The Metal Files

Poster art by Billy Perkins

Priest returned to Central Texas last night to conquer the mighty town of…wait.  what?  Cedar Park?  Alright then.  Cedar Park!  To talk to people in Austin, you’d think Cedar Park was 1000 miles away, and sometimes when dealing with traffic around here, getting to the north side of town to cross over into Cedar Park can be daunting, especially during rush hour.  But Priest wasn’t hitting the stage until 930PM, so traffic should not have been and was not an issue.  We zoomed right in and got parked.  Making it even easier to get in was the fact that the show wasn’t sold out.  Not even close.  The newer Cedar Park Center (CPC) is a great venue and can hold up to 8,700 for concerts, according to their website.  I dare say there were 5,000 in attendance last night.  I think several factors led to this.  (1) Concert in Cedar Park and no one likes driving up there, (2) Priest just played here in November supporting the same album, (3) GA floor price was $70 and seats were around $50.  But I still went even though I had seen the November show.

This was only my second time seeing them with Halford.  The show was pretty much the same as the November show with the addition of Hellion/Electric Eye and Painkiller.  Painkiller was a way better closer than the snoozefest of Defenders of the Faith.  Faulkner seemed a little more controlled as well.  He was all over the place in November.  Beyond the Realms of Death did give me the same chills it did at the last show.

To be honest I almost didn’t go last night and was going to give my ticket away, but once I got there and ran into everyone, my spirits were kicked up and I was ready to rock out.

Click on the photos to enlarge.  Most of mine sucked, so I used a lot of DaveTV by permission.