Rock N Roll Roundup w/ Judas Priest, Sebastian Bach, King’s X & more (July 2015)

Lots of Rock N Roll and good times this Summer – We checked in with some Metal Legends, saw some old friends and met a bunch of new faces.
Here’s a roundup of the rawk show Summer 2015 –

Judas Priest – July 13th – Verizon Theater – Grand Prairie, TX

The 2010s mark Judas Priest’s fifth decade as a band. This show proved why their still here,  because they still kick major ass.
This being their 2nd time through the area in support of last year’s great Redeemer of Souls LP – It’s no wonder I and others continue to come out & support this band.

They played a set that largely stuck to their greatest hits, but kept things fresh by playing with an energy that would exceed most bands half their age. Minus a few slight missteps in the late ’80s and mid-’90s, the band has been consistently reliable both on record and on stage.

Rob Halford, vocalist and linchpin to the band’s creative and commercial success had the audience in the palm of his hand before he’d even sung a note.
Halford as the unique ability to command attention without demanding attention. His singing doesn’t show any ill-effects from decades of hard touring, and his voice is as powerful as ever. His demeanor was one of a seasoned veteran, confident in his abilities. When Halford did let loose with a falsetto wail, it was without fail pitch-perfect and every bit as spine-tingling as those heard on their classic albums.

The band’s newest member, lead guitarist Richie Faulkner, who really led the charge for the night. Almost 20 years the junior of the next-youngest member of Judas Priest, Faulkner was thrust into the spotlight and given the responsibility of replicating some of the band’s most iconic solos. Not only did he nail every one of them, he did so with a veteran’s sense of showmanship. At one point, in an almost Spinal Tap-esque display of bravado, he carried on a conversation with a few front-row audience members in the middle of a song. Not only was it mid-song, it was mid-riff, but it didn’t matter; Faulkner didn’t miss a note.

Much in the spirit of his predecessor, former guitarist (and original member) K.K. Downing, Faulkner rolled out every trick in the flashy-guitarist’s playbook: He played over his head, with his teeth and on his knees, all with a wink and a nod to the audience. Oddly enough, Faulkner even looks very similar to Downing from a distance, fitting for someone who so deftly continues the band’s signature twin-guitar sound.

A great night of Rawkin’

Setlist –

Dragonaut
Metal Gods
Devil’s Child
Victim of Changes
Halls of Valhalla
Turbo Lover
Redeemer of Souls
Beyond the Realms of Death
Jawbreaker
Breaking the Law
Hell Bent for Leather

Encore:

The Hellion/Electric Eye
You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’
Painkiller
Living After Midnight

The Fans –

Of course at any show the crowd should be the most enjoyable part & Metal fans are so passionate are always so fun to be around.

Jordan & Stella (left)

After the show we met Jordan & Stella, the two lovely ladies clad in black (above left) and had a nice talk with them. They were the best dressed of the entire show & Stella was even in leather. Totally Metal.

Sebastian Bach – July 14th – Gas Monkey Bar & Grill – Dallas, TX

I am an unapologetic Skid Row (w/ Sebastian Bach to be clear) fan – 1991’s Slave to the Grind still gets played alot when I’m in control of the car music and I first saw them on that tour when I was still in High School with local legends Pantera. They stayed away during the height of Grunge Mania and returned four years later with another great record 1995’s SubHuman Race. In the annals of my story-telling one that gets brought up at least once a year since then is the night of the show on that tour.
I had a cartoonish mishap with my car that devolved into something completely unbelievable. The tire on my front driver’s side actually left the car while I still driving and when I put my body weight on the door to inspect it out the window, the car door flew open, dumping me into the street and my car now on it’s own, it’s destination: the plate glass window of my place of employment. The punchline is that I called home and told my friends that were waiting on me not to leave for the show without me. All in the name of Rock N Roll – Good times.

