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gridloreJudas. Fucking. Priest.
This was my sixth time seeing the Metal Gods, and they never fail to disappoint. Over the years I've seen them in everything from stadiums to amphitheaters to the US '83 festival, where over a hundred thousand metal maniacs greeted Priest to the stage. But last night was a unique opportunity, and I'm glad we went.
Because this show was at the venerable Warfield in San Francisco, a classic venue that opened as a vaudeville theater in 1922. It only seats about 2,300 and has numerous bars and food stations. It's really a mix between a club and a concert venue, and I love it. We have some history there, as the Warfield is where Kirsten and I saw The Jerry Garcia Band on what could be termed our one date. Yeah, we moved fast.
But last night. Not wanting to have to park in San Francisco we drove to the Millbrae transit hub (and thank you Waze for telling us to take 280 instead of 101, saved us about a half hour) and took Bart into the City. It was a beautiful night in SF, not too cold, and our battle jackets kept us warm enough. After a little confusion as to where the Warfield was on Market St. (I remembered it being much closer to Powell), we eventually found the venue and ducked into Popsons Burgers for a pre-show meal.
And that is where we encountered the Worlds Most Secure Bathroom. Having just spent close to an hour driving, riding a train, and walking, we both needed to use a restroom. Asking the wonderful front counterperson at the burger place, we got a ladle with a lock dongle attached and instructions to go two doors down, take the elevator to the basement, pass through a secure door, and the bathrooms are at the end of the hall. Getting to the bathroom required passing two locked doors and activating an elevator, plus the two security guards watching us.
Never have I pissed in more security. Back to the restaurant, where our food was ready. Since I had been having some stomach issues, I kept it simple: a hamburger with ketchup and mustard. Kirsten got a fancier burger, and we split an order of garlic fries. It was really good food, and just what I needed to get my blood sugar up. Our meal was interrupted by one of San Francisco's more charming homeless lunatics, but the staff ushered him out pretty quickly.
Once fed, we found the line for people with ADA-access tickets and waited. There were a lot of amazing battle jackets to admire, and some nice conversation had. Then we were let in. I cannot say enough about the Warfield staff. They were friendly, efficient, and got us our ADA stickers and directed us to our door. Stopping to spend just a little too much on merch (I now own a Judas Priest Firepower hoodie and a purple Priest hat) we found seats right behind the sound table.
I'm sorry that I don't have a set list for Uriah Heep, I just don't know their catalog well enough. But for a band that's celebrating their 50th anniversary next year, and still has a good percentage of long-term members, they tore the paint off the walls. Over sixty minutes they ran through five decades of good hard rock, from kind-of psychedelic tracks off 1972's Demons & Wizards to more recent hard rockers, the band was tight. Phil Lanzon was making me very happy with that Hammond organ. They closed out with Easy Living, and for a bunch of guys pushing their seventies, they sounded like they could go another two hours.
After a short intermission, Priest. Yeah, there are two new guitarists, and yeah, Rob is 67 and doesn't move quite so easily around stage anymore, but this was JUDAS FUCKING PRIEST! It was amazing to be so close to them, even with tall people standing in front of us. There was a video screen above the stage that showed a mixture of song-related graphics and live shots.
Unlike the first half of the Firepower tour that we saw last year, this time Priest was doing smaller venues and pulling out rarities from the deep catalog. For example, they hadn't played Tyrant live in nearly 30 years, and it's on this tour. Rob was in fine voice, and it seemed like every so often he'd nail a high note just to remind us that he's still the Metal God. Really high energy. The three-song encore had everyone singing along until we were hoarse, and Rob was still going strong.
Show over, we made our way back to Bart and back to our car and home. Living After Midnight may be a great song, but it's not how I can live anymore. There were only two things that marred an otherwise perfect night. At the concert, Kirsten had to deal with a drunk who seemed oblivious to the fact that I was sitting right there. We switched seats, and he wandered away.
The second was really fucking weird. We were getting into Kirsten's car at Millbrae Bart when a young Asian woman came up carrying a traffic cone came up and tried to get in our fucking car! She was seriously trying to open the doors and the hatchback! I'm sorry to say I was so exhausted that I didn't recognize what was happening, or I would have been in her face. She even stood behind us to try to stop us from moving. Crazy bitch.
But what an amazing night. The Summer of Loud continues this Saturday when we see Bill Kirchen alongside the surviving Lost Planet Airmen at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley. I think that will be a slightly mellower show.
Judas Priest setlist:
Encore:
This was my sixth time seeing the Metal Gods, and they never fail to disappoint. Over the years I've seen them in everything from stadiums to amphitheaters to the US '83 festival, where over a hundred thousand metal maniacs greeted Priest to the stage. But last night was a unique opportunity, and I'm glad we went.
Because this show was at the venerable Warfield in San Francisco, a classic venue that opened as a vaudeville theater in 1922. It only seats about 2,300 and has numerous bars and food stations. It's really a mix between a club and a concert venue, and I love it. We have some history there, as the Warfield is where Kirsten and I saw The Jerry Garcia Band on what could be termed our one date. Yeah, we moved fast.
