KK'S PRIEST

I have waited patiently for KK’s PRIEST to make it to Houston and I was resigning myself to possibly having to travel to another city to catch them live in all their glory.  They were scheduled to play over a year ago but some issue arose and they cancelled that date.  Needless to say, there was no way I was going to miss this concert shy of hospitalization or worse.  Unfortunately, they are special guests on the W.A.S.P. tour so we’re not getting a headlining set but I’ll take whatever I can get.

Their show started with a trifecta of JUDAS PRIEST classics that included "You've Got Another Thing Comin'", "Breaking the Law", and "Living After Midnight".  Quite honestly, with this trio of hits to start their set, they were destined to have the crowd eating out of their hands.  K.K. Downing has gathered a bunch of metal players that not only do justice to these PRIEST classics but they manage to come up with new material that rivals his previous band.

Making sure that the packed Houston crowd knew that they had new records, they launched into a couple of tracks from their latest "The Sinner Rides Again".  I must confess, “Strike of the Viper”, and “One More Shot of Glory” are even more lethal than their studio counterparts.  Both tunes kept the crowd focused on the band and even singing along to the choruses.  If they had started the show with those tracks, they would have won over the crowd just as easily.  Stepping back to their previous record, the band treated us with another ripping version of “Hellfire Thunderbolt”.  While the studio version is awesome, the track comes alive in a different way on stage and the energy between the band and crowd lifts it to new heights.

Returning to material from his previous band, they performed an often overlook PRIEST classic “Heading Out to the Highway”.  "Point of Entry" is not a record that many fans turn to but there’s some great material on that record and they picked the best song to play in their set.  It’s one of those track that you forget about until you hear it and then you’re transported back to that timeframe when the NWOBHM was in full swing.  After a barrage of metal, KK’s PRIEST slow things down a bit with a unbelievable rendition of “Beyond the Realms of Death”.  While K.K. Downing shined on the previous tunes, this song gave Ripper Owens and A.J. Mills to space to show their stuff.  Owens did the song justice and Mills captured the tortured nature of the song perfectly in his solo.  This was definitely the highlight of the show for me.

Digging back into the JUDAS PRIESTcatalogue, they went for another overlooked track “The Sentinel” with all its prog elements.  Then it was time for K.K. Downing to shine again with perennial PRIEST classic “Victim of Changes”.  K.K. and company did a perfect rendition of this tune and this was another highlight in a show full of highlights.  Downing was throwing shapes just like the old days and he hasn’t lost any of his guitar prowess one bit.  They capped the JUDAS PRIEST portion with a great chugging version of “Turbo Lover” that had the crowd pumping their fists and singing along.

Their set ended with another KK’s PRIEST classic from their first release “Raise Your Fist”.  Well, we were raising our fists the whole show so we weren’t going to stop now.  I was sorry to see them leave the stage as they put on one hell of a show.  The whole band put in great performances and the KK’s PRIESTmaterial was superb.  My hope is that they come back soon and this time, please headline and perform more of those KK’s PRIEST tunes because they are that good.  Catch this band no matter if they are special guest or headlining because they may be awesome on record but on stage they are so much better.