Review from Rob Halford's appearance, Athens 9 December 2000
I am writing this listening to "Ressurection" from www.hardradio.com!
Halford's new band was going to play in Athens for two nights, first appearance of a Judas priest member in Greece
as far as I know.... I wasn't going to miss this, so I chose the second night. I arrived at the club
just in time, they had just taken off with Ressurection, the title track from Halford's new album. Throughout the
show I was astonished by Halford's performance, his voice at so perfect that was unbelievable. Could he be using pre-recorded tracks?
I must admit I knew none of the other members of his band but they seemed very talented and the sound was
really heavy, much heavier than in the album. The club (called Rodon) is quite a small place, with a capacity of
only a couple of thousand people and so all the people there were absolutely crazy. The setlist was balanced,
when we take into account that he has a new album; they began of course with new ones (Silent Scream, Locked and Loaded
etc.) but he also gave us numerous Priest classics - and you can imagine
what happened during songs like "Stained Class", "Running Wild", "Electric Eye" , "The Jawbreaker", "The Ripper".
The band made
4 or 5 encores after continuous demand from the fans.
They performed "Breaking the Law" instumental, with the crowd singing while Halford was shooting us with a
video camera!! I have attended a lot of concerts but this was the only one I've seen with 100% participation
from such a wild crowd, I came out and could hardly speak. The only drawback for me was that they totally ignored Painkiller (although it's the closest Priest album
to Ressurection - or because of this?) despite the fact that the crowd demanded "Painkiller" a couple of times
between encores.
So, what more can I ask now? (A Judas Priest concert perhaps?)