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judaspriest intro D4S3489 kleinRudolf Weber Arena, Oberhausen, Germany
31st July 2022
Judas Priest - “50 Heavy Metal Years” - Support: The Dead Daisies

When we arrived in Oberhausen only a few metres separated us from the parking to the entrance of Rudolf Weber Arena, but heavy rains separated us from what might become a hell of a show in Oberhausen tonight. Just in time the rain ceased and we rushed to get our papers and pass security control. Many fans who had decided to outrun the rain stood at the merch to buy dry clothes and thus everything was a bit damp and congested inside the arena. Prices had increased since my last visit to the arena and almost six euros for a small soft drink is more than one would by at Munich’s Oktoberfest, the snacks being pricy as well, but it seemed that most fans were ready to pay a lot for beer of the headliner’s merchandise. After finding our seats, it only took a few minutes until the lights went off and a visible and audible tension was in the air.


The Dead Daisies

THE DEAD DAISIES have gone from strength to strength since the release of their self-titled album in 2013. They have released five studio, one live and one covers album to a growing army of fans worldwide and are praised by the global media in an era where Rock has been declared dead time and time again. The band’s DNA includes an amazing collective of players that includes John Corabi, Marco Mendoza, Richard Fortus, Dizzy Reed, Tommy Clufetos, Frank Ferrer, Darryl Jones, Charley Drayton, Deen Castronovo and Jon Stevens amongst others. They’ve also shared the stage with some of the biggest names in Rock INCLUDING KISS, GUNS’N’ROSES, SCORPIONS, AEROSMITH, BAD COMPANY, WHITESNAKE, ZZ TOP and the HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES. https://thedeaddaisies.com / https://www.facebook.com/TheDeadDaisies

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Music & Performance
The DEAD DAISIES are what is best described as a US-superstar Rock band. Over the years, the line-up changed several times and when the band came on stage in Oberhausen, I thought that Glenn Hughes looked quite different from when I had seen him last time on stage. A few seconds later, I realized that I had seen the vocalist live on stage in Munich a few weeks ago, with WHITESNAKE. Dino Jelusic was on vocal duties tonight, as Glenn had caught Covid and BUCKCHERRY bass shredder Yogi Lonich took over Glenn’s bass duties.

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To make it short: this band was a lot more than an opener. They almost stole the show. Jelusic is a perfect frontman for this Classic Rock orientated band and although he had not much time to learn the songs and had an assortment of papers glued to the stage and monitors as a backup, he delivered and absolute killer performance. While the band played the perfect groove, their fronter roamed the stage, poised like he'd never done anything else and frequently addressed the audience. The arena started filling minute by minute and after the bands third song, it was almost full. Not many opening bands manage, to draw in the audience, that prefers to have a few drinks at the bar while waiting for the headliner, but THE DEAD DAISIES did.

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Drummer Brian Tichy delivered a funny drum solo part, that ranged somewhere between brilliant drumming technique and a not so well-trained drumstick-juggling-technique so his drumtech got quite busy and the audience had a laugh. After a firework of amazing songs that highly profited from Dino’s insane vocal range and power and extremely skilled guitar shredders, THE DEAD DAISIES left the stage under loud applause and cheering. That Oberhausen loved the bands performance became visible after the end of the show, when many lined up at the merch to get one of the bands shirts.

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Setlist
01. Long Way To Go
02. Rise Up
03. Dead And Gone
04. Bustle & Flow
05. Mistreated
06. Radiance
07. Shine One
08. Burn

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 10
Light: 9
Sound: 9
Total: 9.3 / 10

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Judas Priest

There are just a handful of Metal bands that reached so high like JUDAS PRIEST during their fifty-year long career. Their presence and influence are strong like never before, and proof gives their 2018 album ‘Firepower’ that climbed to a chart position they never reached before, a Grammy Award for “Best Metal Performance” 2010, the VH1 Rock Honors 2006 award and a nomination for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. Just a small number of bands are so successful and influenced so many other musicians like JUDAS PRIEST. The number of successful bands alone, that named themselves like famous JUDAS PRIEST songs, speaks volumes. Their debut album, ‘Rocka Rolla’, was released in 1974, and since the classic ‘British Steel’ (1980), Rob Halford, K. K. Downing, Glenn Tipton, and Ian Hall together with different drummers created further genre milestones over the years: ‘Screaming For Vengeance’ (1982) and ‘Painkiller’ (1990) are part of every metal collection all over the world.

