So Monday I had to go down to a place called DTE Energy center…well it will always be Pine Knob to me.. Anyway I had to go shoot photos of the band TESTAMENT who were opening for Judas Priest and Black Sabbath and the always lovely lads from england called Motorhead! Testament went on at 5:30pm…talk about early! plus they were only playing a half hour set. Im currently shooting stuff for their Japanese tour book. If we can ever get it together before the Japan tour in Sept.
I get there and of course the envelope at the box office with the passes in it is screwed up. This is typical of DTE. So I called the band and ran back to the tour bus. Luckily there was atleast an “All Access” pass in there! This was like 10 mins before the band were going on stage and the tour manager was already at the Light board, so I went down to the barricade with just my AA pass and BS’ ed the security telling them I just flew in and there was mixup with the passes. Then some guy from DTE walks up and says “oh ya I have your Photo Pass…Here….”…Im like WTF!!!! Im dorkin around talkin to you and I have to get ready, the band is going on in like 2 mins!!! and why are you going through my envelope anyway??? I didnt see your name on it..
So TESTAMENT starts and as always they sounded awesome and came out like a huge rush of energy! So I ran around like mad in the photo pit shooting as many shots as I could get within a half hour. There was still Daylight and plus they blasted all the lights behind them. So it worked out great for Lighting!
After Testament I went backstage in search of cold bottled water..It was flippin hot out and I was wearing a long sleeve shirt..well cause the weather channel said rain and a drop in temp…So what happened..No rain…lots of sun and 80 degrees…last time I listen to them!!!
So I find water and head back out to the crowd to visit with friends I hadnt seen in awile before Motorhead played. Well then my new agent called me like 5 mins before Motorhead..so I headed backstage to a quiet area to talk to her. So I missed Motorhead. Ive seen them a 100 times..but its been awile. So then I made it out there for the begining of Black Sabbath.. who I thought sounded great…and to my surprise was not headlining the show…Judas Priest was.. Speaking of which…they came on around 9:00 pm and I was really looking forward to this..Every Priest show Ive ever seen was always great! Well Rob Halford looked like he raided Liberace’s closet !!! No Kidding….Rain Man would have said ” yaaa Rob Halford very shiny..”… All he needed was the freakin piano…
For some reason he stared at the floor for the whole night…I dont know who he was singing too? My friend Jeff (sweatymetal) said Rob Halford has this “ive got to take a crap” look on his face! For the whole night he looked like this! Plus all the songs sounded way slow and some dragged. But toward the end of the show they did bust into “Green Manalishi” which sounded pretty good. But No “Ripper”,” Victim of Changes”,”Genocide”,or “Exciter” !!!!
But all and all the night was fun…I seen lots of Friends I hadnt seen for awile.
All I can say is wheres Les Binks????
