CONCERT REVIEW: Judas Priest – Queensrÿche Live at MGM Music Hall


MGM Music Hall, Boston, MA 10/16/22

I guess the saying, “three times a charm,” holds true every so often. Judas Priest had to cancel their Boston area shows twice in a row on the last two attempts. Once because guitarist Richie Faulkner came within inches of his life a few dates before and the second time the show was canceled the day of due to Rob Halford being ill. Thankfully everyone is doing well now but after the second time I just assumed the show would never happen. Well clearly I was proven wrong. Moved to the newly opened venue by Fenway Park, The MGM Music Hall in Boston, the show went off without a hitch as part of their tour celebrating their more than 50 years as a band.

At this point in their career all they really have to do is show up and throngs of avid fans will gladly buy the tickets, but they still put on a great show. The stage is set up to look like an industrial hazardous waste site replete with large rusty looking barrels and pipes, warning signs and chains hanging from the stage rigging. It’s what you might imagine as an artists’ rendition of an old run down factory building in Birmingham to be. As beat up and worn down as the set was made to look, Priest sounded anything, but rusty. Rob Halford’s voice still pretty much has the same tone and character as ever, hitting those insane high ranges with relative ease and every guitar solo, riff, bass line and drum beat hit exactly and solidly. They still play as if it was twenty years ago and I loved every second of it.

MGM Music Hall, Boston, MA 10/16/22

MGM Music Hall, Boston, MA 10/16/22

MGM Music Hall, Boston, MA 10/16/22

MGM Music Hall, Boston, MA 10/16/22

MGM Music Hall, Boston, MA 10/16/22

MGM Music Hall, Boston, MA 10/16/22

MGM Music Hall, Boston, MA 10/16/22

MGM Music Hall, Boston, MA 10/16/22

MGM Music Hall, Boston, MA 10/16/22

MGM Music Hall, Boston, MA 10/16/22

MGM Music Hall, Boston, MA 10/16/22

Admittedly my favorite Judas Priest albums are the first four releases so hearing them play “Genocide” off of Sad Wings Of Destiny was for me a huge treat. As expected and to the excited yells of the crowd, Rob came out on a big customized Harley Davidson for the start of the encore to, of course, “Hell Bent for Leather,” and finished off the set with a giant blown up bull for “Living After Midnight.” It was pretty great.

MGM Music Hall, Boston, MA 10/16/22

MGM Music Hall, Boston, MA 10/16/22

MGM Music Hall, Boston, MA 10/16/22

MGM Music Hall, Boston, MA 10/16/22

MGM Music Hall, Boston, MA 10/16/22

MGM Music Hall, Boston, MA 10/16/22

MGM Music Hall, Boston, MA 10/16/22

MGM Music Hall, Boston, MA 10/16/22

 

Queensrÿche opened the show, and honestly I have never been much of a fan. Although I know their hits from the late 1980s and early 1990s, if you were to ask me about anything else my face would just go completely blank. That’s not to say they didn’t perform well or sound good, they sounded exactly as I would have expected and I have nothing bad to say about their show. Lots of people there loved it. If I was a fan I would not have been disappointed by any of it but it just isn’t for me. There was, though, an obvious dig at former band member/s and their battles at the very last seconds of the set when the current singer, Todd La Torre, after all the thank yous and such, proclaimed that this was the only Queensryche.

 

Buy tickets to see Judas Priest on tour:

Judas Priest Books New 50 Heavy Metal Years” Tour Dates with Queensryche

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WORDS AND PHOTOS BY HILLARIE JASON