Whitesnake and Judas Priest: a night to remember (9/11/2011 - Citibank Hall - Rio de Janeiro)

How can I describe a night in which people could see two of the best bands of all times in action? Amazing? Astonishing? Wonderful? Well, I guess there aren't enough adjectives for a night that started with the heart and soul of Whitesnake’s Hard Rock and ended with a lesson of the classic Heavy Metal of Judas Priest. 

A few hours before the concert, the mall where Citibank Hall is located in Rio de Janeiro, traditionally visited by families, was dominated by a sea of black T-shirts, as it’s seems to be the uniform of Rock’n’roll.

Whitesnake and Judas Priest fans at the food court.

After a fast snack in the food court, it was time to go to the show. And at 9:30 PM sharp, the first chords of My Generation from The Who preceded Whitesnake’s entrance on the stage, as they have been doing in this tour to promote their new album Forevermore. 

They opened the concert with Best Years, a song from the album Good to be bad, but the crowd started to get crazy with the second song: Give me all your love, one of the band’s biggest hits. But the house started to tremble (as I’ve never seen before) with Love ain’t no stranger, a huge success in Brazil, since 1985, when Whitesnake was the first international attraction of first Rock in Rio Festival. Besides, this song has been used in a cigarette’s TV commercial (when this kind of propaganda was allowed in the country), so it’s carved into stone in people’s minds. 

After the ballad Is this love, it was time for some new material, and they introduced the powerful Steel your heart away and Forevermore from their latest album, also called Forevermore. 

It wasn’t a night only for David Coverdale showing his natural charm (yes, he still has it) and powerful voice: guitar players Reb Beach and Doug Aldrich also performed an unforgettable guitar duel, which simply hypnotized people at the venue.

Whitesnake: setting the crowd on fire.

And one by one, all elements that make up a good Hard Rock concert nowadays were shown at the stage: heart, soul, powerful ballads, amazing guitar solos, bass and drum in total harmony and a beautiful voice that marked more than one generation. 

Whitesnake ended their show with Deep Purple’s Burn. Again, the house was shaking. After an epic concert, what else could we want? 

We wanted Judas Priest and the lesson of Heavy Metal they are performing in this tour, called Epitaph. In fact it could be called Heavy Metal’s Essentials or Heavy Metal for Dummies. 

Besides each and every fan of Heavy Metal, this concert should also be seen by people who doesn’t like the gender or who doesn’t know nothing about it. It would be pretty clarifying for them... 

They opened their Heavy Metal lesson with Rapid Fire from the 1980’s album British Steel. From this classic album, they’ve also played Metal Gods and Living after midnight, song with which they ended the show.

A journey into 40 years of classic Heavy Metal.

With each song, the screen behind the band showed the corresponding album and Rob Halford, as a true master of ceremony, explained a little bit about the history of the song and the album. 

And in this lesson of Heavy Metal, the crowd could enjoy a parade of classic songs, like Judas Rising, Night Crawler, Turbo Lover, Breaking the Law and Painkiller. Again, the venue was shaking. 

It's worth to note that Rob Halford still has the pipes and the new guitar player, Richie Faulkner (ex-Voodoo Six), who had the difficult mission of replacing the iconic guitar player KK Downing, after his retirement, is equally gifted. 

To finish such a perfect night (and this perfect lesson), the band chosen 4 more classics to the encore: The Hellion, Electric Eye, Hell Bent for Leather, and You've Got Another Thing Coming. However, they still had one more classic to play, and they ended the show with Living after midnight, the icing on the cake.

Setlist Whitesnake

Opening: My Generation (The Who song)

1. Best Years
2. Give Me All Your Love
3. Love Ain't No Stranger
4. Is This Love
5. Steal Your Heart Away
6. Forevermore
7. Guitar Duel
8. Love Will Set You Free
9. Drum Solo
10. Here I Go Again
11. Still Of The Night
12. Soldier of Fortune (Deep Purple cover)
13. Burn / Stormbringer (Deep Purple cover) 

Setlist Judas Priest:

1. Rapid Fire
2. Metal Gods
3. Heading Out to the Highway
4. Judas Rising
5. Starbreaker
6. Victim of Changes
7. Never Satisfied
8. Diamonds & Rust (Joan Baez cover)
9. Dawn Of Creation
10. Prophecy
11. Night Crawler
12. Turbo Lover
13. Beyond the Realms of Death
14. The Sentinel
15. Blood Red Skies
16. The Green Manalishi (Fleetwood Mac cover)
17. Breaking the Law
18. Painkiller       

Encore 1:

1. The Hellion
2. Electric Eye
3. Hell Bent for Leather
4. You've Got Another Thing Comin'

           Encore 2:

1. Living After Midnight