At Manchester airport, got here way too early because the cellphone clock somehow changed BACK to Swedish time (WTF???!) so now I’ve got some time to kill.

I will write more about my journey when I get home, with this limited internet time you get at airports, it feels like you have to hurrrryyy to get anything done.

But to just say something about last night’s concert…. GOD how it was worth coming here!! I didn’t have any expecations at all, cause like I said before, Queensryche were terrible at Sweden Rock, Judas Priest sucked big time at Sweden Rock and Graspop in Belgium. They got their energy back in Thessaloniki, Greece, but I didn’t dare to hope that they would KEEP that energy throughout the rest of the tour.

[Queensryche last night at Manchester Apollo]

So I went there yesterday thinking “…what the hell… It’s better than staying at home watching TV…”. But then Queensryche did their thing and although they’ve never really been an entertaining live band, at least they didn’t suck. It sounded good, and Geoff Tate was in a much better vocal shape than he was at Sweden Rock – thank god. Technically, they have always been impressive, so I’m not surprised about that, but all in all, I was pleasently surprised.

Then – PRIEST time…..

All I can say is that they blew me away. Holy shit. I guess that FESTIVALS are not their thing. When it was THEIR stage, THEIR show – they certainly knew how to work it!
I realized that I’d been smiling the whole time, when my facial muscles began to ache! Crazy! :)) But I was enjoying it 100%.

Rob sounded way better than he did at the earlier shows – and not only that, he was in a fantastic mood, was smiling, communicating with the crowd – it was just such a pleasure to see! Same thing goes for the rest of the band.

Glenn was jumping around, smiling, just simply having fun and it was so evident. Scott also. I was zooming in on him to take a photo, and just when I saw him perfectly through my lens, he did this funny gesture to let me know that he had seen me and I started laughing so much that I forgot to take the damn picture! He just looked so funny in that particular moment, then when he saw me laugh, he started laughing too. :)

[Ha! Looks like I did take a pic of Scott after all, without realizing it, must have been his first attempt to get me to realize that he saw my “paparazzi”-ing…!]

I think maybe this was the perfect venue for Priest. It was just the right size and close enough to the crowd to create that exchange of energy that makes a good show. When the band and their crowd actually get to interact, when they SEE eachother – not just from FAR away from a huge festival stage. This was totally different.

For the first time this summer, it actually looked like the band was enjoying playing together and they just loved being at Manchester Apollo. I haven’t felt that at ALL at the other shows.

 Well, so much more to be said, but I’ll leave it at that for now and continue when I get home. And I got to meet one of those guys who’s been reading my stuff for YEARS, cool to meet in person as well! :) Well,,, as usual: I’ll be back!