Well as you know Bach left the band under terms so acrimonious that 20 years later their is no sign of any reconcilation between the two camps.
In fact Bach himself played his first show in Texas since that night just last Fall & was back again still supporting his solo effort 2014’s Give ‘Em Hell.
I missed the show last year and was determined to see this one. It also coinicided with my sister’s birthday who loves Bach and still talks about him like it’s 1989.

So off we went with the best of intentions and let me be clear – that’s pretty much where the fun ended:
First off we decided to eat inside the restaurant just as the openers were beginning outside. The singer of the first band looked so much like Sebastian Bach I had to get up & go outside to make sure he wasn’t already on. Why would you book a clone of the headliner as the opener? It was embarassing across the board for all involved. 
Next, in this age where the backstage pass no longer exists, they SELL the “backstage experience” to the working class or those with too much disposable income, for exhorbant prices and in the process they roped off the majority of what is already a tight fit in front of the stage so these people can feel like “V.I.P.s”
Next, my sister, who doesn’t get out that much & doesn’t always play well with others had me in constant damage control mode that was extended to the point of unbearability by the fact that Bach went on an hour late.
In fact, the owner of this place Richard Rawlings (drunkenly) introduces him only for the PA to be turned back on when it was clear that he wasn’t coming on anytime soon.
Finally we are shown mercy (temporarily) and Bach finally appears with the title track of that LP I love so much.

When he does finally appear he’s not in the greatest form, physical, voice or otherwise. I can understand some aging c’mon it’s been 20 years but quite frankly he looked like shit and didn’t sound much better. The fans at this show were some of the most insufferable ever witnessed as well. I’m tired of complaining about cell phone abuse at shows but this was on a whole other level. We were just a few feet from the stage and this one guy not only had his phone in the air the whole time but was following Bach with it (until I took it away from him for waving it my face one too many times). And this is while some All-American bro is openly shoving the drumstick he “caught” from the clone openers down the front of the shorts of one of the skankiest girls I’ve ever seen.

On this tour (I learned) that it has been customary for his young daughter (she’s around 7 I assume) and his latest fiance’ to watch side stage and then he gets his daughter involved in the show by talking to the crowd. She is cooler & more fearless speaking in public to a large crowd of strangers at age 7 than I am & I do it professionally. So after she talks about her love of cats in what may be the cutest moment ever, that can’t stand for long as suddenly this SEVEN YEAR OLD is beseiged with offers of trinkets and god-knows-what from the fans – namely this Metal stereotype:

Their are many funny caricatures of Metal fans but let me introduce a term of a type I’m sure you’ve seen (especially if you live in the South) and now you’ll know what to call it – You know how you have Goth, Emo etc.? Well this one I call RIP Dime –
To be clear I love Pantera & miss their fallen guitarist Dimebag Darrell as much as anyone – but their are a large contigent of people who have made mourning his passing their schtick.
You’ve seen them – 10 years removed from his tragic death and the male version still in camoflauge cargo shorts and similiar facial hair & then the female counterpart (that annoys me the most) all dress & act like Dime’s girlfriend Rita. Ever since the Pantera Behind the Music where she appeared, now there are carbon copies of heavyset women with the most unflattering fashion sense in straw cowboy hats saying “Getcha Pull!” & copying other Dime-isms en masse.
They all wear this razor blade necklace that has Dime’s sillouhette in the middle with beaming pride and since Bach had just mentioned Pantera & Dime onstage,
“the Ritas” took this as an opportunity to attempt to befit the nice toddler who likes cats with one of these, in a pathetic, transparent attempt of getting closer to Bach.
Truly disgusting –

King’s X – July 17th – Trees – Dallas, TX

Easily one of my favorite bands of all time – King’s X – It’s members my heroes, their art my soundtrack – I couldn’t even begin to articulate the influence this band has had on me over the years and I suspect same goes for anyone that has followed them for any length of time. If you have than you probably already know that drummer Jerry Gaskill suffered a heart attack a few years ago that seemed not only to end the band but his life. So when he bravely returned to the band after it was another example of the strength these guys possess that inspires us all.
Sadly that was short lived as on that tour Singer/Bassist Dug Pinnick suffered a major hernia that required surgery and then Gaskill fell victim to a second heart attack.
Grim times and I’ve been worried about them both. That’s what made their triumphant return even sweeter when they sold out Trees and were playing as well as I’ve ever seen them.

