What a day!

I just got home from the Judas Priest concert. Wooooooo! They haven’t lost anything. Well, okay, maybe some audience. Last time I saw them was in the old Myriad and the place was packed to see them on the Turbo tour. The Zoo Amphitheater had a good turnout, but not like the ’80s. Nonetheless, Priest was in fine form, ripping through their classics and sprinkling in some of the new — and inferior — tunes. They actually played “Angel,” which is probably their worst song ever. “The Green Manalishi with the Two-pronged Crown” offered some retribution. (pun intended)

They started the show with “Nostradamus” and Rob Halford rose onto an elevated part of the stage wearing a hooded silver robe and holding a staff with the Priest emblem on top. It’s not a horrible song, but it just doesn’t compare to the stuff they did before he left the band. They focused mostly on the good old days, playing several tracks off Screaming for Vengeance, Defenders of the Faith and British Steel. Turbo, Ram it Down, Point of Entry and even Sad Wings of Destiny were ignored. No “Genocide.” Halford did ride the Harley out for “Hell Bent for Leather.”

Hearing “Sentinel” was a welcome surprise. The one I was really waiting to hear was “Hellion/Electric Eye” and they played that. The biggest surprise absence was “Living After Midnight.” Overall, it was a great show. Oh, Testament and Motorhead were okay, but I’m not really a fan of either. blah, blah, blah Ace of Spades, blah, blah blah Who knows wha the hell Lemmy’s screaming about?

School started today. We had six work days before schoo, but none of the English teachers had lesson plans ready because we spent the whole freakin’ time numbering and stamping new text books and attending meetings. We had a “motivational” speaker who wasted an hour telling us about his mentally challenged kids. WTF? Anyway, it made today challenging because I didn’t have anything ready for the kids other than lists of rules. We have 80-minute classes. The last hour was pretty brutal because we went through the rules pretty fast and had a loooong time to fill. I plan to freak out my first-hour creative writing class in the morning. Speaking of which, I should get to sleep.