Judas Priest & Sabaton in Youngstown
My second concert of 2024 was on Saturday, April 27, and involved a road trip and a venue that I had never been to. First I drove down toward Akron to my friend John's house, then he drove us an hour east to Youngstown. We had some BBQ for dinner before arriving at the Covelli Centre, a small multi-purpose arena near downtown Youngstown that seats 7000 in concert configuration.
Our entertainment for the evening was a heavy metal bucket list item for me. I finally got to see Judas Priest, with Rob Halford up front. Even better, when John and I priced out tickets we saw that sitting on the floor was about $10 more expensive than sitting farther away and higher up, so our seats were at about the midpoint of the floor a few rows and to the right of the sound booth. Things looked and sounded pretty good that close! For John, it was also a bonus flashback as Judas Priest was his first ever concert, back when he wasn't even old enough to drive yet.
The opening act was Sabaton, a power metal band out of Sweden with an Iron Maiden-like penchant for songs about historical topics. Going into the concert I was vaguely aware of them but not particularly knowledgeable about their music. They were pretty enjoyable. Jokes about Ikea were tossed around in between long wailing guitar solos and lyrics about wars and battles. The drum riser was a giant tank. I'd watch them again.
Sabaton was musically the high point of the show. Pyrotechnics and ample A/V displays weren't able to distract from the sad truth that Halford's voice has lost quite a few miles off its fastball. It ended up the kind of nostalgia show where everybody had a good time based on their fond memories of the music and the band as it used to be (and also beer), but if you somehow found a metalhead who had never heard of Judas Priest or any of their songs (good luck with that!) and dropped them into the audience they probably wouldn't have been all that impressed. I'm glad I went, I had an excellent evening, I can cross Judas Priest off the bucket list, I don't need to see them again.
My favorite moment of the night was actually between sets. Classic heavy metal was being played over the sound system while the crew was moving Sabaton off and Judas Priest on. When War Pigs came on, the near capacity crowd of metalheads (mostly clad in the obligatory black concert t-shirt) pretty much immediately started singing along. Imagine nearly 7000 people singing War Pigs. It was fantastic. Metalheads are the best.
Our entertainment for the evening was a heavy metal bucket list item for me. I finally got to see Judas Priest, with Rob Halford up front. Even better, when John and I priced out tickets we saw that sitting on the floor was about $10 more expensive than sitting farther away and higher up, so our seats were at about the midpoint of the floor a few rows and to the right of the sound booth. Things looked and sounded pretty good that close! For John, it was also a bonus flashback as Judas Priest was his first ever concert, back when he wasn't even old enough to drive yet.
The opening act was Sabaton, a power metal band out of Sweden with an Iron Maiden-like penchant for songs about historical topics. Going into the concert I was vaguely aware of them but not particularly knowledgeable about their music. They were pretty enjoyable. Jokes about Ikea were tossed around in between long wailing guitar solos and lyrics about wars and battles. The drum riser was a giant tank. I'd watch them again.
Sabaton was musically the high point of the show. Pyrotechnics and ample A/V displays weren't able to distract from the sad truth that Halford's voice has lost quite a few miles off its fastball. It ended up the kind of nostalgia show where everybody had a good time based on their fond memories of the music and the band as it used to be (and also beer), but if you somehow found a metalhead who had never heard of Judas Priest or any of their songs (good luck with that!) and dropped them into the audience they probably wouldn't have been all that impressed. I'm glad I went, I had an excellent evening, I can cross Judas Priest off the bucket list, I don't need to see them again.
My favorite moment of the night was actually between sets. Classic heavy metal was being played over the sound system while the crew was moving Sabaton off and Judas Priest on. When War Pigs came on, the near capacity crowd of metalheads (mostly clad in the obligatory black concert t-shirt) pretty much immediately started singing along. Imagine nearly 7000 people singing War Pigs. It was fantastic. Metalheads are the best.