Testament and Rob Halford
at the House of Blues
By Revn Kevin
The last time I saw Testament was the infamous "Pull the Plug" Show out at a metal festival in San Bernadino. There, the promoter literally turned off the power halfway through there set when they went past curfew. Soon after that show the singer, Chuck Billy, was diagnosed with throat cancer. It was thought that they were gone but as Chuck himself told me, he "kicked the cancers ass", and now they are back with a vengeance. Tonight was the third night on a shortened "Metal Gods" tour and the band was in fine form. Longtime band members Eric Petersen/guitar, Steve Smythe/guitar and Steve DiGiorgio/bass never missed a beat and Chuck's vocals were strong as ever as the band tore through a thirteen song set. The material was a mixture of old and new but included crowd favorites "DNR" and "True Believer" which really got the pit fired up. With the unfortunate shortening of the current tour the bands immediate plans are up in the air. You can keep informed their latest information available by www.testamentlegions.com.
Headliner Rob Halford came on stage like a ball of fire and showed that he is still one of rocks premier frontmen. On tour in support of his latest release "Resurrection", he led his band through a set that also included numerous Judas Priest and Fight songs. If you haven't picked up the new CD then by all means do as it is smoking. Tonight's set had plenty of crowd pleasing Priest tunes like "Electric Eye ", "Breaking The Law" and a personal favorite oldie "Diamonds and Rust". Some of the new material played tonight-included "Made in Hell", "Crucible" and "One Will". Lead guitarist Metal Mike was smoking and the band as a whole was tight musically. They were fun to watch on stage with a lot of antics like playing behind the head, etc. Most of the time though it was Halford who commanded the stage, his voice strong as ever with that piercing trademark scream. The encore was great as Chuck Billy joined Rob Halford in blasting out "Living After Midnight", which was a quite fitting ending. To find out the latest on Rob Halford then surf your way over to
www.robhalford.com. To find out the latest about my doings then come out to a show or check out www.revnkevin.com