My buddy Deedle stuck to our tradition of seeing them together – The club booked like 5 hours openers so I didn’t arrive until literally King’s X was hitting the chorus of the first song when I met up with Deed and a few of his family members that were able to make the show who were all just as big of fans as we were.
It’s easy to forget things when your caught up in the moment as with each rarity, we would all rejoice as if it had never happened before, but when I came home and compared setlists to the 2013 show we saw together, it was almost identical haha. However this time in good health. Love live this band.

Setlist –

Groove Machine
The World Around Me
Pillow
Vegetable
Flies and Blue Skies
(Thinking and Wondering) What I’m Gonna Do
Everybody Knows a Little Bit of Something
A Box
Over My Head
Over and Over
Pleiades
We Were Born to Be Loved

Encore:

Go Tell Somebody
Dogman
Goldilox

Smashmouth – July 25th – House of Blues – Dallas, TX 

I don’t mind telling you that when Smashmouth’s first LP Fush Yu Mang came out in 1997 I was all in. I was not into the surge of pop-friendly punk that came in waves in the 1990’s and I’ve always despised Ska music, so why this bland, average group of bros with a dumb name? Because they were fun, that’s why.
I was close with my then-girlfriend’s younger brother and spending the Summer of 1997 in his garage room playing Magic The Gathering & listening to that record & taking him to see them live several times are memories I’ll cherish forever.
Hell it was enough to get me all the way out to Allen, TX a few summers ago to see them only to find out that they stopped being that band a looooooong time ago.
So here we are again to give them more chance at redemption and it was an exercise in futility that I won’t soon repeat.

In spite of them being mostly a cover band that records again mostly covers for soundtracks that’s been their bread & butter and kept them alive for the last 15 years I guess playing to moms & their kids has washed away any hint of inspiration because they came off exactly like a band that plays birthday parties for 10 year olds.
This was the most boring, phoned in, lazy & uninspired performance of just about anything I’ve ever seen ever. What was the point of this? Was anybody enjyoing this?
It felt like when your walking around NYC and you stumble upon a taping of some talk show doing a remote spot – you stop, see if their’s anything of interest to you, and then you after a few minutes you carry on. Carry on my friends, nothing to see here.

Setlist –

Can’t Get Enough of You Baby (? and the Mysterians cover)
Getaway Car
So Insane
Pacific Coast Party
Then the Morning Comes
The Fonz
Why Can’t We Be Friends? (War cover)
Come on Come On
Walkin’ on the Sun
Diggin’ Your Scene
All Day and All of the Night (The Kinks cover)
You Really Got Me (The Kinks cover)
I’m a Believer (Neil Diamond cover)
All Star

KMFDM – July 26th – Gas Monkey Live – Dallas, TX

Before the tour even started, KMFDM founder Sascha Konietzko posted a statement on Facebook about his frustration with U.S. government agencies and the possibility of this being their final tour. It’s impossible to tell if he was simply blowing off steam, but at this show he was very enthusiastic went he arrived on stage.

Since they’re on the road supporting their latest album Our Time Will Come, the setlist grew largely from that LP. This tour also found the band performing cuts that haven’t been heard live in quite some time  which found Sascha howling through his megaphone. With their recent celebration of their 30 year anniversary, it almost feels as if KMFDM are just getting started.

Setlist

Money
Light
Ultra
Rebels in Kontrol
Tohuvabohu
Shake The Cage
Son of a Gun
Last Things
Brainwashed
Animal Out
Terror
Salvation
Megalomaniac
WWIII
Amnesia
Hau Ruck
A Drug Against War

Encore:

Waste
Adios
Godlike

Photos – 

Roy Turner
Mike Bishop