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Not only is the band from England responsible for the leather look of many other bands, they also wrote countless classics. Even in 2017, there is no Rock and Metal party without ‘Breaking The Law’, ‘You’ve Got Another Thing Coming’, or ‘Living After Midnight’. Until today, JUDAS PRIEST sold more than 45 million copies of their albums worldwide. In 2009, the release of ‘British Steel’ celebrates its 30th anniversary, and during the belonging tour, the quintet performed the entire album. In 2010, an extended double album version inclusive DVD with a live show from Hollywood/ Florida is released. https://www.judaspriest.com / https://www.facebook.com/OfficialJudasPriest

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Music & Performance
Around 9 p.m. JUDAS PRIEST opened their show with ‘One Shot at Glory’ while the 6,300 fans in the Rudolf Weber Arena proved, that they knew the lyrics by heart. Unfortunately, those who did not get a spot in front of stage had a restricted view, because somebody decided to use the fog machines to the max tonight and only halfway through the show, the view became better while the sound did not. Sometimes the bass was droning, sometimes the drums made Rob Halfords amazing vocals performance hardly audible.

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A song to remember was ‘You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’‘; it seemed that the fans outscreamed Rob Halford, who then decided to show his vocal abilities to the max. 50 years of Heavy Metal leave their traces and so the guitar fraction sometimes played very extended solo and bridge parts, to give Rob Halford the chance to recover from the strains that such an outstanding vocal performance mean to everybody who is not in their twenties anymore. Rob Halford often used these breaks to change his jacket and so we saw the legendary leather jacket with fringes and many other killer outfits.

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Whenever Halford took a short break, Richie Faulkner and Andy Sneap drove their guitars to the limits, they also drove themselves physically to the max, roaming the stage, climbing the platforms or kneeling in front of the audience while playing killer guitar solo parts. The new stage layout came with a viewscreen that showed snippets from videos or animations that suited the songs themes and moods. Once in a while they showed the musicians on stage and sometimes some sequences from the audience. For those with places further away from the show, it would have been nice, if more scenes from the stage would have been shown, though the amazing light show made up for the lack of stage view tonight.

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JUDAS PRIEST cannot only deliver full-force Heavy Metal songs, they also performed a wonderful version of ‘Diamonds and Rust’ (JOAN BAEZ cover), tonight we did not get the acoustic version, but a really cool Rock prone one that suited tonight’s really heavy show perfectly. 100 minutes of showtime flew by as highlight after highlight blasted from the speakers and suddenly it was time for all-time classic ‘Breaking The Law’. For their last songs JUDAS PRIEST had the crew roll in a giant bull that droned over the stage and while the band performed ‘Living After Midnight’ all the fans sang along and when Judas Priest left the stage for the last time tonight, the fans remained in Rudolf Weber Arena, hoping for one more song.

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JUDAS PRIEST as a band delivered an absolute killer show tonight, it seemed that the audience’s response to the fireworks of songs pushed the band further and further and looking at Rob Halfords face, when the last tune faded, proved that he absolutely loved, what happened in Oberhausen tonight.

Setlist
01. War Pigs (Black Sabbath song - from tape)
02. Battle Hymn (Intro)
03. One Shot at Glory
04. Lightning Strike
05. You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’
06. Freewheel Burning
07. Turbo Lover
08. Hell Patrol
09. The Sentinel
10. Victim of Changes
11. The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown) (Fleetwood Mac cover)
12. Diamonds & Rust (Joan Baez cover)
13. Painkiller
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14. The Hellion
15. Electric Eye
16. Hell Bent for Leather
17. Breaking the Law
18. Living After Midnight
19. We are the Champions (Queen song) (Outro)

Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 9
Light: 6
Sound: 7
Total: 8 / 10

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All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com / http://www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)

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