It’s been nearly twenty solid years now since I last saw legendary founding Judas Priest guitarist K.K. Downing onstage at the 2004 Ozzfest (on a bill that also saw the original lineup of Black Sabbath reunited), and about five years now since I last crossed paths with former Priest/Iced Earth frontman Tim “Ripper” Owens during the Dio Returns tour in 2019. To finally see these two icons together on the same stage with KK’s Priest, and allow my seventeen-year-old son Jacob to not only witness, but also photograph it at the Mount Dora Music Hall this past Friday, March 8, was nothing short of legendary itself.
Instantly, there was excitement in the air at the unknown venue we had traveled to for the first time ever, with the line wrapped around the building for what seemed like days. Once the doors opened, it was nearly impossible to navigate around the wall-to-wall people, but we immediately spotted L.A. Guns/former Faster Pussycat guitarist Ace Von Johnson doing his thing over by the merch tables, and took it upon ourselves to go say “Hi.”
Little did I know prior to this meeting that Von Johnson had also gotten into Black Sabbath around the release of 1992’s Dehumanizer album (coincidentally around the same time I had), which was also the very same shirt that I had on that night. This sparked an entire conversation about the late Ronnie James Dio and how amazing he was (and what an underrated album 1993’s Angry Machines truly is). But alas, I ultimately did not part ways with the literal shirt on my back, but rather settled for a photo standing together/next to it.
A mutual love for Black Sabbath’s Dehumanizer album; Rewind It’s Jesse Striewski (left) with L.A. Guns guitarist Ace Von Johnson at the show on 3/8/24.
By the time we had made it to our seats for the opening act Burning Witches, the place had already filled up nicely, and Jacob decided to just get some “practice” shots of them directly from our position (this turned out to be somewhat costly – more on that shortly). I was familiar with Burning Witches via their most recent album The Dark Tower, which for whatever reason I was never able to review despite it being sent to me at the time via their label. After seeing these five ladies live though, I kind of wished that I had.
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 was honestly too busy low-key falling for frontwoman Laura Guldemond – who at one point left stage to run through the crowd in a frenzy – to fully take in the music. Guldemond’s stage presence was equivalent of a young David Lee Roth (albeit far more sexier), jumping and kicking her heart out the whole time (I’m pretty sure we even locked eyes there once or twice, too).
Burning Witches opening the night in Mount Dora, FL on 3/8/24.
Next up were L.A. Guns, who I have been trying to see for a long time now, but have had several missed calls (they were actually on the same bill for a 2022 Tom Kiefer/Faster Pussycat show that Rewind It covered, but cancelled at the eleventh hour). And although I have also interviewed former members like ex-bassist Kelly Nickels and late drummer Steve Riley over the years, I still needed to see original guitarist (and Guns N’ Roses co-founder) Tracii Guns live at some point, and to have him still paired alongside classic-era singer Phil Lewis was the icing on the cake.
The band were on top of their ’80s-rock game, first with Guns playing guitar over a tapped version of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Diary of a Madman” before ripping through old and new classics alike in the form of “Cannonball,” “Electric Gypsy,” “Over the Edge,” “You Betray,” “Sex Action” (with part of The Rolling Stones’ “Paint It, Black” as an outro), “Speed,” (the intro of AC/DC’s “Back in Black” also thrown in there for good measure) “Never Enough,” a tender rendition of “The Ballad of Jayne,” and finally tearing the house down with “Rip and Tear.”
Phil Lewis (left) and Tracii Guns keeping the action going with L.A. Guns on 3/8/24.
And last but not least, the mighty KK’s Priest took stage with an onslaught of original tracks and Judas Priest classics alike, beginning with hard-hitters “Hellfire Thunderbolt” and “One More Shot at Glory” before launching into the immortal “The Ripper.”
“Reap the Whirlwind” was probably one of the least effective numbers of the night, while “Night Crawler” was a welcomed addition. “Sermons of the Sinner” lead to a trio of Priest classics I was not able to hear the band play when I originally saw them all those years ago in the form of “Burn in Hell,” “Beyond the Realms of Death,” and “Hell Patrol.”
“Brothers of the Road” was epic enough on its own, but lead to a slew of more Priest staples such as “Metal Meltdown,” “The Green Manalishi (With the Two Pronged Crown),” “Breaking the Law,” and of course, “Victim of Changes.” As if this was not enough, the guys still broke out two more strong ones in the form of “Raise Your Fists” and “Strike of the Viper.” As a die hard Priest fan for God only knows how long now, there was very little worth finding to complain about that night.
After the show, we ran into Ace one more time before exiting the venue. After exchanging some more pleasantries, I unfortunately had to let him down as easy as I could, and let him know I in fact could not bare to part ways with said Sabbath shirt (thanks for the guitar pic that you nailed me with during your set though – good shot, Ace!).
Metal legends KK Downing (left) and Tim “Ripper” Owens ran through both new hard-hitters and classic Judas Priest staples on 3/8/24.
