It's usually taken as a bad sign when a band downsizes from arenas to smaller venues, but that may not hold true anymore in the case of metal groups who scale back to Maplewood's mammoth nightclub Myth.

British metal gods Judas Priest came to the suburban rock hall Saturday night after playing St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center in 2005, following a permanent reunion with original singer Rob Halford. This time, both the crowd and the band appeared to be more into the show, and instead of a half-empty venue (as Xcel was three years ago), Myth was packed to its fog-machine-spewing rafters with 4,000-plus rabid fans.

Mötley Crüe and Marilyn Manson each made the same arena-to-Myth transition in recent years with similarly improved results, and the Scorpions will give it a shot Friday. One of the advantages of these shows: The change in venues whittles the audience down to diehards only.

Saturday's Priest crowd was the kind that went as ga-ga over such hits as "You've Got Another Thing Coming" and "Breaking the Law" as it did for long-buried nuggets such as "Metal Gods," "Sinner" and -- say it with me now -- "The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown)."

Probably aware it was playing to the faithful, the band got away without performing some of its heavily trodden singles, including "Living After Midnight," "Heading Out to the Highway" and "Turbo Lover." The 100-minute concert instead blended songs off two recent CDs with older deep-album cuts, including "Dissident Aggressor," "Eat Me Alive" and "Devil's Child."

Coming to the Myth from arena tours has at least one disadvantage, though, which befell Priest: Its stage setup was too big for the venue. The drum riser was closer to the club's roof than it was the floor. Halford would climb the stairs to platforms in the rear corners and disappear altogether from much of the crowd's sightlines. Also, his trademark motorcycle ride on stage for the encore covered a measly 4- or 5-foot swath.

Halford made a flashier entrance at the start of the show, though, wearing a hooded, gold-lamé robe that could have been part of Cher's new Vegas act. He proceeded to change jackets every few songs. Guitarists K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton, meanwhile, looked like they were still wearing the same all-leather outfits they've had since 1978.

Musically, though, the dueling guitarists have held up a little better than Halford. They shredded their guitar necks with the muscle and velocity that Halford, 56, couldn't often muster out of his vocal cords. No matter, though. This crowd knew the songs well enough to hit many of the notes for him.

Chris Riemenschneider • 612-673-4658