K.K.’s Priest invaded the comfy confines of Columbus’ venue The King of Clubs on Saturday night. The all-star cast that Judas Priest legend K.K. Downing has put together to represent both his storied Priest career as well as two albums of new heavy metal made their first visit to Ohio on this tour and brought a pair of bands with them to warm up the crowd. The tour package paired several heavy metal legends with several legends in the making as well.

Switzerland’s (minus one, Philly guitar virtuoso Courtney Cox) Burning Witches made their second appearance at the music venue that has quickly became the local favorite for a variety of music, but has specialized in giving headbangers a place to feel at home. Last time they visited, they were on tour supporting Cox’s former band; The Iron Maidens. While she admittedly made a comfortable living in the world famous Iron Maiden tribute act, the lure of creating original music with like minded people led her to accepting a full time gig with the Witches last summer.

As is the case with most metal music, this band brings a powerhouse rhythm section with Jeanine Grob on bass and Lala Frischknecht on drums. The aforementioned Cox has assumed lead guitar duties while founding member Romana Kalkuhl handles rhythm guitars. They are led out front by the next great siren in heavy metal, Laura Guldemond. Her stage presence is what sets their performance apart from many of their contemporary counterparts. They play heavy, heavy metal yet haven’t forgotten the idea that performing live should be fun. Guldemond’s confidence while commanding a crowd is reminiscent of the legends of the genre. Even while there were issues during the first song with her microphone and the documented physical struggle that this tour has been for Kalkuhl, they soldiered through and refused to let their performance be hampered. This is a band that is only going to continue to grow its fan base as corporate radio continues to die and more avenues become available to get real metal music to the masses.

• Burning Witches Set List
• 1. Unleash The Beast
• 2. Wings of Steel
• 3. Hexenhammer
• 4. Lucid Nightmare
• 5. The Dark Tower
• 6. Burning Witches

Los Angeles’ heavy metal staples L.A. Guns were up next. I always love seeing bands from the 80’s era that got pigeonholed into the “hair metal” scene unjustly. Firstly, most of the bands from the era are great anyway and the “hair” label cheapens their contributions to heavy metal music. A lot of them have their metal “cred” challenged on the basis of cheesy music videos for the newly founded MTV or because they happened to write a ballad or two. L.A. Guns are no exception to the rule, but this being the second time seeing them live in the past few years, I’m happy to say that they are just a kick ass heavy metal band that are even better live. The key to most of these bands that paved the way for the heavier stuff that would come in later years, is that when you see them live, you hear these songs the way they were actually meant to be heard. Live, loud, raw. The casual metal fan may only know this band for their radio friendly hit, “The Ballad of Jayne”, (which is a great song by the way) and completely may not be aware that this band is actually much closer to Motorhead than they ever were to Bon Jovi.

Tracii Guns is one of the most well known guitarists to come out of the 1980’s metal scene. In fact, while Ozzy Osbourne’s “Diary of a Madman” was blaring over the speakers as the band was taking the stage, Guns played along in what is one of the coolest ways to kick off a concert I’ve ever seen. While it’s pretty obvious where the “Guns” in L.A. Guns comes from; his namesake is also where the “Guns” in Guns N’ Roses comes from too as for a brief time L.A. Guns merged with Axl’s band Hollywood Rose. The pairing didn’t last long, however, and L.A. Guns forged ahead. Handling lead vocals since 1987 (save for a four year stretch in the ’90s), is Mr. Phil Lewis. His vocals were on point all night. He informed the crowd prior to the performance of “Jayne” that he’s been struggling with his vocals but that he would try hard to get through the song. He sounded great and one could not be blamed for thinking that he was full of it. In fact, Ripper Owens of the evenings headlining performers would later playfully call him out for being full of shit.

• L.A. Guns Set List
• 1. Cannonball
• 2. Electric Gypsy
• 3. Over The Edge
• 4. Sex Action
• 5. Speed
• 6. Hell’s Bells (instrumental jam of AC/DC)
• 7. Never Enough
• 8. The Ballad of Jayne
• 9. Rip and Tear

At about 9:45, the headlining act for the night took the stage. K.K. Downing is a founding member of Judas Priest. The same Judas Priest that is quite obviously on the Mount Rushmore of heavy metal bands with Sabbath, Maiden and Metallica. Don’t try to argue. His decades of playing twin harmonizing guitar with Glen Tipton in Priest formed one of the most iconic and recognizable sounds in metal music. In 2011, Downing’s time in Priest came to an end and after many years of not performing the beginnings of what would become K.K.’s Priest began to take shape right before and during the pandemic.

The new project, K.K.’s Priest, would be a combination of both some of his best work from the Judas Priest heyday as well as fresh and new music that would remain true to what his vision of the band was. Who better to recruit for lead vocals than Akron, Ohio’s Tim “Ripper” Owens who actually was in Judas Priest for a pair of albums when they reunited without Rob Halford briefly around the turn of the century. His vocal parallels to Halford are eerily close and his work with Iced Earth was my favorite that they put out. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see him perform with Iced Earth, so I’ve been looking forward to seeing him live and combined with Downing whom I hadn’t seen since 2009’s Judas Priest tour; you might say that Saturday night was a show that I was excited for.

Rounding out the band are guitarist A.J. Mills, bassist Tony Newton, and drummer Sean Elg. The hard hitting quintet opened the night with the first single from their first record; 2021’s Sermons of the Sinner. From the opening riff of “Hellfire Thunderbolt” to kick off the set and through second encore song; this was just a classic, old school metal show. With Owens piercing vocals ripping right through you and heavy riffs and plenty of double bass pedal holding it all together, the show surpassed all of my expectations and has now taken over the top spot for shows that I’ve seen at The King of Clubs. It was also a fantastic way to kick off my 2024 concert run. The night was a celebration. A celebration of the legacy of K.K. Downing and his work over the past 50+ years. It was a celebration of the legacy of Tracii Guns. It was a celebration of the future of all three of these bands. It was a celebration of the 3rd year anniversary of Columbus’ new favorite music venue. The show was sold out. Towards the end of the show, Owens remarked that after the end of this tour that the band would reconvene in England to work on the follow up to 2023’s The Sinner Rides Again album. I’m excited for that and hope that they will once again spend an evening with the headbanging faithful in Columbus, Ohio when they inevitably tour in support of whatever comes next.

• K.K.’s Priest Set List
• 1. Hellfire Thunderbolt
• 2. One More Shot at Glory
• 3. The Ripper (Judas Priest cover)
• 4. Reap the Whirlwind
• 5. Night Crawler (Judas Priest cover)
• 6. Burn in Hell (Judas Priest cover)
• 7. Beyond the Realms of Death (Judas Priest cover)
• 8. Hell Patrol (Judas Priest cover)
• 9. Brother of the Road
• 10. The Green Manalishi With The Two Prong Crown (Fleetwood Mac cover)
• 11. Breaking The Law (Judas Priest cover)
• 12. Victim of Changes (Judas Priest cover)
• *Encore*
• 13. Strike of the Viper
• 14. Raise Your Fists