Judas Priest Brings the Firepower

Judas Priest live in Jacksonville, FL

Daily’s Place Amphitheater, Jacksonville, FL, US, September 12, 2018

By Barry Nadler

About two years ago, a cousin of mine was sharing a story with me about one of her famous neighbors. She asked me if I had ever heard of a band called “Judas Priest.” I think I coughed and probably choked on whatever I was drinking at the time. Turns out she was neighbors with a past drummer for the band and they socialized regularly. She actually wasn’t really a fan of the band.

But, of course, I knew Judas Priest!

I currently have 111 Judas Priest tracks on my phone in my MP3 collection. Of all the bands in my collection, I have more Priest songs than any other artist.

She didn’t know that I have had a long history with “The Priest”. At the age of 12, they scared me. I was not rally into the heavy metal scene yet, but artists like Ozzy Osbourne, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest were making an impact on my friends, so I knew it was coming. At that time, Judas Priest was all about the black leather, screaming guitars with vocals to match, and motorcycles. In my early youth, this was a lot for me to take in and I wasn’t quite ready for it.

Of course, by 1986, things were different. I was totally bought into the heavy metal scene of my youth and there was no turning back. Judas Priest released their

controversial Turbo that year, which I fell in love with. I had no issue with the keyboards, which bothered the heavier fans. To me, it made it  more accessible to me. Tracks like “Turbo Lover,” “Locked In,” and “Out in the Cold” were on heavy rotation in my cassette player. Shortly after, they released Priest Live! and I was a fan. I loved the big stage, the robotic creature that appeared behind the drums and lifted Rob Halford and the twin guitarist, K.K. Downing and Glen Tipton above the stage in a mix of flames and fireworks. I had tickets to see them at the Lakeland Civic Center, that year, as well. I was so amped to see this show, with Dokken as the opening band, who I also loved. Then, it happened! Car accident…trying to find my way to the venue. Unfortunately seeing Priest on the Turbo tour would elude me.

Something pretty popular at this time was laser shows at the local planetarium. They would regularly include music by Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, and The Doors. One night, they had a show to Judas Priest. I took my younger brother, so he could experience it. Half-way through…he passed out and fell asleep. To this day, I don’t understand how you fall asleep to the sound of Judas Priest.

The release of Ram It Down about two years later, allowed me to finally experienced a Judas Priest show. I didn’t have a camera at that time and very little video of that show exists of that tour. Considering that I was completely sober at the show, for some reason, I have very little memory of it. What I did remember was that they played stuff I was unfamiliar with. At this point, I had probably not gone into their back catalog beyond Screaming For Vengeance. With the help of the Internet, today, I can identify that I knew maybe 8 out of almost 20 songs they played. This is probably why I have little memory of the show.

I loved the album Painkiller. Rob Halford just screaming in a way that no other can replicate. It also had a slightly heavier sound – which was great! “A Touch of

Evil” is still one of my favorite songs of theirs.

Many years have since passed and I have not had an opportunity to see Judas Priest since that show.

In that time period, Rob Halford left the band and he was replaced with vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens, who I didn’t really get into. But, my understanding is that he did a fine job replacing Halford. To this day, I have not picked up either of their two albums with him and have not heard a single song from this time period.

In 2005, Angel of Retribution was released and Rob Halford was back. I was back as a fan, as well. I really enjoyed this album. Something that caught me off guard though was the live DVD (Rising in the East) that came with the CD. I hadn’t seen Rob Halford perform live in many years. I found a Rob Halford that I had a hard time recognizing in this performance. His voice was the same, but his physical performance was very different. When you watch his earlier performances, you see a man that owns the stage and prowls around. It may be youth, it may be something else. I don’t know. But, I saw a Rob Halford that was looking down a lot, standing still a lot, and just seemed out of place for some reason.

To this day, I don’t know what occurred that changed his stage presence so drastically from what I remember.

Fast forward to 2010. Judas Priest announced that their Epitaph World Tour would be their Farewell tour and it looked like I would never get a chance to see the Metal Gods live again. However, about a year later, they announced that K.K. Downing was stepping down and retiring from the band. They replaced him with a young guitarist, Richie Faulkner, who is responsible for breathing life back into the iconic band. As a fan, I can’t even imagine what it was like to come into a band with the history and stature in the music industry, let alone breathe new life into a band with a 40-year history and give it enough energy to knock out what would be regarded as two of the best metal albums of their release year (Redeemer of Souls in 2015 and Firepower in 2018).

“You’re approved to shoot Judas Priest” my editor told me over the phone…I was speechless. I hope this is a conversation I never forget. I had been waiting for this call for most of my life. Now, it was happening and I didn’t know how to respond.

Which brings us to Judas Priest in Jacksonville, for my next opportunity to experience Judas Priest, live.

The lineup was a strange one, in my opinion – Judas Priest and Deep Purple. These bands couldn’t have been further apart musically. Personally, I would much rather have seen the lineup for the European leg of this tour – they are on a bill with Ozzy Osbourne.

