Just Like Priest: Live Review

By Aniruddh "Andrew" Bansal

March 13th 2010, Paladino's, Tarzana CA: The first band I saw tonight was the Pantera tribute Domination 101 and it was my first time experiencing Pantera songs live, as I never got to see the original band. They started the set with the fiery 'Hellbound', from which it was pretty clear that this band was here to shake things up and to kick some serious ass. Not many people were even looking the stage at this point, but that didn't deter me to go into head banging frenzy. The set list wasn't going to matter to me this time, because I was going to enjoy everything they were about to play. But even honestly speaking, it was a good selection. They followed the opener with 'War Nerve' and 'A New Level' which were very enjoyable to say the least. But the real fun was just about to start, with one of those ultimate Pantera anthems, 'Walk'. Vocalist Aaron called on a few guests on stage to assist in vocals for this one, Chris and Kevin from Damage Inc and Frank from Just Like Priest. Frank stayed on to sing 'Light Comes Out Of Black', a song recorded by Pantera with Rob Halford.

Aaron knew how to get the crowd pumped up, specially me. He said to me, 'I want you to head bang as if we're in 1986' as they went into 'Strength Beyond Strength'. After this ripping tune they played 'Shedding Skin'. Aaron led us to believe that they were doing 'Cemetery Gates' next, by singing the intro. But they punched us in the face by 'Fucking Hostile' instead. The mayhem wasn't over yet, as they brought out 'Slaughtered' next. The last song had to be 'Cowboys From Hell'. How can it not be? I've heard from people that no band could ever match Pantera when it came to live shows, and now to an extent I know why! I was almost killed by the amount of head banging I did in the 60 minutes these guys were on stage. Aaron did an amazing job on vocals and showed tremendous stage presence. The other members Mark on guitar, Mikey on bass and Jeff on drums performed their roles to perfection as well. I didn't feel that the Paladino's is the right venue for them. No one is interested in head banging or mosh-pitting over here. Its great that the Paladino's have been giving them a chance to perform, but I would be really excited to see these guys play at a venue like the Anaheim House Of Blues someday soon.

Hellbound
War Nerve
A New Level
Walk
Light Comes Out Of Black (w/ Frank from Just Like Priest)
Strength Beyond Strength
Shedding Skin
Cemetery Gates/Fucking Hostile
Slaughtered
Cowboys From Hell

Next up were the all-female Motley Crue tribute Motleys Crew. I felt that a Crue tribute didn't really fit this line-up of Pantera, Priest and Maiden tributes. I'm honestly not into the original band at all, so I didn't even know any of the songs, except may be for 'Live Wire'. So I can't really judge how their performance was. The band is made up of members from other tributes, Shannon and Eileen from the Dio tribute Dia, and Stephanie and Carin from the AC/DC tribute ThundHerStruck. I've seen both of those bands so based on that I can definitely say that these ladies are really good at what they do. Special mention has to be made of Stephanie, who looked like a real 'live wire' on the drums, and her passion for the music showed through. So overall a good performance from them, and hopefully next time they'll play alongside tributes to bands like AC/DC and Guns N Roses.

Looks To Kill
Take Me To Top
Wildside
Come On Dance
Live Wire
Shout
Too Fast For Love
Red Hot
Too Young
Helter Skelter

The headliners for the night were the ever-amazing Judas Priest tribute Just Like Priest. They always give us a good time with some real old school gems from the Priest catalog, along with the staples of course. This time they did 'Some Heads Are Gonna Roll', 'Victim Of Changes' and 'Desert Plains'. It was a surprise to see a little tribute to Michael Jackson when they did 'Smooth Criminal' towards the end of the set, vocalist Frank donning a white glove and showing a few dance moves as well. Talking of Frank, the way he hits the high notes on those Priest songs is beyond amazing. Forget just tribute bands, we are talking about one of the best operatic-style vocalists out there. Brian and Kevin on guitar replicate the KK-Tipton duo perfectly in terms of everything from the costumes to the performance. Vic 'Thunderbass' is always solid on the bass and Gare is a beast on drums. I really don't see how anyone can give a better tribute to the almighty Judas Priest. If you are a Priest fan and haven't checked these guys out yet, you're missing out big time.

Judas Rising
Hell Bent For Leather
Some Heads Are Gonna Roll
Electric Eye
Breaking The Law
Victim of Changes
Exciter
Desert Plains
Smooth Criminal (Michael Jackson)
Green Manalishi
You've Got Another Thing Coming

Things took a weird turn when I found out that Maiden LA were the last band of the night, but they were nowhere near being the headliner. I could understand that, because they aren't as well known as the other tributes on the bill tonight. But it didn't make any sense to have them play a ridiculously short set just before the club was about to completely shut down. I would say it was completely disrespectful and this is not the way a band should be treated. The other bands that played before this wasted a lot of time setting up their stage as well, which if they hadn't, Maiden LA would have gotten to play longer. If they were in fact so low down on the bill, they should have been given a full hour before Domination's set and I would have happily come out to the show early to enjoy a full set of Maiden. Well, they did make the most of their allotted time, playing five classics. The guitarists, bassist and drummer were very good with their performances. The singer was great too but I feel he will definitely get better at hitting those incredibly high notes as he plays more gigs with them. He certainly didn't lack in energy and managed to get a great response from the small crowd. A very good performance and I hope to see them do more justice to themselves at the House of Blues Anaheim show on March 30th.

Aces High
2 Minutes To Midnight
The Trooper
Wrathchild
Run To The Hills

Check out the bands here:
Just Like Priest
Motleys Crew
Domination 101
Maiden LA

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