Remember That One, Comrades? Satanic March Through Graz! (2002) – Concert Tales From the Dusty Archives

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik

Location: Graz (Austria), Orpheum
Concert date: April 1, 2002
Attendance: 1000
Ticket price: €30.00

(attention: for an English version, please scroll down the bar)

It was one of the few sunny April days we got this year. The call to leave Ljubljana as early as 11:30 was spot on, because with the Easter holidays the border at Šentilj was hopelessly jammed, almost exclusively with Austrian-plated cars, apart from a few bright exceptions with SLO plates that were headed somewhere other than to see the Priest. We rotted at the border crossing for two hours. I thought my bladder was going to explode. I spared myself the worst of it, even though the whole festively garlanded universe was watching, since it was a matter of life and death.

Graz at 4:00 p.m., a lazy, sleepy town. The Orpheum hall showed no signs of life, apart from a greedy box office. Tickets on the day of the show went for a hefty 35 euros. After 6:00 p.m. people slowly started trickling into the lobby. The hall doors opened at 7:30 p.m., and to land a spot in the front row you had to pull out every last one of your top-tier athletic acrobatics. The show was supposed to start at 8:00 p.m. And I’d honestly have preferred to keep scrapping in the front row for another hour or so — I’ll tell you why in a second.

The local support act, the pride of Graz. No name, not even announced? Hello? Two Gibson “Les Paul” guitars in the hands of identical twins, identical haircuts (long, straight, greasy hair), identical image, identical moves. A tiny drum kit (some kid’s set, judging by the size) and a magic little box next to it, which turned out to be some kind of drum & bass machine. I’ve got nothing against techno creations as such, but at least use them with taste. Fine, even if they had been used tastefully, this show had no business being the warm-up for Judas Priest, where people had, among other things, shelled out serious cash for their tickets. The crowd got snappier by the minute and visibly more annoyed with the chosen act that was “trying” to warm up the audience. What does music like that have to do with Judas Priest? Oh, how the band members earned their applause when they decided to leave the stage. A weight fell off my heart. A band with no soul, backed by wealthy parents who buy their spoiled little boys expensive “toys” that then, sadly, get abused.

Then it got properly serious. At 9:10 p.m. the well-known bolt from the blue struck. “Metal Gods” and the gods of heavy metal were with us. The crowd went nuts. Okay, okay, only the first rows went truly wild. With no “Hello” to the audience, the Priest marched straight ahead with “Heading Out To The Highway”. Wow, you hadn’t been able to hear it live in almost ten years, and toward the end of the show the band surprised us again with “Desert Plains”, naturally in a much faster version than on the original record, “Point Of Entry”.

Ripper was in real top form. Where Halford usually drops a single scream on the original versions of the songs, Ripper live let out as many as five in a row (“Touch Of Evil”, “Beyond The Realms Of Death”). He especially shone on the extremely long scream that closes “Victim Of Changes”. Ripper sang phenomenally, crystal clear, brutally sharp, playing with the color of his voice like a skilled juggler. The ease with which he got through all those tough passages of his predecessor Halford was just proof that Ripper is a worthy replacement for Rob, in case I still need to convince those who bet absolutely everything on Halford. And what communication with the crowd! Constant handshakes with the most loyal fans in the front rows.

Ripper, of course, had to show off his entire fashion collection. Every piece of clothing, from the baseball cap to the pants, said “Ripper”, and what suited him best (naturally) was the leather, head to toe. He also showed up in a hockey jersey (with “Ripper” on it, of course) and the Judas Priest symbol on the chest in Canadian colors, as befits Ripper, a true Canadian. The crowd was in a trance. When Ripper addressed the audience with “Now we’re going to slow things down with a song from the album ‘Stained Class'” and wanted to ask the crowd to guess which song it was, they roared “Beyond The Realms Of Death!” before he’d even finished the sentence, and Ripper just turned to Tipton and, visibly pleased, nodded: “Well, they’ve got it!” It’s a one-of-a-kind experience watching Ripper sing Halford’s legacy with such ease. I don’t even know how to praise him enough.

