Just Like Priest with Dia

Just Like Priest with Dia
Date: 10/10/09
Place: Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet, Santa Fe Springs CA
Review by ~ Aniruddh (Andrew) Bansal

Dia, the tribute to Dio, kicked off the show at noon with the ever-amazing opener Mob Rules. They continued to play some of the classics from the Dio era of Black Sabbath as well as Dio's solo career. This group of three ladies and one guy is always fun to watch. Its clear that they are huge fans of Dio, and they give us a great sing-along and rocking out time with our favorite Dio tunes whenever they perform. Shannon did a great job on vocals, so did Liza on bass and Eileen on guitar. Chris the drumslut Silva was mad on those drums as he always is. Here's the set list for their hour-long show:

1. Mob Rules
2. Rainbow In The Dark
3. Last In Line
4. Holy Diver
5. Country Girl
6. Don't Talk To Strangers
7. Straight Through The Heart
8. Heaven And Hell
9. Long Live Rock And Roll
10. Stand Up And Shout
11. Neon Knights

Just Like Priest hit the stage for their first set at 1.30 with the ever-exciting Hellion/Electric Eye and continued playing some classics like Victim of Changes, Diamonds And Rust and Exciter along with a few rarer gems like Desert Plains, Ripper and Heading To The Highway. Apart from these I would specially like to thank them for including the songs Bloodstone and Riding On The Wind because these are songs which don't get played all that often, whether it's an original Judas Priest show or a tribute act. They closed out this set with the usual staples Breaking the Law and Hell Bent For Leather, motorcycle stage prop included.

The second set included some of the more recent material like Judas Rising and Hellrider as well as a very pleasant surprise Heart Of A Lion which was written by Rob Halford but never made it to a Judas Priest record, finally being used on one of Scott Travis's other band Racer-X's albums. They did a couple of songs from British Steel too including Metal Gods and Living After Midnight. There was one more surprise addition in the form of Some Heads Are Gonna Roll. I almost never expected to see that song in the set list. They closed out the show with the amazing Free Wheel Burning and Painkiller.

The band was in top form as always. The vocalist Franc was as good as I've ever seen him perform, and he is one guy who brings out the crazy Judas Priest fan inside of me, making me sing, pump my fists and head bang furiously song after song. I would go as far as saying that Franc Casciato performs even better on those old Judas Priest tunes than Rob Halford does at his present age of 58. I mean, obviously, playing a set of already available songs is another thing and composing them is entirely another, but as far as vocals for tribute bands go, this is as good as it can ever get. This is in no way undermining the efforts of the other band members. The guitarists Kevin and Brian as well as the bassist Vic play all the song note-per-note like the original. Last but not the least, you've got to be a good drummer to pull off the Painkiller solo, and Gare surely is! To add to the fun they brought on guest musicians from bands like Dia and Full House in this set. All in all it was a great time for all Sabbath, Dio and Judas Priest fans at the Swap Meet today! Three cheers!

Here are their set lists:

Set 1:
1. The Hellion
2. Electric Eye
3. Riding On The Wind
4. Heading To The Highway
5. Bloodstone
6. Victim Of Changes
7. Diamonds And Rust
8. The Ripper
9. Desert Plains
10. Exciter
11. Breaking The Law
12. Hell Bent For Leather

Set 2:
1. Judas Rising
2. Hellrider
3. Heart of a Lion
4. Metal Gods
5. Turbo Lover
6. Some Heads Are Gonna Roll
7. Livin after Midnight (with Lisa Sanchez from DIA on Bass, and Shannon from DIA on Vox)
8. Green Manalishi (With Chris Silva from DIA/Electric Funeral on Drums)
9. You've Got Another Thing Coming (with Mike E. Stone from Full House on Guitar)
10. Free Wheel Burning
11. Painkiller