Are you a Judas Priest purist? Do you turn up your nose at the post-Halford version of the group? Or do you even refuse to acknowledge that they exist anymore? Then you should just stop reading right now. Because I love The Ripper. (Pronounced "The Rip-pahhhhhh!!!!!" as if you are Bruce Dickinson or The Ripper hitting a metal god high note.)
"What about Halford?" some purists who did not stop reading (even though I gave them adequate warning) may be saying. Yeah, what about Halford? I saw him in 2000. By himself. Solo. And it was good. But you know what? Know why I saw him solo? Because he's not the singer for Judas Priest anymore. "He's the voice of Judas Priest!" people may be saying. Correction. He was the voice of Judas Priest. The original voice of Judas Priest, sure, but there is a new voice of Judas Priest. The Rip-pahhhhhh!!!!!
Fabulousity, thy name is Ripper. There is so much good stuff going on with The Ripper that I don't know where to start. Have you seen the publicity photo for the current tour? The band photo? Hee-hee! The surly, craggy, eighty-year-old guys in Priest are flanking the Ripper, two on each side. He is in the middle, and he cannot conceal the fact that he is delighted to be in Judas Priest.
And in concert, well, the Ripper is just so charming. He gets to come out last, which makes me laugh because he is the new guy. To me it is proof that the Judas Priest guys have accepted the Ripper as their new singer, so why can't we, the public? So Priest comes out and start playing and they are old and haggard and it is just delightful. And then The Ripper makes his entrance. And Aaaahj and me look at each other funny. "Is he wearing a baseball jersey?" we ask. He is.
Um. Hmm. I just don't know about that. The rest of Judas Priest all look like Judas Priest. They are all decked out in leather and they look metal. And then we have The Ripper in a baseball jersey and baseball hat. It makes no sense! And then they went and started the show with a song from the new album, which Aaaahj has declared to be terrible. That's okay though, it gave us time to stare in horror, because The Ripper was dressed like, well, a regular guy. Not like the metal frontman that he is.
"Is that shiny stuff on his jersey?" Aaaahj wanted to know. It was. Apparently, not only is The Ripper completely accepted in Priest, they don't give him fashion tips either. "It would be okay if it was a Judas Priest baseball jersey," said I. After much scrutiny and horror, we determined that both the jersey and the hat were Judas Priest products, and it was okay. The Ripper even has his last name on his jersey! It was just so cute!
The first half of the set was not really my deal. It contained a whole bunch of stuff from Demolition and Jugulator, the last two releases that actually have The Ripper on vocals, which is nice, because he gets to sing his own tunes. On the other hand, they are tunes from Demolition and Jugulator, so they aren't all that great. Then we had Diamonds And Rust, something from Sad Wings Of Destiny, and something from Screaming For Vengeance peppered throughout the Demolition and Jugulator stuff.
Boy, was that crowd smelly. Smellier than the crowd at the Motörhead show? Yes! I know! I couldn't believe it either. My best guess is that it was a similar crowd to the Motörhead crowd, but since it is summer, all the smelly guys are wearing sleeveless shirts instead of t-shirts, thus increasing the smell factor. These are the things I am forced to ponder during the first half of the show. (Okay, you got me; I would have pondered them anyway.) That new material isn't the most entertaining. But The Ripper's dimples sure are. I have to say it. He is so cute! I was standing behind the soundboard and I could still see how dimpled and adorable The Ripper is.
And he looooooves his job. So much. He is so happy delivering crowd banter, introducing songs, doing all the necessary rock star chitchat. He is probably even happy with the stick-twirling drummer. Aaaahj and I could not stop watching the drummer. He was expressionless to the level of Mick Shrimpton deadpan, yet was the tossin'-ist, twirlin'-ist drummer I have ever seen. Those drumsticks were in motion! Constant motion. We were hypnotized. His drumsticks were far more dynamic than his face. So anyway, The Ripper probably even loves the rock star cliché drummer.
So then the second half of the set kicks in, and it is all the hits. The Judas Priest set for people like me. The non die-hards. The people who like a good rock show in general, but really, really like it when all the hits kick in. They played Exciter, which may be my favorite song and I didn't even know. Halfway through Exciter, I realized that it might be a perfect Sockhop song. At least the live version sure was. I need to check out the studio version to be positive. So learning that I love Exciter was a super duper Judas Priest bonus.
When they played Breaking The Law I had to hunt down my Local Cool Guy so we could hum along just like Beavis and Butthead. We can never hear Breaking The Law without dropping into Beavis and Butthead mode, and that night was no exception. But even though I was fixing to spend the song playing air guitar with LCG, he shooed me off. "Go enjoy the show! There is so much double axe attack goodness coming up." He made a good point. And since double axe attacks are always a selling point with me, I went back off to find Aaaahj.
Then I heard my favorite! My absolute favorite! Turbo Lover! Answer me this, am I the only person who likes that song? Seriously. For weeks and weeks I had been looking forward to the Judas Priest concert. Whenever it came up in conversation, I would at some point be able to work in a Turbo Lover reference. Like, if someone was dogging The Ripper, my response would be, "The Ripper is my Turbo Lover!" Blank stare. When I asked the Pirate to the show and he said okay, I pleasantly informed him that he was therefore my Turbo Lover for that day. Blank stare. What is wrong with people?
Maybe I'm not the only person who likes it; maybe I'm the only person who remembers it. I really can't tell you about the crowd's reaction to the song. I was fully and completely both reeled in and hypnotized by Turbo Lover, so all I know is that The Ripper did a great job on the song. He's totally my Turbo Lover.
We also had the other big hits, You've Got Another Thing Comin' and Living After Midnight, which made me miss the Pirate so much. He didn't wind up coming to the show because he was out of town. Judas Priest is the perfect band to make a person strike rock star poses, and striking rock star poses is one of the Pirate's specialties. But I am resilient and carried on without him.
And then the show ended, and Aaaahj and I were sad. Because he had seen a set list from another city that listed Painkiller as the last song before the encore. We heard no Painkiller! And Painkiller is an out of sight tune. Outtasite, even. We were so sad. But then came the encore! And what did we hear! Apparently, Painkiller has gotten a promotion, because now it is the encore tune. And what was The Ripper wearing? A hockey jersey! A Judas Priest hockey jersey! If Judas Priest ever starts a softball team or a broomball league, The Ripper has an outfit for either occasion!
To sum up, particularly for the cynics and purists, the Judas Priest show was a good thing. Even with the crap new songs? Yes. Even with the crap new singer? What?! What did you just say about The Ripper? What did you just read? Were you not paying attention? The Ripper has got a great voice, great personality, obviously loves his work, and Judas Priest will do just fine without Halford, thank you very much.