Judas Priest · Alice Cooper · Corrosion of Conformity

A Wednesday night at Star Lake, October 1, 2025, with Preston, Jim Williams, and Jack Wood. The Shield of Pain Tour put Judas Priest, Alice Cooper, and Corrosion of Conformity on the same bill, which is one of those packages that you almost can't believe exists when you see it announced. The weather cooperated in a big way, too — late September into October at an outdoor venue is always a roll of the dice, and we got a perfect, mild fall night for it. Star Lake at the tail end of its season, three legendary acts, great friends, and a son next to me who already knew every band on the bill. Hard to ask for more.

Corrosion of Conformity

I have a real soft spot for this band. Deliverance was one of those records that owned my college years — that grungy, swampy, Sabbath-meets-Southern-rock thing they had going was unlike anything else at the time, and Pepper Keenan's voice and guitar tone hooked me for life. They came out swinging at Star Lake with seven songs, including "Vote With a Bullet" and a back half built around two of Deliverance's biggest cuts: "Albatross" and "Clean My Wounds." Hearing those songs played at a major shed on a beautiful fall night, decades after I first wore that record out in college, was a real moment. They don't always get the slot they deserve on a bill this big, and they made the most of the seven-song window.

Alice Cooper

I have seen Alice Cooper more times than I can count, and a lot of those shows have been with Jim Williams next to me — Jim might be the single biggest Alice fan I've ever met, and going to one of these shows with him is part of the experience at this point. Alice's set was, as always, a full theatrical production: 23 entries on the setlist, the "Alice's Attic" tape intro, a "Hello, Hooray" lead-in, then the classics rolling one after another — "No More Mr. Nice Guy," "I'm Eighteen," "Feed My Frankenstein," "Hey Stoopid," "Poison," "Cold Ethyl," "Only Women Bleed," and "School's Out" with the inevitable "Another Brick in the Wall" snippet to wrap. Nita Strauss got her guitar solo spotlight in the middle, and "Brutal Planet" with the extended band solos was a highlight. Alice is in his late 70s and still doing all of this — straitjacket, snake, guillotine, the whole production — and Jim was beside himself the entire time. Always a great time.

Judas Priest

Then Priest. I had just seen them on the Invincible Shield Tour the year before, and they came back through with a setlist that leaned harder on the Painkiller-era and earlier classics — "All Guns Blazing" opening into "Hell Patrol," "Freewheel Burning," "A Touch of Evil," "Night Crawler," "Solar Angels," and "Painkiller" itself in the home stretch. "Breaking the Law" and "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" landed early, "Giants in the Sky" gave us a taste of the most recent record.** Then the closing run of "Electric Eye," "Painkiller," "Hell Bent for Leather," and "Living After Midnight" was exactly the way you want a Priest set to end, with the Queen "We Are the Champions" tape sending everyone home. Preston is a huge Priest fan — has been since the Invincible Shield show — and seeing him sing along to every word for a second time was as much a highlight for me as anything happening on stage.

A great night at a great venue, with a great group of friends and family. The kind of three-band bill that you don't get often, and we got perfect weather to enjoy all of it.