!  

Very cool, but I didn't get the video of it.  I checked YouTube to see if I could link to someone else's but as far as I can see, it's not yet uploaded by anyone.  My buddy filmed the whole show, so once that gets uploaded, I'll put in a link here in case it becomes some kind of tour one off 14th anniversary playing that doesn't get repeated.

Next was the "Victim of Changes" which is always an amazing highlight of any Priest show and I'm so glad it's back in the set.  Here's my video of it:

They finished the main set with a killer "All Guns Blazing" from "Painkiller"

There was a quick break and the band came back and did a non stop play through of the hits for the encore - "Hell Bent For Leather", "Breaking The Law" and "Living After Midnight".

Surprisingly no "You've Got Another Thing Coming" on this tour - but with all the fantastic deeper tracks, I don't think anyone missed it - perhaps only those who were seeing Priest for the first time, but you got the impression that was not the case for just about the whole crowd.

As I stated earlier, Uriah Heep opened the show.  Looking at setlist.fm, I see they did a nine song set.

I only knew their biggest hit "Easy Livin' (which they ended with and below is the video I took of it) and walked in during their seventh song "Look At Yourself", but that and "Sunshine" which followed before "Easy Livin' sounded great and the crowd loved them,  giving them a standing ovation at the end of the set!

The rest of their set was "Grazed by Heaven" to open.

Too Scared to Run

Take Away My Soul

Rainbow Demon

Knocking at My Door

Gypsy

It was a great way to spend a Sunday night and as I always say after leaving a Priest show, I can't wait til the next time!

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Click any photos to enlarge them to full screen.  Also follow on twitter @MostPeopleBlank   Then, of course, as always - Rock on and Enjoy - Paul

Nashville Pussy / Guitar Wolf - Stanhope NJ - May 17, 2019 - Review with photos and videos

My buddy Jimmy asked me if I wanted to go check out Nashville Pussy on Friday, May 17, at The Stanhope House in Stanhope, NJ.  Since they're not coming around to Poughkeepsie this time around and they always kick ass, I was in.

The doors opened at 6:00pm, but we arrived about 8:15 missing the first two acts, but just before The Turbo A.C.'s took the stage.  I think they've been around since 1995 and I've heard the name many times (and only good things about them) but somehow this was the first time we ever saw them.  It was real good straight ahead hard/punk rock kinda like the Supersuckers (who I love) and a great way to start the night.  They played around 35 or 40 minutes.

The Stanhope House is a cool venue.  From the outside it's basically a beautiful old house (it's been around since 1790) on the corner of small town USA, but when you enter, there's a small performance area in the room straight ahead or you go through a door on the right into a rock and roll bar with a small stage that is less than a foot off the ground.  There's an open area in front of the stage and quite a few tables set up right inside the door and towards the back where the bar is.  I'd guess if they moved the tables out you could probably squeeze in about 200, although with the stage so low to the ground, if you're not right up front, at best you'll just see the performers heads above the crowd.

Guitar Wolf, from Japan, was up next.  I knew they've been around for about 30 years and had heard of them and their exciting live show, but again, had never checked them out before.  We decided to go stand at the front of the crowd on the right side of the stage to check things out and shoot some video to see if they lived up to the legend.  Well hot damn...they are something else live!

The lights dimmed and just as they did, we realized a few people in this crowd must have been here since the doors opened at 6 and had been pounding beers from the moment they arrived.  This tall dude in a baseball cap and his friend come and stand right in front of me and they were out of their heads, but hell, they were having fun.  They, for lack of a better word, rocked out the whole set once it kicked in.

I hit record on the video that follows and it basically shows about the first seven minutes from when Guitar Wolf hit the stage.  This consisted of:

• The trio making some noise and doing some rock star poses
• A slinky 60's sounding guitar instrumental backing track started playing as they then each grabbed the tall boys sitting on their amps, leaned their heads back in unison and downed them
• Once their thirst was quenched, they walked to the front of the stage to lead the crowd in a chant of "Hey! Hey! Hey!" to the backing track
• They then launched into "Beast Vibrator" as Bass wolf jumped into the crowd as Guitar Wolf swung his axe above his head like a helicopter before getting rid of it and grabbing the mic stand and joining his bassist in the crowd while Drum wolf bashed away.  I think this was due to some guitar malfunction or maybe this is just how Guitar Wolf does it.  Their roadie brought the guitar back to the Wolf and they returned to the stage.
• At this point, a big security guard who I hadn't seen comes walking over to stand by us in case the mayhem ensued, but you'll see in the video after 2 minutes or so he realizes this is just the way a Guitar Wolf show must go so we didn't see him again.
• During all of this their roadie is frantically fixing mic stands and sorting out cables on stage amid the ruckus around him
• Without stopping for a second they launch into the garage rock of "Sex Jaguar" off their new album.