The two acoustic guitars that had been sitting lonely on the stage for a while were used by the band for “Diamonds And Rust”, “Beyond The Realms Of Death” and “Hell Is Home”. Besides the latter, the band also played the killer “One On One” from the latest album.

“Turbo Lover” came off a bit awkward as far as sound goes (on the original version the guitars are played through synthesizers), but it did Ripper good to rest his vocal cords a bit, since “Painkiller” came next. Otherwise, the sound at the Judas Priest show was perfect.

The thrash-tinged “Blood Stained” and “Burn In Hell” also found their rightful place on the setlist and with their aggression added to the staging of a proper satanic march, which ended with that familiar roar. “Vrooommm, vrooooom…”, the headlight of a Harley Davidson on the darkened stage. Ripper on it, like a little kid who just got a lollipop, was visibly having a blast. The band kicked into “Painkiller”, the crowd’s hands shot straight up, the hall shook under the thunder of Scott Travis’s double bass pedals, and another Priest classic came alive in the night. That’s how the main part of the show ended.

The first encore opened with the intro from “Screaming For Vengeance”. “The Hellion” flowed naturally into “Electric Eye”. The band knew the crowd would surely have lynched them without “Electric Eye”. A surprise followed with “United”, and the first encore ended (by now a long-standing Judas Priest concert tradition) with “Living After Midnight”.

The crowd demanded more. “Priest, priest,…!” echoed through the hall, and the guys came out on stage once more and, with the famous “Hell Bent For Leather”, took us back to the late seventies. After the quickly played intro, Glenn treated himself to a few pleasures on the tremolo of his famous Hammer guitar, and then he and K.K. stood side by side and struck that famous pose that has been immortalized so many times throughout the band’s history, whether with a camera or even in drawings. Hair down to the floor, guitars pointing left and right, riff to the very end, wowwww… am I dreaming? The band was in really good spirits on that first of April. Maybe a single day of rest had done them good (their previous show was on March 30, 2002 in Vienna).

What a repertoire and what a show!!! Legends!!!

photos: Milan “Dr. Evil” Krušič

“Satanic march through Graz!” (2002)

It was one of those rare sunny days of April. To start our trip in Graz early at 11:30 a.m. was very clever decision, because of celebration day which caused a long queue of cars on the border in Austria direction. We waited for a two hours to get through. So meanwhile I got a serious problems with where to take a pee. I was surrounded with highway full of cars and frustrated people in it waiting to move closer to the borderline. I thought that I will explode. I finally free my mind about all those eyes that stared at me and I made it. Well don’t get me wrong, but it was a question of life and death for me.

Graz at 4:00 p.m. was lazy and very boring place to be. There were no signs of life at Orpheum too, except guy who was selling high-priced tickets for 35 euro. The gates of the hall were opened at 7:30 p.m. and the gig should start at 8:00 p.m.

Local support group was something very special to me. I couldn’t get even it’s name. Well guitarists were twins. Same image, same moves, even same hair style and beside that the same copy of Gibson’s “les Paul” guitars. They were using stoner riffs, and most of those riffs were played through wah-wah effect. So they were hiding behind wah-wah, giving us a poor melody. Even one solo could not be heard. What we could also saw, was very small non-standard basic drum set nearby interesting box. This box was drum & bass machine. This computer was used as a basic rhythm, that covered drumming. So who needs drums at all?
The guy on vocals was wearing an image of a fellow who just felt unfortunately down the escalator. All those moves he made on stage convinced me that he is very much in love with nu-metal and rap. All his “singing” (better for me to say loud spoken words in German language) reminded me on Hitler’s famous ecstasy speeches somewhere a long time ago. So the audience was becoming from minute to minute more impatient and frustrated because of guys who really “hardly tried” to warm up the people. Even some screams (in all sort of languages): “Go fuck yourselves!” blazed out. And the only moment that we enjoyed in a whole gig was when they finally left the stage. Oh, what a release.

