Judas Priest's "Epitaph Tour" In New Jersey Proves Bands Legacy!

Last night (November 18th), legendary Heavy Metallers Judas Priest performed at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey, as part of the North American leg of the "Epitaph Tour". The show was a complete hit as far as the performance of Judas Priest, unfortunately both Black Label Society and Thin Lizzy were turned way down on the PA, which resulted in them sounding diluted. We understand that the headliner, in this case Judas Priest, always wants to sound louder than the opening bands, but in a way the fans are being ripped off by purposely making bands sound weak at a big arena. This needs to be considered by every "big" band, the fans are paying good money to see a good show, not to just to see one band sound good.

Judas Priest performed the following songs.

Battle Hymn
1) Rapid Fire
2) Metal Gods
3) Heading Out to the Highway
4) Judas Rising
5) Starbreaker
6) Victim Of Changes
7) Never Satisfied
8) Diamonds & Rust Joan Baez cover

Dawn Of Creation
9) Prophecy
10) Night Crawler
11) Turbo Lover
12) Beyond the Realms of Death
13) The Sentinel
14) Blood Red Skies
15) The Green Manalishi (With the Two Pronged Crown) - Fletwood Mac cover
16) Breaking the Law
17) Painkiller

Encore - The Hellion
18) Electric Eye
19) Hell Bent For Leather
20) You've Got Another Thing Comin'

Encore 2
21) Living After Midnight

Judas Priest "Epitaph Tour" with Black Label Society and Thin Lizzy (Remaining tour-dates):

- Nov. 19 - Johnstown, PA - War Memorial Arena
- Nov. 20 - Lowell, MA - Tsongas Center
- Nov. 22 - Toronto, ON - Air Canada Centre
- Nov. 23 - Quebec City, QC - Colisée Pepsi
- Nov. 24 - Montreal, QC - Centre Bell
- Nov. 26 - Reading, PA - Sovereign Center
- Nov. 27 - Winston Salem, NC - Lawrence Joel Memorial Coliseum
- Nov. 30 - Tampa, FL - 1-800-ASK-GARY Ampitheatre
- Dec. 1 - Miami, FL - Bayfront Park Ampitheater
- Dec. 3 - Biloxi, MS - Hard Rock Hotel and Casino

"We're pulling out all the stops. We've built a brand new stage set, we've got all the effects that people love us for — the lasers, the fire, the bombs, the smoke, new costumes, and the bike. It's just a full-on metal extravaganza." - Rob Halford

As for whether this is really the end of Judas Priest's touring days, guitarist Glenn Tipton said, "We don't plan on retiring. We've said that this is our last world tour. It takes a chunk out of your life — 18 months. We won't be doing any more world tours as such and in many parts of the world, it will be the last time people will get a chance to see us. But we're not gonna stop. We've got an album in the can now, we will start to write with [new guitarist] Richie [Faulkner], there will be more albums, and who knows?! There might be a string of dates that we can manage to do. We're just not gonna do another major world tour. We've been doing it for 40 years and it's time to let the younger bands have the chance."

Photo credit: Steve Lars from Creative Ventures International & Steve Lars on Facebook

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