I saw them last night in a small theater, which was amazing. The only other time I have seen Priest was at Ozzfest 2004, when they reunited with Halford, which was outdoors at an amphitheater, so you're far away and stuck watching video screens. To be much closer and in a small venue was perfect. They came right out of the gate with 3 songs from Screaming For Vengeance, and after that, Halford had truly warmed up. At the end of the fourth song (Jawbreaker), he hit some massive high notes that blew the crowd away. After that, he was STUNNING. He sounded so well singing cleanly and then would break into higher notes so easily. I did not expect him to be that good, given that he's 71, and we've all seen him struggle with songs like Painkiller.
The band was completely on fire, bashing through song after song. Ritchie Faulkner is amazing, such a killer guitarist and a wonderful showman. He was interacting with fans up front as often as he could, posing for photos, making devil horns on his head with his fingers, then jumping back into a riff, and shredding like crazy. My sight line wasn't as good to see Andy Sneap's side of the stage, but he seemed to hold things down with ease, and it was easy to forget that Ian Hill was in the back, thumping away. My attention was mainly on Halford and Ritchie.
I missed Turbo Lover, which they haven't been playing on this leg. I love that song and thought it would be played. The same with The Sentinel. Other than that, their set was fantastic and hearing a bunch of rare songs like Genocide, Steeler, Screaming for Vengeance, and Riding on the Wind made up for the 2-3 songs I wanted to hear.