So the time for a big bang ran out. Uauu,”Metal Gods” at 21:10 p.m.! And true metal gods were with us once again. Audience went totally insane. O.k., o.k. only the front rows. Without any “Hello” they continued with “Heading Out To The Highway”. I was really happy about the decision of the band to put “Heading Out…” and “Desert Plains” (both from “Point Of Entry” album) in their set list again. “Desert Plains” came later in show and was played in much faster way that could be heard as original LP version.

Ripper was really ripping. High tuned heavy screams, he shouted out even five together one after another (when you listening to original versions of tracks, there is usually one Rob’s scream). When the band reached the end of “Victim Of Changes”, shouted Ripper a real long and high lasting scream and proved that he is a real challenge to Rob Halford and his Judas Priest heritage (for all of you, who still think that Rob is the only choice for Judas Priest). Ripper done his job perfect. All sequences that are really hard for singing and we all know that only Rob can do it, seemed to Ripper a piece of cake. Hail to you Ripper and welcome on board again! A great communication was established between Ripper and audience with continuous shaking of hands during the show. At one point, Ripper turned to audience with: “Now we will slow down a little bit with a song from our Stained Class album!” And even before he tried to let the audience in guessing game which song is it, he got an answer: “Beyond The Realms Of Death!” Ripper satisfied with great response simply turned to Glenn and said: “Well, they’ve got it!” Ripper also disguised himself a few times. Well he wore a baseball cap with sign on “Ripper”, belt with “Ripper” on it, even hockey sport shirt again with “Ripper” in back print, but most of all it was the leather (of course with “Ripper” sign on) that made him real.

On the stage there were two acoustic guitars that were used during “Diamonds And Rust”, “Beyond The Realms Of Death” and “Hell Is Home”. And beside “Hell Is Home”, the band stroke with “One On One” (based on great killer intro riffing) from “Demolition” LP, too.

The sound through entire show was perfect. Only at one moment it felt a little weaker. During “Turbo Lover”. Maybe because I have always in my head those keyboards (from original LP version) that are played through guitars, and “in live” there were none. Ripper could relaxed himself a little bit before great finale.

The lights went off. And a single light appeared. It was a light of Harley Davidson and we could hear: “Wroooommm, wroooooom,…! Ripper on a motorcycle enjoyed like a little kid who just got a candy. After a while Scott’s double bass (with great previous rolling intro) detonated. It was “Painkiller”, another Judas Priest classic. Heads were rolling again, crowd went totally mad, as the main part of a gig was over.

First encore began with “Hellion” and (of course) “Electric Eye”, followed by one of surprises that night “United” and finished with classic end “Living After Midnight”.

But the crowd wanted priest to came back: “Priest, priest…!” And they’ve got another thing coming. And this thing was “Hell Bent For Leather”. Quickly played intro of a song followed by Glenn’s magic hands on tremolo. For a moment I thought he will never stop all guns to blaze. After Glenn’s intro, K.K. joined him side by side. In well known Judas Priest style which is almost a part of heavy metal history, the guys brought us their show to a final end.

After the concert, the whole band came to the fans in first row and shacked their hands. Even always a little bit shy and introverted Ian did. Well it was real great repertoire and most of all fantastic gig. To see Judas Priest after 35 years still at their best. Metal gods, revolution and the first name of heavy metal to me, thank you for everything and I hope to see you soon again!

photos taken by Milan “Dr. Evil” Krušič

Setlist

1. Metal Gods
2. Heading Out To The Highway
3. Touch Of Evil
4. Blood Stained
5. Victim Of Changes
6. One On One
7. Diamonds And Rust
8. Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown)
9. Beyond The Realms Of Death
10. Burn In Hell
11. Hell Is Home
12. Breaking The Law
13. Desert Plains
14. Turbo Lover
15. Painkiller
—first encore—
16. The Hellion
17. Electric Eye
18. United
19. Living After Midnight
—- second encore— 20.
Hell Bent For Leather
===taped outro===
21. Lost And Found