Priest Feast in San Sebastian

San Sebastian,  the beatiful coastal city in the north of Spain was the starting point for the Spanish leg of the Priest Feast Tour, with Testament, Megadeth and Judas Priest as headliners. The Anoeta Sport Centre is a place with Rugby and Football fields (it may sound familiar to football fans because the Anoeta Stadium was where G. Craioveanu played for a long time in Spain), fronton (Basque typical sport), sports halls, and a bicycle indoor speedway (velodromo) - the venue of the concert.

 
Testament: 20:00h. - 20:45h.
 
The band of Chuck Billy and Alex Skolnick took the stage with "Over the Wall", with the venue still half-empty and the with a sound not so good, we only can hear Chuck's screams. The second piece was "The new order", with the sound still not repaired, but we could clearly see that ex-Savatage Skolnick was to be the "star" of the concert.  By the next song,  "Souls of black" the band was already commanding the stage. Special mention for Chuck’s microphone, during guitar solos he played "air guitar" with it, like a friend of ours uses to do using a bottle of beer in our favourite bar. With "Sins of omission" the sound starts to get better, still not very good, so I enjoyed my favourite song of the band, amazing guitar solos that the same Skolnick recorded for "Practice what you preach". "More than meets the eye" was the next track, introduced by Chuck with a "pig-scream", and then audience and band started really connect into the show, with Billy getting near to the first lines. "DNR" was the next in the night, followed by "Three days in darkness". Getting near to end of the show, "Practice what you preach", titlesong of the album with I discovered the band. "The formation of damnation", titlesong of their latest CD closed the show. A show with a sound that "made no justice" to the band, who went from less to more.
 
Set List:
01. Over the wall
02. The new order
03. Souls of black
04. Sins of omission
05. More than meets the eye
06. DNR (Do not resucitate)
07. Three days in darkness
08. Practice what you preach
09. The formation of damnation

 
Megadeth: 21:05h. - 22:05h.
 
Enjoying a considerably larger audience, Mustaine's band jumped to the stage with "Sleepwalker", from their now remote last CD. Luckilly, the sound got better in comparison with Testament, but still was far from satisfactory. With no pause, Wake up Dead was the next track, with the audience already surrendered to the band. Again with no pause in between songs came Take No Prisoners, with a glittering performance from drummer Shawn Drover. First pause of the night, but Mustaine didn't say a word, and continued instead with the monumental A tout le monde, with the audience singing the chorus together with the band. Finally Mustaine salutes the audience with a "hola", to follow with "Skin o'my teeth", followed as well with "She wolf". Another little pause before "In my darkest hour", where Mustaine's voice was not very easy to hear,  just the contrary with the rest of the band, with a great sound of bass (James Lomenzo, ex- White Lion) and drums. Started Symphony of Destruction and the audience screamed the popular, in Spanish speaking countries,: "Megadeth... Megadeth... a tope Megadeth" following the riff of the rhythm guitars. On we go and, off the same album, Sweating Bullets was the next song. The crowd favorites "Hangar 18" and "Peace sells" closed the first encore, with Mustaine saying "muchas gracias" to the audience. "We have time for one more song" was the introducion to "Holy wars... the punishment due", the first track of their "Rust in peace" in 1990.This was the end of the show for the ex-Metallica man and his guys, with a great sound of guitars, bass and drums, and with a rather silent Mustaine, but this was nothing new for any of us anymore.
 
Set List:
01. Sleepwalker
02. Wake up dead
03. Take no prisoners
04. A tout le monde
05. Skin o'my teeth
06. She wolf
07. In my darkest hour
08. Symphony of destruction
09. Sweating bullets
10. Hangar 18
11. Peace sells
12. Holy wars... the Punishment Due

 
Judas Priest: 22:30h. - 00:15h.
 
The time of the headliner, which came to present their latest work. In the presence of approximatively 6000 fans (the estimate maximum capacity of the venue being 8000 people), "Dawn of creation" and "Prophecy" gave the start of the show, with Halford rising from one of platforms in the right of the stage, wearing a silver shinning cape.The sound was the best of the festival, except the voice, like in the rest of metalconcerts. "Metal gods" was the next, with Halford walking all over the platform. "San Sebastian, the Priest is back" was the introdution for "Eat me alive", the first surprise of the night, with the guitar duets between Glenn and K.K.; another surprise came with "Between the hammer and the anvil", from the album which marked the departure of Halford in Judas Priest, 20 years ago. Amazing team work from Scott and Ian, with drums and bass, they are a buldozer with the rhythm section. "Devils child" was the antecessor of "Breaking the what???... Breaking the law!", very celebrated for the crowd. Hell Patrol was the second track from "Painkiller", and the oldest fans remembered the Painkiller tour in 1991 with Anihilator and Pantera. For the second and the last song from "Nostradamus", "Death", Halford appeared from under the drums platform, throne and cane included. One more surprise was "Dissident agressor", a very old track off a very old album "Sin after sin". "Angel" brought calm to the audience before the explosion with "The hellion/ Electric eye", with all the crowd singing the first verse. Another song from "Defenders of the faith", "Rock hard ride free". Halford called us all to remember the albums of the first years of their carrer "Rocka rolla, Sad wings of destiny and Sin after sin", to introduce us "Sinner", with K.K. mesmerising the audience with his guitar for some minutes. Then it was Scott’s turn who played with the audience with a little drum solo to introduce Painkiller and Halford forced his voice to the limit screaming "this is the painkiller..." in the border of the stage. The band took a break but the crowd was screaming for more. The sound of a Harley-Davidson in the P.A. announced that the next song will be "Hell bent for leather". The Green Manalishi was the second song of this little review of the great album "Killing machine". One more pause and Halford takes the stage to make all of the audience sing, of course, he got it, "Ooohh yeeahh!". "You've got another thing comming" was the last of the night, with all the people singing again together with the band. With all the band in the platform, the concert was over, but the crowd keeps on screaming and finally the band ends throwing drum sticks and guitar picks to the first lines. "Muchas gracias amigos" was the final Halford's salute. Among the fans the general opinion was that we had a good concert, but we've seen better shows for Judas, like in Zaragoza 2005 (Angel of Retribution tour). Traffic jams to leave the hall, and think about the next one.
 
Set List:
01. Dawn of Creation
02. Prophecy
03. Metal Gods
04. Eat Me Alive
05. Between the Hammer and the Anvil
06. Devils Child
07. Breaking the Law
08. Hell Patrol
09. Death
10. Dissident Agressor
11. Angel
12. The Hellion/ Electric eye
13. Rock Hard Ride Free
14. Sinner
15. Drum solo/ Painkiller
16. The Harley
17. Hell bent for leather
18. The Green Manalishi - With the two pronged crown
19. Oooohh yeeahh!
20. You've Got Another Thing Coming