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After so many years, veterans Judas Priest, with their original lineup, hit Adelaide on Sunday night. I had looked forward to this show so much that I was bloody nearly leaping out of my skin on my way into the venue.

Having heard that very few tickets were sold nationwide for the Priest Feast tour, I was a little worried that the Entertainment Centre would be echoing for want of people. It nearly was: huge gaps in all of the stands, the standing general admission area was reasonably packed but with plenty of room to spare, and it was all a little bit sad.

When we rocked up, the foyer was full of punters excitedly waving beers (or softdrinks, depending on their age) around, buying merch, and generally getting wound up for the set to come. Nobody much seemed to give a shit about the supporting acts. We missed Almost Human, and went to catch Melbourne rockers Electric Mary, but they didn’t do much for us.

Electric Mary played a fairly regular pub rock, indie style. They sure as hell weren’t metal, but at least the vocalist acknowledged the fact.

‘This feels like the Church of the Metal Gods,’ he intoned. ‘Alas, we are merely the altar boys. We’re about as metal as plastic,’ he said. You sure are, matey! But this band played a tight set, and a lot of the people there were nodding appreciatively and laughing at the vocalist’s jokes and generally getting into the swing of things.

After heading out to catch up with mates before the main event, and getting inside early – having heard from others that Priest took the stage very early when they were in Sydney – we had a chance to look around. Seated way up high to the right of the stage, with a magnificent view of backstage, complete with Halford’s famous motorbike resting in the wings, we didn’t have the best view in the world: especially not for the full-on frontal lighting effects that would have been brilliant from in front. Still, I’m not gonna complain: we were surrounded by enthusiastic Priest fans, who could hardly sit still with the anticipation.

The show opened out with a revealed Nostradamus banner – fitting, given that this concept album is the band’s latest offering, that filled the space up and behind the stage. The empty eyes of Nostradamus were particularly evil and fitting. The atmosphere warmed up with the opener to the album, before the band members ventured out on stage to get things moving. The great Metal God himself rose up out of one of the pillars at the back left of the stage at the commencement of I Am Nostradamus, shrouded in a glossy silver cassock, and wielding a huge shiny sceptre.

We had the full stage show, complete with flags, laser show, great lighting, effective breezes and banners and smoke, and the motorbike itself!

Judas Priest rocked us over a couple of hours through a taster of the band’s discography. They played Eat me Alive, Hammer and Anvil, Devil’s Child, Breaking the Law, Hell Patrol, Messengers of Death, Electric Eye, Pain Killer and Hellbent for Leather, among others. I was hoping like hell they’d play Nightcrawler, but to no avail.

At one stage Halford was like the elder choir master, yelling various sequences of ‘yeah’, with enthusiastic replies from the hundreds of punters in the crowd. Perhaps unsurprisingly, everyone managed to keep up and hit the right note, until Halford had to concede it:

‘Alright, you beat me!’

At the end of this round of vocal exercises, Halford took an Aussie flag off his shoulders, kissed it, and draped it over his motorbike. The man is such a showman! He loves Australia, and it shows.

It was a brilliant night – too short as always, and no encores! Even one encore would have been killer.

The only criticism I have about the whole show was that Halford seemed to lack lustre through the evening, he seemed tired and over it, and with Painkiller the poor bugger just couldn’t hit the notes. He relied heavily on reverb to get even close to the old-school Painkiller we all know and love: something that clearly irritated him, and didn’t go down terribly well with the crowd. Halford also spent a lot of time eyes down, and didn’t interact with the crowd like I expected he would: another disappointment. Maybe he was tired, or not on form, or something. Who knows?

But, we can’t pick on him too much – he’s over 60 and the fact that he’s still out there rockin’ is admirable on so many levels.

While it’s disappointing that there weren’t many people there, it is totally their loss: Judas Priest, with their full original lineup, played a great set, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. I don’t know if it’s likely we’ll see them again, so it may have been their last opportunity.

The sound was great, the show was excellent, the setlist brilliant. I am still hell excited from the show – I just wish I’d gotten to see them twice, like lots of the hardcore fans did.

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