That's the first seven minutes in this video below...goddamn!

As I said before I didn't know their stuff before this night, so the only other song I know they played in their 40 minute set was a cover of the Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme Some Lovin" (also on their new album).

The part I wish I caught on video was about mid way through the set, when a new member of the been drinking since doors open crowd appeared and starting doing a hardcore stomp pacing back and forth in the 2 or 3 feet between the band and the stage.  He wasn't swinging elbows and any bit of crashing into the crowd was just because he didn't quite have his balance, but after doing this a couple of times he stopped in front of the bassist rockin out.   The bassist then in one quick motion backed up about 4 feet while removing his bass and launched himself off the stage unexpectedly into this guys arms.  The crowd then hoisted the bassist up as he twisted and turned until he was basically doing a headstand and with the ceiling so low, he proceeded, with the crowds help, to walk across the ceiling back to the stage where he got back on and was back into the song.

I'm gonna say it, it was awesome.  To be clear, that bit of mayhem appeared to be all in love too.  

So yeah, Guitar Wolf were a helluva spectacle and I think if the show ended with those first 2 bands, the $22 admission would have been worth it, but next up would be Nashville Pussy in about 30 minutes.

Almost everyone went to the bar or outside to smoke, so to avoid drunk hat guy and his friend and try and get a spot to get better videos and some photos, I suggested to Jimmy we move to the other side of the stage which seemed calmer.

Well, that didn't quite work out.  We had a perfect spot and then it seemed all 6 or so of the really drunk folks (including tall hat guy, his bud, and hardcore stomper) all came over to that side too.  So it was either be 3' from the stage amidst drunken mayhem or go to the back of the crowd.

Drunken mayhem it would be.  Because of this, I really don't have many good photos from this show, but the two videos I shot holding my phone as best I could over the heads of the drunk invaders actually came out pretty damn good I think and the band is in great form.  Also you'll see hat guy doing his thing and in the other video, the short guy with the head of kinda dirty blond hair is hardcore stomp guy.

The band as always sounded fantastic and kicked our asses.  Here's the setlist for the show.  (Nashville Pussy's bassist Bonnie graciously signed it after the show)

They played all of this but threw in a few others which I was not taking notes on, but one of them was "Rub It to Death" which is the video below.

Towards the end of the set, Blaine suddenly announced he was super high.  I don't know if it was something he took earlier that just kicked in or what, but he had that can't keep your eyes open and can't control the width of your smile thing going on as he told the audience he "DEFINITELY" was feeling better than us.  It didn't stop him from rocking out, but as soon as the last song ended I think he headed out while the rest of the band hung out.  We just hung out for a short bit so maybe he came back in after we left, but it was good to see the band having as much fun as the audience.

I think the tour with Guitar Wolf continues through sometime in June, so just go.  Hopefully Turbo A.C.'s are on the whole tour as well.  This was a super fun night and Nashville Pussy, if you're reading this, hope you come back to Poughkeepsie next time!.

By the way, as I said the photos in this one aren't too good, but if you're looking for some good shots of the band, here's my review of them from a few years ago when they played Heavy Montreal which has some killer shots.  Next time I gotta print a couple of these out to bring to get signed.

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JACKYL - The Chance, Poughkeepsie NY - March 10, 2019 Review with Video and Photos

I'm playing catch up on posting videos and photos and here's some from when Jackyl returned to The Chance in Poughkeepsie, NY on March 10, 2019 for the first time since 1993!

 

The fans came out and had a great time with the band and I think this will likely become a regular stop going forward for Jesse James Dupree and the boys.

I've seen Jackyl many times over the years (first time being Woodstock '94, the 25th anniversary of which is coming up soon) and you always know you're going to get a fun kick in the ass live rock n roll show when they hit the stage and this night was no different.

Whenever Jackyl comes around, me and my crew are there - I highly suggestion you do the same when they come to your town.

Here was the setlist for the night.  Links to the videos I shot for four of the songs are below as well

Blast Off

My Moonshine Kicks Your Cocaine's Ass

Mental Masturbation

Encore (It Makes My Bic Dig Her)

Screwdriver

Down On Me (video below)

Push Comes To Shove

Just Because I'm Drunk

Midnight Rider (Allman Brothers cover) - video below

Secret of the Bottle

I Stand Alone

When Will It Rain

Dirty Little Mind (video below)

Redneck Punk

She Loves My Cock

The Lumberjack (video below which starts at the chainsaw solo and plays through to the end)

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