MUSIC

Judas Priest

If you took a recording of Judas Priest's Thursday night performance at Nissan Pavilion and played it backward, the subliminal message encoded therein would probably be something like "Hey! Could we please get a glass of prune juice up here pronto?"

For many of the acts on the "Metal Masters" tour -- Testament, Motorhead, Heaven and Hell, and Judas Priest -- the chance to expire in a blaze of self-destructive rock-and-roll glory ended 30 years ago.

When Heaven and Hell vocalist Ronnie James Dio stood next to a steam-spewing gargoyle and sang "Live for today/tomorrow never comes/die young" it was readily apparent that the singer hadn't followed his own advice. Dio is now 66 years old. Tomorrow has arrived.

Not that anybody was really pretending otherwise. Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford thanked "Defenders of the Priest" for 35 years of support. Priest's set made no effort to update the campy sound or image that the group employed during its '80s heyday. Weighted down by a heavy leather frock, Halford gyrated like an anxious linebacker as he howled the lyrics of "Screaming for Vengeance" and "Breaking the Law."

At one point -- in a time-honored Judas Priest tradition -- Halford rode onto the stage atop a Harley-Davidson to perform "Hell Bent for Leather," causing a thousand faces to scrunch simultaneously. But the heavy machinery couldn't hide the wear and tear of being a 56-year-old metal maniac. Halford remained seated for the duration of the song.

-- Aaron Leitko

Janis Ian

It hasn't been easy being Janis Ian. Catapulted to world fame (and controversy) before she was 16, the singer-songwriter went on to sell more than 10 million records and win multiple Grammy Awards. But then the dark days arrived -- abusive marriage, financial ruin, daunting health problems -- followed, finally, by happiness, with her 2003 marriage to longtime partner Patricia Snyder.

Now gray-haired at 57, Ian recalled that roller-coaster life on Thursday night at the Birchmere, in a gentle but frequently compelling performance that blurred the line between story and song. Thankfully, she's no longer the self-absorbed teenager of her breakout 1967 hit, "Society's Child." Instead, Ian has grown into a funny, self-effacing and slightly rueful storyteller, dropping a few famous names here and there but focusing more on the challenges of ordinary life.

And though she sang only a dozen songs over the two-hour set, she gave each one a thoughtful, lengthy introduction that added powerfully to the impact. Alone onstage with a black acoustic guitar, Ian talked about being booed off the stage as a teenager by racist hecklers while singing "Society's Child," about recovering from heartbreak with "Silly Habits," about the slow death of her mother from multiple sclerosis (addressed in "I Hear You Sing Again") and about hitting bottom ("Days Like These").

She also sang her most famous hits, including drop-dead-beautiful versions of "Jesse" and the iconic "At Seventeen." But her hilarious, quick-witted "My Autobiography" may have been the most charming song of the evening -- especially its suggestion that Sigourney Weaver play her in the movie version of her life.

-- Stephen Brookes