PEORIA, IL | March came in like a metal god when legends Judas Priest made a triumphant return to the stage, rebooting their 50 Heavy Metal Years tour in Peoria, IL six months after guitarist Richie Faulkner’s terrifying health emergency. With Priest for this march across the US is Queensrÿche, taking Sabaton’s place as support. Both bands were welcomed with a full house of horns held high.
Metal vets Queensrÿche kicked off the night with a setlist that genuinely seemed to delight the band’s many fans in attendance. There was no “Silent Lucidity,” no “Jet City Woman,” and the crowd was there for it. “Screaming in Digital,” from the band’s 1986 album Rage for Order, got the most enthusiastic response from the fans around me after singer Todd La Torre annihilated it, and I’ve been listening to “Eyes of a Stranger” (from 1988’s Operation: Mindcrime) on an endless loop since I arrived home in Washington, DC.
Queensrÿche complement Judas Priest nicely and were a good choice for the 50 Heavy Metal Years tour. They have been around long enough to have been contemporaries of Judas Priest in the 1980s and have their own solid fan base all the way into 2022 (even those fans grumpy about line up changes over time). However, Queensrÿche’s sound and history as a Seattle progressive metal band makes them different enough so the music isn’t competing with that of Judas Priest.
At 9:00PM sharp, the house lights dimmed and the Metal God himself, Rob Halford, was escorted to center stage. As in fall 2021, the stage is set up to resemble a steel mill, an homage to the band’s industrial Birmingham roots. After 50 years of some of the greatest heavy metal ever created, Judas Priest still bring it. Rob Halford still has the pipes to tear through a hefty 18 song set spanning from the band’s infancy (“Rocka Rolla”) to“Lightning Strike,” from the band’s latest album Firepower, the highest charting album of Judas Priest’s career in the US. The Priest is back, indeed.
These rescheduled dates were necessitated by Richie Faulkner’s life-saving surgery to repair a dissected aorta, which occurred immediately after the band’s performance at Louisville’s Louder Than Life festival in September. Peoria marked his return to the stage. Watching him from my second row seat, knowing how close we were to losing him, I had a hard time imagining the range of emotions he must have been experiencing being back in front of a crowd. But Faulkner did an amazing job as always, all while posing for the cameras and engaging with the fans.
Some crabbier parts of the band’s fanbase still make comparisons to KK Downing and, while reminiscing about the old days is ok, Faulkner is no mere replacement and is certainly no cover guitarist. Rather, after a decade in the band, he is an integral part of Priest’s metal mosaic. It was a pleasure and an honor to see the Falcon spread his wings again.
In a similar vein, guitarist and producer Andy Sneap is back holding down the second guitarist role after a dust up in January revolving around a puzzling decision to let him go from the tour. After fan backlash, he was quickly welcomed back. I count myself among Judas Priest’s rabid fans; the Peoria date marked my nineteenth show since March 2018. However, I am still a very new fan.
Andy Sneap’s participation in touring (to say nothing of his work as producer on Firepower) has made it possible for someone like me to experience Judas Priest live and for that I am grateful. While he usually doesn’t call much attention to himself, Sneap looked like he was absolutely stoked to be on stage Friday night and it was a hell of a lot of fun to watch. Tear it up, Sniper, you’ve got a lot of friends out here.
Go see Judas Priest and Queensrÿche as they make their way through the US and Canada. The rescheduled dates stretch into mid-April, wrapping up in Hamilton, Canada on April 13th.
QUEENSRYCHE
Queensryche Setlist
Queen of the Reich
Warning
En Force
NM156
Empire
Blood of the Levant
The Whisper
Operation: Mindcrime
The Needle Lies
Take Hold of the Flame
Screaming in Digital
Eyes of a Stranger
Judas Priest Setlist
One Shot at Glory
Lightning Strike
You’ve Got Another Thing Coming
Freewheel Burning
Turbo Lover
Hell Patrol
The Sentinel
A Touch of Evil
Rocka Rolla
Victim of Changes
Desert Plains
Blood Red Skies
Invader
Painkiller
Encore
Electric Eye
Hell Bent for Leather
Breaking the Law
Living After Midnight
