Flight 666 and High Priest – Upping the Irons and Delivering the Goods at the Tuscany!

Flight 666 and High Priest played the Copa Room inside the Tuscany Hotel and Casino on Saturday, September 13, 2025.

In recent months, following the closure of Count’s Vamp’d, many other venues have been stepping up to fill the void left by that iconic spot’s absence. One such venue is the Copa Room, located inside the Tuscany Hotel (this Copa Room is not to be confused with the similarly named venue at the Bootlegger restaurant, which has also been hosting rock shows following the closure of Vamp’d). As the past few weeks have passed by, there have been rock shows most weekends, sometimes more than once in a weekend. And it’s a wide and diverse mix of entertainment!

Last Saturday saw two of my favorite heavy metal tribute bands taking the stage: Flight 666, a tribute to Iron Maiden, and High Priest, a tribute to Judas Priest. Both bands take a slightly unconventional approach to paying tribute, with more of an emphasis on deep album cuts. Being a die-hard fan of both groups, this is definitely my idea of a good time at a rock show; I’ve heard the hits enough!

One issue that does need to be addressed before I get on to covering the actual music: The concert started 30 minutes late! The Copa Room is a great spot, but the room is shared with many other performers, including a Rat Pack tribute show. This often means that artists who are setting up have less time to do so and to perform their sound checks. The problem I have here isn’t so much the late start time, but rather, the fact that patrons of the venue had to stand in a line outside the venue, on the casino floor, for an additional half hour, being subjected to cigarette smoke the whole time. I don’t understand why fans attending the show couldn’t simply be allowed inside during the sound check, especially given the health hazards that come from nicotine smoke. Fortunately, this is my only major complaint with an otherwise excellent night.

High Priest took the stage first. I’ve seen more than a few Judas Priest tribute bands in my time. High Priest isn’t even the only one in Las Vegas! But they definitely score points for their setlists which revolve around deep cuts. Any Priest cover band can do the three or so mainstream rock radio hits American audiences know them for (and in fact, this band didn’t perform any of those!) It was music to my ears to hear a band playing cuts like “Jawbreaker,” “Victim of Changes,” “Diamonds and Rust,” “Saints in Hell,” and “Night Crawler.” And this room full of headbangers was equally enthused!

The musicians in High Priest have a great chemistry as well, including vocalist David Fisher (who has also sung in a local Dio tribute band), drummer Max Fermandez (who replaced previous drummer Robert Wiggin following his moving away from Vegas), and guitarists Marc Mersol and Andrew Heilman. A highlight of the evening was them encouraging fans to come rock out by the stage, with so many patrons staying behind the small “dance floor” area. Will you ever mistake these guys for the real band? Probably not, but when they’re playing deep Priest cuts with this level of passion and enthusiasm, does it matter? They’re one of my favorite bands in Vegas, tribute or otherwise.

The second set brought Flight 666 to the Copa Room stage, paying homage to the music of the mighty Iron Maiden! Fronted by Robert Hussey (who sings in no fewer than four bands I can name off the top of my head), This group delivers the ferocity and the heaviness of Maiden, while also bringing a nice mix of hits and deep cuts to the mix.

Robert Hussey is not only one of my favorite musicians in Sin City; he’s also a guy who surrounds himself with superb players. That was no exception on this evening at the Tuscany. His musicians even paid homage to some of their other favorite bands with instruments honoring the likes of Paul Stanley and the late Eddie Van Halen, but make no mistake; this evening was all about Maiden.

Hussey’s vocals are top notch; I truly believe Motley Crue should replace Vince Neil with this guy. The setlist was a fantastic combination of the more obvious selections and the lesser-heard ones. Clearly the band has an appreciation for the band’s 1986 opus, SOMEWHERE IN TIME, with their intro music and playing some fantastic tunes from that album beyond the obvious, including “Caught Somewhere in Time” and “Sea of Madness.” Joining the band on stage for part of their set was special guest Jeff Tortora of Tinnitus and Count’s 77, who showed off his love for these titans of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal as well.

Late start time aside, this was a killer night of rock and roll dedicated to keeping the music of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest alive. Headbangers in the City of Sin owe it to themselves to check out Flight 666 and High Priest, who continue to up the irons and deliver the goods. Don’t miss their next gigs!

PHOTO CREDIT: Live photos by Taylor T. Carlson for ZRockR Magazine – (c) 2025 – All Rights Reserved.