LIVE REVIEW: KK's Priest / Tailgunner - Tramshed, Cardiff 19/08/24

Sunday evening in the Welsh Capital and a steady stream of punters make their way to the Tramshed in Cardiff’s inner city on the Riverside / Grangetown border. A now well-established venue with a capacity of 1000, tonight sees two bands at very different stages of their careers, but both following the same pathway in terms of sound and attitude. 

If you’ve not caught a listen to Guns for Hire, the debut album by Tailgunner, then it’s something that you may wish to rectify. Bringing heavy metal back to the masses, one fan at a time is the band’s motto. Live, they’ve been relentlessly touring since Guns for Hire was released. They’ve just played the Sophie Lancaster Tent at Bloodstock in front of around 4000 fans, whilst they are just as comfortable around the corner playing to 35 hardy souls at Fuel Rock Club. 

The strains of Zorba the Greek announce the band’s arrival on stage, and for the next 45 minutes the band deliver with high energy and a powerful, passionate performance which wins over most in the crowd new to the band. They draw as usual from their limited catalogue, but it’s all good as we sing along to the title track, the impressive Crashdive, and White Death. It’s a frantic set, for the band don’t stop moving about, and at times it’s hard to keep up. 

Main culprit is bassist Thomas Hewson, a frenzied player in the style of Steve Harris and Pete Way, whose looks he also has modelled. He’s not there yet of course, but Hewson’s driving desire is important in the band’s progress. He links in well with the main engine of the band, Jani Pasanen, who has only joined the band this year. The dual guitars of Rhea Thompson and Zak Salvini battle it out, notably in their version of In the Hall of the Mountain King, whilst singer Craig Cairns has rock star written all over him. It’s a blistering set, with added props during Revolution Scream. 

For those who have seen Tailgunner before, one of the questions would have been “are they going to play Painkiller”. The answer is met with “no”, as they sensibly switch to Dio’s Don’t Talk to Strangers. Entertaining and enjoyable, it’s another marker in the band’s development and it’ll be interesting to see how the Stonededead crowd responds on Saturday. 

I’ll admit to being unimpressed by the two albums that KK’s Priest have released to date. Over-produced, cliché ridden and somewhat uninspiring in titles, they didn’t do much for me. Having seen Judas Priest twice this year and having spent some time with Invincible Shield which is possibly their strongest album of all time, it was with some trepidation that I waited to see what happened. I needn’t have worried. KK’s Priest took the gauntlet the upstarts in Tailgunner had thrown down and slapped them back across their cherubic faces with a strong 90-minute set that included songs from both albums and a decent selection of Priest classics. 

The crowd has swelled although Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens is still scathing about the promotion of the show. They enter with their dramatic and gloriously over the top intro which introduces each of the band members KK Downing hits the stage and starts the riff for the magnificently macho Hellfire Thunderbolt. From here it’s a raging torrent of heavy metal that demands audience engagement. 

The new stuff sounds great, much better than on record, whilst Priest classics like Ripper, a massive Sinner and Night Crawler as well as Burn in Hell all go down a storm. But it’s the gorgeous version of Before the Storm from Killing Machine, which is being played for the first time live that grabs the attention of everyone in the room. It’s stunning and worth attending just to hear it. 

Ripper isn’t my favourite singer, but he goes a mile towards impressing me with a massive performance. Elsewhere, the energy of bassist Tony Newton matches that of junior Hewson, whilst the combination of Downing and AJ Mills provides a stellar axe attack. Inevitably it’s Breaking the Law and Sinner that close the main set, before a rousing Raise Your Fists concludes things. With KK’s Priest also at Stonedead, this performance has gone a huge way to ensuring that I see them again … soon!

Review and photos by Hutch