COLUMBUS, OH- KK’s Priest brought their brand of British Steel to America. Rock music legend and ex Judas Priest guitarist KK Downing brought his new band for an epic evening of heavy metal mastery. The “Return of the Sinner” tour made a sold out stop at the King of Clubs in Columbus, OH. This is the inaugural US run for the band and features support from LA Guns and Burning Witches. This show also served as part of the venues 3rd anniversary “Big Ass Party” weekend, which also included a St. Paddy’s Day celebration.
As I walked around the venue, waiting for Burning Witches to take the stage, I could see the excitement and support for the Swedish based all-female band founded in 2015 by its guitarist Romana Kalkuhl. Many BW t-shirts were in the mix of the crowd. I had heard great things leading up to the show and was both curious and excited to witness it, plus one of my favorite female lead guitar players, Courtney Cox of The Iron Maiden’s fame has joined the band as a touring guitarist.
The ladies hit the stage with fire as they tore into their 35-minute, 6 song set with “Unleash The Beast” from their latest album, “The Dark Tower.” Singer Laura Guldemond is a spitfire as her powerful voice is belted out over the audience. It seemed as though there were some microphone issues as she went to the side stage to use CC’s mic and then traveled over to the other side to use Ramona’s. Along with the rest of the band, which is rounded out by Bassist Jeanine Grob and Drummer Lala Frischknect, showed pure exuberant joy as they went on their musical attack. With an opulent amount of hair tossing, headbanging, fist pumping and audience and interpersonal interaction, the band paved the way for this night of unadulterated metal by playing a very fast, energetic set.
The girls gave it their all as they plowed through powerful metal tracks like “Unleash the Beast,” “Wings of Steel,” “Hexenhammer,” “Lucid Nightmare,” “The Dark Tower,” and “Burning Witches.” I would’ve liked to have heard their cover of Ozzy Osborne’s “Shot In The Dark,” but given their short set it’s understandable why it wasn’t included as they showcased their own material from across their 4 albums. I was impressed by the tightness of their playing and their stage presence; I look forward to hearing more from them in the future.
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As Tracii Guns entered the stage, taking center stage as he played along to Ozzy Osbourne’s “Diary of a Madman,” the excitement in the club grew. I became a fan of LA Guns with their debut after seeing their “Electric Gypsy” video on MTV. I liked grit of Phil Lewis’ voice and skipped my happy ass down to the Warehouse and picked up the cassette. There were so many great songs on that album and the follow up “Cocked and Loaded”. Oddly, I hadn’t taken the opportunity to see them live until now. The band has gone through several line up changes throughout the last 40 years, but having the chance to see Phil and Tracii together on stage is a treat for me. Rounded out by guitarist Ace von Johnson, Johnny Martin on Bass and Shawn Duncan on drums, the band still exudes swagger of all the Sunset Strip bands that was prevalent in the 80’s.
Their 45-minute set pulled mostly from the first two albums, giving us such fan favorites as “Electric Gypsy”, “Sex Action” and “Never Enough”. They opened their set with “Cannonball” from the “Checkered Past” album and “Over The Edge” from “Hollywood Vampires”. The band is currently still promoting their latest release, “Black Diamonds” from 2023. Their performance showed how well these guys play together with much interaction and humor as well as knowing how to captivate their audience.
Lewis joked about the obligatory inclusion of what is perhaps their best-known hit, “The Ballad of Jayne”, which the crowd sang along with enthusiastically. They closed their set with “Rip and Tear”, a nice punch to end with. I would’ve loved to hear the groovy “Bitch is Back” or maybe “One More Reason” as those songs really helped cement my early fandom. Set list aside, it was great seeing Phil and Tracii interact with each other, even to share the mic and sing together, whilst Von Johnson (who gave me the “number one bird salute) , Martin and Guns took amble opportunity to perform to each other as well as engaging the crowd. After this run of the tour, you can find them on the road with Tom Keifer.
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Still “Hell Bent for Leather” after all these years, KK Downing emerged on stage with KK’s Priest after a video intro with the Sinner and encapsulating his long career from his days with Judas Priest until now.
With his long blonde hair, black leather attire and flying V guitar, KK Downing, even at 72 years old, is more metal than most could ever hope to be. The band, Fronted by former Judas Priest singer Tim “Ripper” Owens and also featuring guitarist A.J. Mills, bassist Tony Newton and drummer Sean Elg, play like they’ve been together for years. From the onslaught of “Hellfire Thunderbolt” the band did little to slow the pace of their set, giving a barrage of intense metal for the masses.
Their 14-song set not only featured songs from their 2 albums, “Sermons of the Sinner”, and “The Sinner Rides Again”, including “One More Shot at Glory”’ “Brothers of the Road” and “Reap The Whirlwind”, but also 7 Judas Priest covers and “The Green Manalishi” a Fleetwood Mac cover. The Judas Priest songs they covered were “Beyond the Realms of Death”, “Burn in Hell” and “Night Crawler” They played an intense version of “The Ripper”, which was apropos considering Owens nickname. It was easy to see the evidence of why he was selected to replace Rob Halford when he took his leave of Judas Priest.
Downing and A.J. Mills traded licks well together as Tony Newton spent a lot of time stage front engaging the crowd with Elg pounding out Thunder from behind his kit. The raised walkway bracketing the drum riser, smoke machines and strobes gave the stage set up a stadium feel, making it seem like a huge production in an intimate setting. They closed the main set with “Breaking the Law” and “Victims of Change”, leaving the crowd wanting more.
The band returned to perform a two-song encore, with one song each from their two albums. Beginning with “Raise Your Fists,” from Sermons of the Sinner. Then putting a hard stamp on the night with the banger “Strike of the Viper,” from the The Sinner Rides Again. This leg of the tour ends on Sunday, March 24th with the promise of new shows to be announced soon. They have a string of European dates in May and more in the Summer. If you didn’t get the chance to see KK’s Priest on this leg, I would suggest making plans for the next one, once it’s announced.
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