Photo Set: Judas Priest @ ShoWare Center
Judas Priest Live @ ShoWare Center
April 15, 2018
Kent, Wash.
By Travis Trautt
I was so stoked about this chance to see one of my childhood heroes that I didn’t even mind having to trek down to Kent, where Judas Priest was performing at ShoWare Center, a nondescript conference-center looking facility 19.8 miles south of Seattle’s city limits that quite honestly seemed a little small for the band that gave us British Steel. My drive flew by.
A brief panic took over when I got to the box office and found out they didn’t have a record of my photo pass. Normally I don’t sweat it if there’s a miscommunication around credentials but in this case, I HAD to shoot this sold out show. ‘Priest doesn’t come through town very often.
Luckily I got there early enough to reach the tour manager and got it sorted out about 5 minutes before they took the stage. So I missed openers Saxon and Black Star Riders.
The group had an unexpectedly-large stage set up and a massive video projection timed with the songs. Drummer Scott Travis sat at the back of a small set of stairs that lead up to his perch for the evening.
The first three songs were a mix of of old and one from the new album Firepower. Then came some heat. They played one of my favorites, “Sinners.” Then, “The Ripper.”
After being escorted out of the pit before the fourth song started, me and the rest of the photographers got to sit just off the side of the stage for the rest of the show, which was great. A bit shorter than I expected, but great. And of course Rob came out on his motorcycle at the encore.
