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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

 

Metal Masters 2008 Houston Texas

I went to the Metal Masters concert tour stop in Houston, Texas on Saturday, August 23rd, 2008. The bands that were on the bill were (in order) Testament, Motörhead, Heaven & Hell, and Judas Priest.
I had purchased the Judas Priest Platinum experience. This allowed me several things: a platinum experience lanyard and pass, access to the pre-show food and drawing, a seat in the first several rows (I was front row), an exclusive tour t-shirt, and a chance to get my picture taken with Judas Priest, and get 1 thing signed by the band. More about the pictures later.
I had to arrive at the concert by 3:15. The gates didn't open until 4:30 I think. I had done some geocaching in the area before hand and arrived around 2:50 or so. They started letting us in about 3:10 or so. Then we had to wait for everyone to get in.
Sometime later they escorted us to the pre-show food location. They had open bar and catered food. The food was BBQ brisket, BBQ chicken, potato salad, baked beans, corn on the cob, and Texas toast. The food was good, and the Diet Pepsi was very cold and refreshing after being in the sun for a while. It was located in an air conditioned tent. They had some drawings for items like a local crew shirt and posters. One of the numbers was only 2 away from mine. At least I didn't win the poster and have to hold it for5 hours.
They kicked us out of there around 5:30 which was when the first band was supposed to start playing. I vacated the tent a little early to check out my seat and get ready for the music. My seat was front row on the right side of the pit area (stage left).
Testament came on stage promptly at 5:30. They played 6 songs and were done at 6:00 sharp. The songs they played in order were:
  1. Over The Wall
  2. The New Order
  3. Practice What You Preach
  4. More Than Meets The Eye
  5. Henchman Ride
  6. Formation of Damnation
Alex Skolnick, guitarist, was on the far side of the stage, and I couldn't see his solos. The sound was good, and I could hear all of the parts. The vocalist, Chuck Billy, had an interesting microphone. It was inserted into a shortened stand of maybe 2 feet where he could hold it and mime playing guitar when he was not singing. Since it was wireless, he would carry it everywhere with him. He had a lot more "growly" type vocals that I remember from the songs I recognized. I think he has changed his vocal style some. He did do a few high pitched "screamy" vocals in spots. They played 3 old songs and 3 from their new album. Testament's band lineup was:

Motörhead came one at 6:28 and played until 7:19. I know this because I was supposed to meet near the backstage area at 7:15 in order to go to the Judas Priest Meet N Greet. Let me start off by saying that I know very little about the songs by Motörhead. I know about Ace of Spades and maybe one other song. So needless to say I was not familiar with the songs beforehand. I had a subset of the setlist that I went by. The vocals were buried in the sound mix that I couldn't hear them at all. I could hear all of the other parts, but the vocals were buried. The first 4-5 songs sounded like instrumentals to me. I could start to hear the vocals here and there on the last songs. I could have some of the song titles wrong because of the vocal issue, but I think I got them correct. Here is the setlist in order:
  1. Dr. Rock
  2. Stay Clean
  3. Be My Baby
  4. Killers
  5. Metropolis
  6. Over The Top
  7. In The Name Of Tragedy
  8. Going To Brazil
  9. Killed By Death
  10. Ace Of Spades
  11. Overkill
Even though I could not hear most of the vocals I thought Motörhead did a great set. I was pleasantly surprised. Before starting a lot of the songs Lemmy would tell the title, so I got lucky in that regard. Lemmy dedicated In The Name of Tragedy to "William F. Shakespeare or as he is known in the UK, William F***in Shakespeare". Motörhead's band lineup was:
After Motörhead's set I made a bee line for the back stage meeting area. After waiting probably 10 minutes or so, they checked our platinum passes and escorted us backstage to the meet N greet area. We had to line up single file while waiting to get one item signed and our picture taken with Judas Priest. I got the CD cover to Painkiller signed by the band. I spent probably 30 seconds with Judas Priest getting it signed and my picture taken by Amanda, the chick running the platinum experience. I asked them if they would play "One Shot At Glory". They pretty much ignored me except Ian Hill who said, "I don't think we're playing that one." It never hurts to ask. Rob Halford also asked how I was doing and shook my hand. Nice guys. They posted my pictures on their website the next day.

While waiting for Judas Priest to sign my stuff, I heard what I thought was the crowd roar when Heaven & Hell started their set. Luckily I only missed 1 or two songs.

I ran back out from the backstage area after getting my stuff signed and headed back to my seat. Obviously there were people standing where my seat was. They were a little miffed at me, but hey that was my seat. Go back to your seat, dude!

Heaven & Hell as this band is known is really Black Sabbath. There were some issues with naming rights or some such mess, so they are touring as Heaven & Hell. This really is the Black Sabbath lineup that performed and recorded together from 1980-1982 and from 1991-1992. This band will be playing songs from the 1980 Heaven and Hell album, the 1981 Mob Rules album, the 1992 Dehumanizer album, and potentially some of the 3 new songs from the Black Sabbath: The Dio Years album. Bill Ward played on the Heaven and Hell album which prompted the name change.
I believe that they started around 7:30 and played until 9:01. Heaven & Hell played a great set. I am so lucky that I did not miss Sign Of The Southern Cross. That is one of my all time favorite Sabbath songs. Here is Heaven & Hell's setlist in order:
  1. E5150
  2. Mob Rules
  3. Children Of The Sea
  4. I
  5. Sign Of The Southern Cross
  6. Vinny Appice Drum Solo
  7. Time Machine
  8. Falling Off The Edge Of The World
  9. Die Young
  10. Heaven And Hell
  11. Neon Nights
I was right in front of Tony Iommi. He came over and played in front of us several times. You could see the little tip of his finger that was attached to facilitate his playing. Apparently he doesn't throw out very many guitar picks throughout the show. I only saw him throw one. However, at the end he had a handfull that he threw out all at once. I was able to get one from the floor. Score! I got to slap hands with Dio a few times during the set. The Heaven & Hell band lineup was:

Judas Priest was next and came on stage at 9:32. They played until 10:57. Judas Priest were just awesome. They played 3 songs from Painkiller which is my favorite Priest album. They had a pretty elaborate stage setup with ramps and lifts, etc. Glenn Tipton and Ian Hill were right in front of me. KK Downing was on the far side of the stage. The guitarists didn't stray from their side of the stage very much. They were not using wireless transmitters for their guitars. So they were limited to where they could go on stage. The sound was great. I could hear all of the parts well. Rob Halford was wearing an outfit that a wrestler might wear. He did change his outer outfit several times. Some of them were pretty cool. He even drove out a Harley on stage during the 3 song encore. Tipton was wearing a red leather outfit. Their setlist was in order:
  1. Dawn of Creation (pre-recorded)
  2. Prophecy
  3. Metal Gods
  4. Eat Me Alive
  5. Between The Hammer And The Anvil
  6. Devil's Child
  7. Breaking The Law
  8. Hell Patrol
  9. ?? (I think it was from Nostradus since they put that backdrop up during the song)
  10. Angel
  11. The Hellion (pre-recorded)
  12. Electric Eye
  13. Rock Hard Ride Free
  14. Painkiller
  15. Hell Bent For Leather
  16. The Green Manalishi
  17. You've Got Another Thing Coming
Priest's band lineup was:

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# posted by Gil @ 2:19 PM 1 comments

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