I have been shooting concerts for three years, at this point. I have only been nervous two other times – shooting my first arena show and shooting my first time at the Orlando House of Blues. As I drove from Orlando to Jacksonville, I was nervous all the way. I was going to be shooting Heavy Metal royalty! This is the band that created the look of heavy metal – black leather. What if the show wasn’t as good as I had hoped? What if all the red light they are using caused my images to not come out as good as I wanted? What if something happened to my camera? I knew this was probably the biggest artist I would have photographed in my career as a concert photographer. It might possibly be the biggest I ever shoot. It needed to be special for me. This was an important event for me in many respects. All I really wanted was a quality shot of Rob Halford screaming into his mic. I got that – in spades.

Along with the lineup being a strange combination, it was certainly off-putting to find that Judas Priest was playing as the opening act to Deep Purple. I get that Deep Purple has been around longer, but the energy that Judas Priest puts out is so much more than what you get from Deep Purple. It was essentially two different audiences for this show.

The venue was cool. I had never been there before. The only experience I have had at an amphitheater has been with the one in Tampa that hosts lots of concerts. Daily’s Place is not in the same league as the Tampa Amphitheater. It’s better!  It is really more like an outside playhouse with two upper level balcony areas. You can find this venue, just outside the Jacksonville Stadium, where the Jaguars NFL team plays. I don’t think there was a bad seat in the place. All seats were covered and able to handle inclement Florida weather. There is even a full-on convenience store in the venue.

There was almost no experience I can compare having the opening riffs of the song “Firepower” kick in and being right at the feet of the mighty Rob Halford as he walked out and started just screaming the lyrics to the title track of their new album. I was there…and I was shooting Judas Priest. It was almost surreal. I had pictures of these guys on my wall as a kid. I drew their logo on book covers in high school. I was here, as an official guest, as an adult.

This was still the Rob Halford I saw in 2005 that didn’t prowl the stage much, but his voice was incredible. I have a hard time believing a 67-year old man can still scream and hit the notes this guy hits. Absolutely incredible.

This time around, I knew 14 of the 15 songs included in the set. I believe they had three songs from the current album as part of their set – “Firepower,” “Lightning Strike,” and “Rising from Ruins.” When you have a back catalog as rich as they do and only 15 songs to play, I can’t imagine it is easy to pick. There were certainly large holes in the set list. But, classics, such as “Desert Plains”, “Turbo Lover”, “Painkiller”, “Electric Eye”, “Breaking the Law”, and “Living After Midnight” were included. There was also the customary and expected appearance of the Harley on stage for Hell Bent for Leather.

I was really surprised how much I enjoyed watching Richie Faulkner perform. He was bending himself backwards, pointing to the sky, pointing at fans in the front rows and interacting with them, as well peeking out over his reflective sunglasses and waving at people as he performed. Ian Hill, their bass player carried the bottom-end of the music from back in the right-hand corner of the stage, where he typically hangs – rocking back and forth. There were a few times when Rob Halford would go back there and rock out with him, which was cool to watch. One of my favorite parts of the show is when they give their drummer, Scott Travis, the mic and introduce “Painkiller.” He had the audience chanting and he was yelling to the crowd “Scream louder! I can’t hear you! I am a rock drummer for crying out loud!”

A personal moment that I hope I remember for a long time was as the photographers were being removed from the pit, Rob Halford was looking at all of us and he pointed at me. He gave me a thumbs up and a quizzical look, as if to say “Did you get it?” I gave him the horns up and continued out of the pit. I had done it!

The band is classy and it was definitely a family-friendly show. They are more than aware that fans are important and that their fans that have supported them over the years now bring their kids to the shows to experience this spectacle of a band.

After the final shouts of “Living After Midnight” and the band came out for a final bow, the whole feel of the show changed.

Half the venue emptied out. Many were not there to see the headline band, Deep Purple. I am only a very casual fan of this band. I know about five or six of their songs, most were represented in this set list. I was really surprised by how much of a prog, jam band feel they had. The energy of their set was totally different from what had just graced the stage before them. This was a more keyboard/organ heavy sound, supported by guitar, bass, drums, and the very recognizable vocals of Ian Gillian.

Its really crazy to think back to this show and realize I had just watched a band that came onto the scene at the same time as Led Zepplin and Black Sabbath. This is a band that truely defined the 70’s rock scene and paved the way for second generation British metal bands like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Dio, and Def Leppard.

To be honest, this band was not impressive to me as I was watching them live. I certainly would not have trekked two hours to experience Deep Purple. This one took a little time for me to respect it as I should.

It was about a week later, when I was thinking back and realizing what I had seen. It dawned on me and I was in a little bit of awe. Given that I wasn’t a large Deep Purple fan, I didn’t even realize that some of the members performing that night were long-time band members – Ian Gillian, Ian Paice, Roger Glover, and Steve Morse are all names I have heard and with which I was familiar with.

It is nice to see this type of show and realize a group of five guys can just jam some classic tunes and it can sound good. You don’t need all the lights, the auto tune, the backing tracks, and such. Five guys on a stage, just jamming still works in the early 200’s. Many people don’t get the pleasure of experiencing this, and they should. It allows you to understand the roots of what you see and hear today.

With my lack of interest in this band…I was there to see Judas Priest, if that wasn’t obvious by this point…I was looking forward to a few specific tunes. I wanted to hear “Perfect Strangers” and “Knocking At Your Back Door.” Of course, “Smoke on the Water” was a required song, as well.

Along with these songs, their set list included “Pictures of Home”, “Space Truckin’”, and “Highway Star,” and “Hush.”

It was a good night and I would recommend the show to anyone that asks. You will not be disappointed.

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