nice story, tell it to reader’s digest
Posted by Indacelio on Monday, 17 of September , 2007 at 1:15 am
There is one band that I believe will continue to reign until the end of time; they have reigned as masters of the thrash metal scene that their frontman created, for almost 30 years, and with the health and musicianship of its members at a level that has been unmatched in almost a decade, they will most likely continue to reign as the biggest and most welcomed metal band in San Francisco’s history. Who is this band?
None other than Megadeth, who returned to San Francisco for the third time in the last few years on Tuesday, September 11th — an auspicious day that invoked the curiosity of metal fans who know how politically charged Dave Mustaine, the band’s charismatic frontman, has always been. Would there be a speech? Special once-in-a-lifetime performances of classic tracks? The anticipation had come to a head as two thousand metalheads marched into the Warfield Theatre, raving and shouting for mayhem and music; indeed, the crowd was several times more violent than the last time I saw Megadeth at the Warfield, back in 2004, and restless in the anticipation of their heroes.
A ubiquitous law at a metal show — especially one where the headliner has been around long enough to carve its name into the history of forming the genre — is that no matter whom the opening band is, no matter how good they may or may not be, they will be universally hated by the audience, until the main act steps up to show the rest of the bands “how it’s done.” That being said, the performance by openers The Confession — an Orange County based band that threw together every metal cliché they could muster into an enthusiastic performance — was almost entirely ill-received, with belligerent thrashers flipping the band members off instead of “throwing up the horns”. While the music was decent, the band just couldn’t make the crowd respond; their attitude began to seep through near the end of the set, so it was a slight relief to the calmer members of the audience when they left.
Hailing from Megadeth’s home of Los Angeles, California, the members of metalcore band In This Moment decided not to take their status as “openers” lying down — the band was nearly twice as energetic as their evening predecessors, and the appearance of singer Maria Brink — dressed for all the world like a twisted Alice In Wonderland — was much more well-received by the testosterone-ridden crowd. While the band’s music also received a better response than those before them, the excitement of their uniqueness wore off quickly and gave way to an even more restless crowd, who formed numerous, small mosh pits, the circles growing in size and violence as the set continued, before turning into a massive spread of grabbing, punching arms as the band finished their enthusiastic set.
It can be easily said that when the house lights snapped off for the third time that evening, signalling the arrival of Mustaine and his fellow mischief makers, the roars and screams had reached a tumultuous volume. Seconds into the opening riffs of Megadeth’s first song, the newly-written “Sleepwalker”, the floor went absolutely rabid with chaos. The smallish mosh pits formed for the openers merged into a large abyss of violence, with innocent bystanders left and right being grabbed by the metalheads, who seemed to be out for blood, such adrenaline fueled only by the blistering music that echoed relentlessly through the theatre. And it didn’t stop there; the thrill of Mustaine’s new work had barely faded when it was replaced by another, as the band roared into three more classics, with no break in between: “Take No Prisoners”, “Wake Up Dead”, and “Skin O’ My Teeth”.
Mustaine was surprisingly talkative to the crowd as the night wore on and on; after a brief hello and request for acknowledgement of the day (”We must never forget what happened… we must not let them allow us to forget what they’ve done since that day…”), Megadeth tore through more of their catalogue, old and new, before coming to the speech of the night. Mustaine preempted his next new song, “Washington’s Next!”, with a discussion of the conflicts, the conspiracy, and all of the war that had come out of the tragic events that had happened six years ago on that same fateful Tuesday, in 2001; surprisingly, it was well-received by everyone, even the cynics and naysayers who seemed to prefer when Dave stayed off of his political soapbox.
Following a thundering set, including classics like “Hangar 18″, “Tornado Of Souls”, and “Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?”, the band finally closed the first part of their set with “Symphony of Destruction”. Returning for a killer encore with “Holy Wars… The Punishment Due”, the band suddenly gearshifted halfway through the song into an even greater classic — “Mechanix”, a killer piece from the band’s debut album. The combination of two long-loved masterpieces merged into one epic piece was enough to drive the metalheads in the theatre to a point of disorder that no one had thought possible; the air was positively thick with adrenaline as the bodies across the floor jumped, thrashed, punched, kicked, and slammed against each other in the throes of song.
And then, it was over; another night of chaos, of blood, of metal. Though I was barely alive for the band’s commencement and their kickoff of the thrash scene, I thoroughly believe that tonight, like the other 3 Megadeth shows I’ve been to in the last three years, was quite a lot like the metal days of many years past. With the 90-minute, monstrous setlist coming to a final close, the band locked arms and took a bow for their army of followers, which was greeted with cheers of a volume not yet heard that night. Mustaine himself said it best, to finally bring the evening to a close…
“You’ve been great. We’ve been Megadeth. Goodnight!”
Category: Concert Reviews
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