But last night. Not wanting to have to park in San Francisco we drove to the Millbrae transit hub (and thank you Waze for telling us to take 280 instead of 101, saved us about a half hour) and took Bart into the City. It was a beautiful night in SF, not too cold, and our battle jackets kept us warm enough. After a little confusion as to where the Warfield was on Market St. (I remembered it being much closer to Powell), we eventually found the venue and ducked into Popsons Burgers for a pre-show meal.
And that is where we encountered the Worlds Most Secure Bathroom. Having just spent close to an hour driving, riding a train, and walking, we both needed to use a restroom. Asking the wonderful front counterperson at the burger place, we got a ladle with a lock dongle attached and instructions to go two doors down, take the elevator to the basement, pass through a secure door, and the bathrooms are at the end of the hall. Getting to the bathroom required passing two locked doors and activating an elevator, plus the two security guards watching us.
Never have I pissed in more security. Back to the restaurant, where our food was ready. Since I had been having some stomach issues, I kept it simple: a hamburger with ketchup and mustard. Kirsten got a fancier burger, and we split an order of garlic fries. It was really good food, and just what I needed to get my blood sugar up. Our meal was interrupted by one of San Francisco's more charming homeless lunatics, but the staff ushered him out pretty quickly.
Once fed, we found the line for people with ADA-access tickets and waited. There were a lot of amazing battle jackets to admire, and some nice conversation had. Then we were let in. I cannot say enough about the Warfield staff. They were friendly, efficient, and got us our ADA stickers and directed us to our door. Stopping to spend just a little too much on merch (I now own a Judas Priest Firepower hoodie and a purple Priest hat) we found seats right behind the sound table.
I'm sorry that I don't have a set list for Uriah Heep, I just don't know their catalog well enough. But for a band that's celebrating their 50th anniversary next year, and still has a good percentage of long-term members, they tore the paint off the walls. Over sixty minutes they ran through five decades of good hard rock, from kind-of psychedelic tracks off 1972's Demons & Wizards to more recent hard rockers, the band was tight. Phil Lanzon was making me very happy with that Hammond organ. They closed out with Easy Living, and for a bunch of guys pushing their seventies, they sounded like they could go another two hours.
After a short intermission, Priest. Yeah, there are two new guitarists, and yeah, Rob is 67 and doesn't move quite so easily around stage anymore, but this was JUDAS FUCKING PRIEST! It was amazing to be so close to them, even with tall people standing in front of us. There was a video screen above the stage that showed a mixture of song-related graphics and live shots.
Unlike the first half of the Firepower tour that we saw last year, this time Priest was doing smaller venues and pulling out rarities from the deep catalog. For example, they hadn't played Tyrant live in nearly 30 years, and it's on this tour. Rob was in fine voice, and it seemed like every so often he'd nail a high note just to remind us that he's still the Metal God. Really high energy. The three-song encore had everyone singing along until we were hoarse, and Rob was still going strong.
Show over, we made our way back to Bart and back to our car and home. Living After Midnight may be a great song, but it's not how I can live anymore. There were only two things that marred an otherwise perfect night. At the concert, Kirsten had to deal with a drunk who seemed oblivious to the fact that I was sitting right there. We switched seats, and he wandered away.
The second was really fucking weird. We were getting into Kirsten's car at Millbrae Bart when a young Asian woman came up carrying a traffic cone came up and tried to get in our fucking car! She was seriously trying to open the doors and the hatchback! I'm sorry to say I was so exhausted that I didn't recognize what was happening, or I would have been in her face. She even stood behind us to try to stop us from moving. Crazy bitch.
But what an amazing night. The Summer of Loud continues this Saturday when we see Bill Kirchen alongside the surviving Lost Planet Airmen at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley. I think that will be a slightly mellower show.
Judas Priest setlist:
- War Pigs (Black Sabbath song) (tape)
- Necromancer Intro (tape)
- Necromancer
- Heading Out to the Highway
- The Sentinel
- Spectre
- (Take These) Chains
- Judas Rising
- Out in the Cold
- Traitors Gate
- Starbreaker
- Steeler
- Halls of Valhalla
- Prelude (tape)
- Tyrant
- No Surrender
- Hot Rockin'
- Victim of Changes
- All Guns Blazing
Encore:
- Hell Bent for Leather
- Breaking the Law
- Living After Midnight
- We Are the Champions (Queen song) (tape)
no subject
Date: 27 Jun 2019 07:25 (UTC)Feel free to hit me up for dinner or just a bathroom if you're in my neighborhood, by the way. As you've seen, the neighborhood gets, uh, interesting, so a lot of places have ridiculous bathroom security because they need it.
Traffic cone chick, on the other hand, what the heck. IS THIS MY UBER MY TRAFFIC CONE ORDERED AN UBER AND HE NEEDS TO GET HOME
no subject
Date: 27 Jun 2019 17:29 (UTC)I felt sorry for the traffic cone. I hope it deleted Tinder after this date.
no subject
Date: 28 Jun 2019 02:08 (UTC)One of our fave restaurants in Japantown used to have a bathroom waaaaay down in the back past the former bank vault. I was convinced it was a secret passage to where they hide the ninjas guarding Japantown.