Metal masters Alice Cooper, Judas Priest rock Pittsburgh

A pair of bands with more than 100 years combined experience showed no signs of slowing down Wednesday night.

In a double bill at the Pavilion at Star Lake in Burgettstown, shock rocker Alice Cooper and heavy metal pioneers Judas Priest put on a full display of entertaining rock in their co-headlining tour.

A bruising performance from Judas Priest might be a tough act to follow for most bands, but the experienced Cooper’s theatrical hard rock proved up to task.

Sure, there’s some campiness to Cooper’s stage show, whether it was dancing with a female dummy during “Cold Ethyl,” stabbing a paparazzi member with a mic stand in “Hey Stoopid” or using maracas made to look like bones and skulls in “Muscle of Love.” Plus there’s his nightly decapitation by his real-life wife on “Second Coming”/”Going Home” and a giant Frankenstein puppet for “Feed My Frankenstein.”

But Cooper commands attention, using a crutch as a prop on “I’m Eighteen” or taking the spotlight while on his knees in a straitjacket for “Ballad of Dwight Fry.”

With his signature raspy voice, Cooper’s setlist ran the gamut from 1970s rock (“Caught in a Dream”) to ’80s hair metal (“Poison”) to the industrial metal of 2005’s “Dirty Diamonds” on a stage set up as his attic.

The stellar backing band — guitarists Ryan Roxie, Tommy Henriksen and Nita Strauss, bassist Chuck Garric and drummer Glen Sobel — pitched in on background vocals and had plenty of individual moments, with all three guitarists taking turns on solos during “Spark in the Dark” and “Brutal Planet.” Strauss, whose appearance mimicked that of being drenched in blood, got her own solo after “Poison.”

“Feed My Frankenstein” sounded beefed up, giving off an almost-White Zombie feel, while “Only Women Bleed” showed off a softer side. Cooper closed the night with his classic “School’s Out,” adding a portion of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall, Pt. 2.”

Judas Priest, with all five members dressed in black, brought the firepower in their 75-minute set, opening with the pummeling “All Guns Blazing.”

Singer Rob Halford showed he could still hit the high notes on “Hell Patrol,” while the group blasted through heavier-than-the-original versions of “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’” and “Breaking the Law” later.

Guitarists Richie Faulkner and Andy Sneap often used the Flying V favored by former Priest guitarist K.K. Downing, with Faulkner ripping off a solo with his guitar pointed to the sky during “Gates of Hell.”

Bassist Ian Hill and drummer Scott Travis stayed in the background for the most part, but the rhythm section drives a lot of Priest’s music.

With a second song from the band’s “Invincible Shield” album, Judas Priest paid tribute to musicians who have died.

“Tonight’s about music. Music is with us from the time we arrive to the time we go someplace else,” Halford said. “A lot of us go there (points up) and a few go down there (points down). Music is eternal. Music has the power to gather through every single moment in life, and we are blessed by the greats that made that music. And some of those greats have gone from what we call the earth plane to the sky plane, where they become giants, giants in the sky.”

While they played “Giants in the Sky,” the video screen featured images of Ronnie James Dio, Lemmy Kilmister, Freddie Mercury, Chris Cornell and more, closing with two pictures of Ozzy Osbourne.

Judas Priest closed their regular set with “Painkiller,” with Halford hunched over to hit all the high-pitched screams.

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For the encore, Halford rode a Harley-Davidson motorcycle onto the stage for “Hell Bent for Leather” followed by a lengthy “Living After Midnight,” with Halford changing a lyric to include Pittsburgh.

The opener: Veteran metal band Corrosion of Conformity kicked off the night with a half hour of sludgy heaviness, including “Vote With a Bullet” with a lyric localized to Pennsylvania.

The “young” ones of the night — the group formed in 1982 in North Carolina — closed with the one-two punch of “Albatross” and “Clean My Wounds.”

Singer Pepper Keenan, who announced a new album for the group would come out in March, took a moment to bring his wife on stage to celebrate their wedding anniversary.

Missing out: With a career spanning more than 60 years, it would have been impossible for Cooper to play all of his biggest songs. Notable omissions included “Billion Dollar Babies,” “Under My Wheels” and “Welcome to My Nightmare,” as well as personal favorite “Freedom” from 1987’s “Raise Your Fist and Yell.”

Cooper also skipped any songs from “The Revenge of Alice Cooper” album, released in July and featuring the surviving members of his original band.

Judas Priest hit the majority of their most well-known songs, with the exceptions of “Victim of Changes,” “Metal Gods,” “Turbo Lover” and their cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown).”

The merch: T-shirts for all three bands were $50 each, with hoodies running $80 — that might have been a necessary purchase for some as temperatures dropped to the high 40s by the night’s end.

A Judas Priest signed lithograph was $100, and a Corrosion of Conformity license plate was $20 — with a Alice Cooper snake and bear plushies at $40 apiece.

A look at the merch for tonight’s show with Alice Cooper, Judas Priest and Corrosion of Conformity at the Pavilion at Star Lake pic.twitter.com/c90vgJmukl

— Mike Palm (@MikePalmMedia) October 1, 2025

Last time here: Judas Priest last played Pittsburgh on Oct. 18, 2014, with a show at the Petersen Events Center on their Redeemer of Souls tour, although they have played at the Covelli Centre in Youngstown, Ohio, three times in that span.

Cooper played here on Sept. 3, 2024, on a co-headlining tour with Rob Zombie at Star Lake.

Out of action: Judas Priest guitarist Glenn Tipton, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2008, isn’t touring with the band anymore, although he made an appearance in July at a London show to play on the band’s final song, “Living After Midnight.”

Sneap, who produced “Firepower” and “Invincible Shield,” has taken Tipton’s place on the road.

Judas Priest and Osbourne teamed up for a new rendition of Black Sabbath’s classic “War Pigs,” with the track officially dropping last Friday. Osbourne, who also had Parkinson’s and died in July, and Halford trade vocals on the track. All profits from the song will be donated to the Glenn Tipton Parkinson’s Foundation and Cure Parkinson’s. A shortened version of the original played before Judas Priest hit the stage Wednesday.

Last of the season: Wednesday night’s show was the 20th, and final, of the Star Lake season, which started back on May 25 with Pierce the Veil and included acts like Pantera, Luke Bryan, Avril Lavigne, Wiz Khalifa, Hardy and Twenty One Pilots.

Two shows have been announced already for 2026: MGK on June 10 and Riley Green on June 26.