Bone Bash 6 Review

Shoreline Amphitheater, Mt. View, CA

July 2, 2005

By Dan Wall

Judas Priest Set: The Hellion/Electric Eye, Metal Gods, Riding On the Wind, A Touch of Evil, Judas Rising, Revolution, Breaking the Law, I’m a Rocker, Diamonds and Rust (slow version), Deal With the Devil, Beyond the Realms of Death, Turbo Lover, Hellrider, Victim of Changes, Exciter, Painkiller. Encore: Hell Bent For Leather, Living After Midnight, You’ve Got Another Thing Coming.

Set Length: 2 hours

It took a long time and a lot of hard work to get original lead singer Rob Halford back with metal gods Judas Priest, but after seeing the band last week at Bone Bash 6 in Mountain View, it certainly appears all that hard work has paid off, for both the band and its fans.

Riding the momentum of last year’s Ozzfest tour and a superb new record (Angel of Retribution), the Priest ripped through two hours of its best material here, providing the Bay Area’s best rock radio station (107.7-KSAN for those wondering) with a wonderful vehicle to celebrate its birthday.

The Priest is the real thing when it comes to heavy metal, a loud, heavy, ungodly metal machine. Generally regarded as one of the cornerstones of English heavy metal (along with Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden), the band is playing some of the best shows of its career after losing its lead vocalist to his own projects for nearly 13 years.

Halford started the lengthy set very deliberately, pacing the stage like a caged animal as he sung those classics placed early in the set, dressed resplendently in black, studded leather and a collection of coats that would make Liberace blush. Eventually, he would loosen up and get the party started with all the big hits at the end of the show, and his multi-octave voice would follow suit, eventually getting to the point where the infamous closing note to “Victim of Changes” hardly strained the legendary frontman’s voice at all.

The stage set hasn’t changed much since last year’s tour, with the amps hidden behind a series of metallic ramps and stairs, a huge playpen for Halford and the band’s guitarists to roam. There was little pyro or fire, but a splendid light show and a variety of backdrops more than made up for it.

The rest of the group was solid as a rock, as usual. Guitarists Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing hammered out the riffs to all the band’s best tunes, while bassist Ian Hill and drummer Scott Travis knocked home the beat with such a ferociousness that most of the metal heads in attendance were surely taken aback by the viciousness of this band of cranky old geezers.

Tipton and Downing are two of metal’s best guitarists, with the duo’s riffs often interspersed with flashy solos while playing in tandem, displaying chops that most young guitarists couldn’t mimic in a million years.

For three decades, Judas Priest has epitomized the heavy metal genre with its Harley riding frontman, two-guitar assault and spectacular stage shows. Nothing appears to have changed, as The Priest absolutely smoked the place on this night. The show was incredibly loud and heavy, and when the band shook the cavernous theater with an absolutely incredible version of the doom classic, “Beyond the Realms of Death,” it wasn’t hard to figure out why Halford came back into the fold and the metal crowd wanted this reunion.

The last time the band played this venue in 1991, 5,000 die-hards showed up for what eventually became a very long goodbye. Tonight, with more than 12,000 in attendance, it felt more like a celebration, for both the Bone and The Priest. Thank God (and that other little red guy) for that.

Queensryche Set List: The Whisper, En Force, Neue Regel, NM 156, Screaming in Digital, Open, Desert Dance, Queen of the Reich, Nightrider, Walk in the Shadows, The Needle Lies, I’m American (new), Surgical Strike, Empire, Take Hold of the Flame. 1 hour.

Queensryche knew it would have to blaze to keep up with The Priest on this tour, so the band has went way back into its catalog to feature a huge chunk of its early (and heavier) material to make up its set. The Seattle-based metal group went down a storm here, and appears to be getting bigger and bigger with the anticipation of its second Operation Mindcrime record due this fall.

There are only a few vocalists who could proceed Rob Halford onto a metal stage, and Geoff Tate is one of those singers. Looking and sounding much better than the band’s last appearance at this venue in 2000, Tate led the band through an hour-long set of rare and seldom-played songs with his huge voice and commanding stage presence. Guitarists Michael Wilton and Mike Stone (now looking more and more like a permanent member of the band) played all of those great riffs and solos with aplomb, while bassist Eddie Jackson and drummer Scott Rockenfield held down the backbeat, hardly a surprise for one of rock’s tightest rhythm sections. The perfect band to open for Judas Priest, Queensryche appears to be wining over more and more fans as it finds its way back to its classic sound.

Cardboard Vampires Set: Hole in the Sky, Givin the Dog a Bone, Helter Skelter, Ace of Spades, Night Prowler, Wild Flower, It Ain’t Like That, Love Removal Machine, Man in the Box. 45 minutes.

You might be wondering, just what in the heck is a cardboard vampire? A cardboard stand-up of Dracula? Well, no, it’s supergroup featuring The Cult’s Billy Duffy and Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell on guitar. The band is a glorified cover band, but what a cover band it is, with a set list consisting of the classics listed above and a bunch of numbers from the bands that made these guys millionaires. The group sounded good early, but when the Cult and AIC tunes started rolling out, with Duffy and Cantrell cranking out those classic riffs and solos, the band went from good to way above average in a hurry.

The classic line-up of Testament opened the six-hour show, and with original guitarist Alex Scolnick back and blazing with his longtime bandmates, the band went down very well before its hometown crowd. Vocalist Chuck Billy is a road warrior, and the rest of the guys looked happy to be back together. As always, it was a great Bone Bash, and I can’t wait for the next one.