Back from a great couple of days in S Florida at The Hard Rock in Hollywood. Hosted Adrenaline Mob, Hellyeah, and Avenged Sevenfold Wednesday night. Amob sounded great. Russell Allen’s vocals were unreal, one of the best live vocal performances I have heard in a while. Their short opening set featured stuff from the new album and ended with amazing covers of High Wire and Mob Rules. AJ Pero seems to have fit in well for Portnoy and is playing a kit as big as one of his. Hellyeah barely made the show since their bus broke down. But they did a solid 45 minutes of high energy metal including new music from the upcoming Blood On Blood. Love the energy in this band but my own personal taste prefers when Chad sings a little vs screams.They went down great. Never saw A7X live and was curious to see why this band has had back to back #1 albums. They are a newer band that is old school in many ways. Guitar solos, big stage show, and rabid younger fans all wearing their shirts and hanging on every note. As an older rock fan it was very inspiring to see a younger fan base totally consumed with a heavy metal/hard rock band. Gave me some confidence for the future generations of the music we love. I suspect many of the fans at an A7X show never saw Maiden, Priest, or Sabbath in their larger than life days. So for them they have this band. Avenged themselves told me they went back and listened to old UFO, Scorpions, Priest and more and took that spirit into what they are now doing. Which explains why it really finally connected with me. The guys play extremely well and put on a great production. I left feeling good to know there is a younger band making such a great connection with a younger audience totally into metal! Thanks to all the bands and fan and thanks to the Hard Rock for having me host!
Some great new music coming. Listening to new Accept and Tesla now. As soon as I can play it I will.
Rob, Richie and Glenn from Judas Priest live in studio this Monday for Eddie Trunk Live on TRUNKNation channel 39 on SiriusXM. Show starts 6P ET, Priest should be in around 8. Look forward to seeing my old friends and finding out what the next phase of Priest will bring!
For my friends in my area of NJ a few shows to check out tomorrow. King’s X and TT Quick at Starland, The Winery Dogs at State Theater. If in the Philly area come see me, Don & Jim live on stage at The Troc. I’ll be selling and signing both books there as well. Haven’t done a Philly event in a while so hope to see you in that area!
Rocklahoma just 3 weeks away!
Live show tonight 11P-2A ET on Q104.3 NYC. Listen to the free stream using iHeartradio app or via www.q1043.com Chris Jericho will be the guest.
Have a great weekend all!
21 Responses
I totally agree with you about Chad from Hellyeah. I absolutely love the way he sings when he does songs like ‘Alcohaulin’ Ass’. I do like when he screams but I’m not real big into the screaming vocals. I like how Ivan Moody from Five Finger Death Punch sings. He screams when necessary and called for in the song but also knows when to scale that back and just sing. Chad seems to scream more than sing. I saw Hellyeah for the first and only time back in 2011 during the Jagermeister tour and they were killer! They brought tons of energy and I loved the show and I love their music. But for whatever reason fans don’t really connect with this band like they do bands like Slipknot, 5FDP, Korn, KISS, Iron Maiden, Metallica and other big name bands and even some of the smaller name bands that tour on festivals such as the Mayhem Festival. I mean when I saw them I didn’t see a huge reaction like moshing and really getting into the music as I did when the bands like Buckcherry and All That Remains played. Maybe that was just that particular concert, the venue (The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas) and the age range of the crowd. It just seemed like people will embrace Phil Anselmo and his band Down way more so than Vinnie Paul and Hellyeah and for that reason the Hellyeah band suffers a bit from that. Thats just my take on it as I see it as a fan. I also think that the younger crowd doesn’t really understand the music (at least) of the first two records from Hellyeah. Because those albums were a bluesier metal. They were like taking a pure form of blues like music from John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Eric Clapton, ect and adding a metal vibe to it. I for one love it. But not a lot of people IMO understand it and embrace it. Now the the last album and the new album (from the two songs I have heard so far) dive more into a Pantera/Mudvayne and more modern metal vibe. However, I think fans of the first two albums may not be as sold on the new album but the younger generation might take to liking it more. The ‘Band of Brothers’ album is sort of a transition album of getting back to the bands roots of what they are all about and maintaining that pure blues sound. As I said before I really like the band and they are great live I just wish more people would hope on board and embrace this band despite any bad blood between Phil and Vinnie. Let the music speak for itself rather than the past.
Wonder if ASX gave you the pat answer of UFO, etc. since you mentioning them gets them sales hits…
Do you have any jnfo on whether KK Downing is officially done with Judas Priest? Will this be discussed on your live show?
KK officially quit Priest.
Ritch, KK has been officially done w/Priest for years. What planet did you arrive from?
KK hasn’t played with priest since 2011. I guess that is “years” in the literal sense. I expect him to reunite with them at some point. Oh and I come from plane
t earth not planet perfect like you.
Eddie, why not man up n tell Halford he can’t sing anymore. This is why they can’t even sell out a bar.
Man up? Have you heard the entire album Charlie? Because I haven’t. And I think it is better to not reach conclusions on anything until you know what’s what..
While we are making stupid comments/asking stupid questions….Eddie….who do you like more in Van Halen….David Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar???? 🙂
Dont forget gary cherone..lol..on second thought, lets forget..lol
Whoa!!! Saw these guys in Denver 2 years ago and Halford (along with the rezt of the Priest) kicked ass!! Richie was great as well….didnt over-do anything but was a band member, not an invisible fill-in guy either….bout the only slightly disturbing thing about Halford was his changing leather coats every song was very Liberace-esque or along the lines of Elton John….never thought I’d ever compare the Metal God w/ Elton John but there it was…Otherwise, they were WAAAAY f-ing better than on the Turbo tour…..
Charlie, have you even seen them live in the past ten years? He can still sing fine. And you never tell the Metal God he can’t sing. You just don’t.
BTW, how long have you been under a rock, Ritch? He quit the band 4 years ago already.
And to say Richie doesn’t over-do things… I completely disagree. I think he was exceptionally annoying during the last tour and drew way too much attention to himself on stage. Still trying to figure out why everyone thinks it was fun to watch. Regardless, I REALLY hope the band let him contribute a lot to this album and that will show us what he’s really got. Unlike the last time when Glenn kept Tim out of the loop on everything.