On Thursday, my friends and I attended the Metal Masters tour at Nissan Pavilion up in Bristow (or Manassas). This was definitely one of the best, if not THE best pavilion concert I've ever witnessed. The parking lot was a great way to kick off the evening. The shirtless rednecks, the families that look like a herd of sacks of potatoes in matching Black Sabbath shirts, the goth kids with cracked and running makeup in the Virginia humidity, and the morbidly obese people in the handicapped parking spots. I think I saw one person in a wheelchair the entire time, and maybe one person in a walker, but the handicapped area was pretty big and nearly full. Most of the people I saw parking in that area were just... planetary. Anyway, some gutter punk who was extremely trashed followed us to our friend's van across the parking lot, and hovered around waiting for someone to offer her a beer. She was not pleasing to the eye and dressed like her denim and punk apparel had been run through a woodchipper first, and her hair looked like a wig. It did not help that she was a cross between Kelly Osbourne and Mick Mars. Someone in the van came back with a cup full of "period pee" and topped it off with some beer, and let her have it. She did not complain much about it and drank most of it. Eventually, after spilling some inside the van and dropping the rest on the ground to text message people, she wandered off towards the pavilion, dragging her boots and walking with arms like Peg Bundy.
We got in line to get in as 5:30pm was about to hit, which meant Testament was about to get up, and as I got to the front, I was barred and told no cameras. What? "As of 4:15pm on the Nissan Pavilion website, they stated that no cameras at all would be allowed in." Most people don't go to the venue's website an hour before the concert unless they're looking for directions, and I can almost guarantee that most of the crowd tonight wasn't purely local. Hell, I saw too many Richmond faces there. So I had to run back to Dave's car and drop off my camera, and run back, then run to the top of the steps that go over the hill into the lawn area, and could hear the opening to "Over The Wall," so I ran even faster up the stairs. Dave and I ran to our section and watched Testament play on this gigantic stage for only 30 minutes. Of what I can remember, they played:
"Over The Wall"
"Practice What You Preach"
"Souls Of Black"
"More Than Meets The Eye"
"The Formation Of Damnation"
So many more songs I would have loved to have heard, but they were still great nonetheless. I'm not complaining about the songs they played, but most people that go to check out a classic band like them are there to hear the classics, am I wrong? Two new songs in a 5-song setlist? They could have replaced either with "The Preacher," "First Strike Is Deadly," "Apocalyptic City," "Alone In The Dark," "Electric Crown," "D.N.R.," "Into The Pit," it could go on. I hope they come back! After them, I wandered around, ran into some friends, got one from Richmond down in the pavilion for Motörhead while I was talking with my friend Nick and his friends during most of Motörhead. I have taken a liking to them, but this was my third or so time seeing them, and there were only a few songs I wanted to hear aside from the drum solo. What I did catch was good, and really fun.
We hung out in the lawn area with Neal and his bandmates and other friends after Motörhead, but after the stage was set up and the first sounds of "E5150" came on, we ran back to our seats because Heaven And Hell were taking the stage. They played an amazing set, and while last year's full performance was slightly better, they were still mindblowing and sounded great. Off the top of my head, what I can remember being played was:
"The Mob Rules"
"Children Of The Sea"
"I"
"Falling Off The Edge Of The World"
"Time Machine"
"Die Young"
"Sign Of The Southern Cross"
"Heaven And Hell"
A short but excellent show for them. Dio still sounds like he hasn't aged at all, fortunately for the rest of us, he looks more and more like a midget Cryptkeeper every time we see him. Ronnie danced around, talked to the crowd and everyone was going nuts. Tony Iommi was on top of his game as usual and his solo before "Die Young" was incredible.
Judas Priest. Even after multiple concerts, they are still surprising the Hell out of me. They played songs I did not expect to hear and even left off a few signature tunes I was definitely expecting to hear, like "Living After Midnight," "Turbo Lover," "Revolution," "Victim Of Changes," "The Sentinel," "Love Bites," and even, just a little bit, "Heading Out To The Highway." I thought this was maybe their best setlist because it caught me by surprise, and it was exciting to hear a few of these played for the first time. The background would change with the different eras the songs came from, as would Rob's jackets (yeah jackets). He came out in a shiny silver hooded robe for "The Prophecy," and for the closing songs, he came out (ha) in his trademark leather, on a motorcycle, right as "Hell Bent For Leather" started up. Scott Travis' drumming was solid and HEAVY. Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing were playing flawlessly, and Ian Hill looked like a college freshman who had too much experience in the World Of Warcraft arena, with his black tee shirt and skullet/beard. You could hear him well though, and he sounded great too. Rob, though, went to the highest highs and the lowest growls and sounds better than I can ever remember him sounding, compared to both studio and live albums as well as all the other times I've seen them live.
Their setlist as far as I can remember consisted of:
"Dawn Of Creation"
"The Prophecy"
"Metal Gods"
"Eat Me Alive"
"Between The Hammer And The Anvil"
"Devil's Child"
"Breaking The Law"
"Hell Patrol"
"Angel"
"The Hellion/Electric Eye"
"Rock Hard, Rock Free"
"Painkiller"
"Hell Bent For Leather"
"The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown)"
"You've Got Another Thing Comin'"
If you missed out, it's safe to say that you didn't miss just any other metal show. Metal fan's wet dream come true.
Piss-Beer Queen
