An old school thrash metal triple bill of Megadeth headlining with openers Anthrax and Exodus, hell yeah, count me in. When this show was announced, it was a must see for me.
So Cuz, Nazz and I were off to see this show at the dreaded Rogers Place here in Edmonton. With tickets under a hundred bucks for this, even if we were in the upper deck, that's alright, the price was right to see these three bands. This was the fifth show of Megadeth's cross Canada tour.
Starting out the evening was Bay area thrash pioneers Exodus. I was super stoked to finally get to see Exodus live. And the band did what they were supposed to do, they got the crowd thrashing and moshing right from the get go. Though their sound was a little muddy, at least from where we were sitting. Nonetheless, it was great to see Gary Holt ripping it up on stage. After reading his memoir A Fabulous Disaster: From the Garage to Madison Square Garden, we're very lucky that he is still playing, not only with his band Exodus, but he also plays guitar in Slayer.
The second song into their set was the title song from their 1985 album Bonded By Blood. Man it was awesome to hear that song in concert. Lead vocalist Rob Dukes who is on his second stint as lead vocalist sounded great. Following that song with "The Beatings Will Continue (Until Morale Improves)", we were off to a great start. The second last song of their way too short half hour set was "The Toxic Waltz" another song I was stoked that they played, the band teased us with the opening riff of the Slayer song "Raining Blood" before breaking into Toxic Waltz. Closing their six song set with another song from their debut album playing "Strike Of the Beast". A good portion of the crowd were in their seats for Exodus,other than those that were in the ridiculously long line-ups for $70 t-shirts. We were in for an evening of loud thrash metal.
Next band up was New York band Anthrax, another old school thrash band that have been doing this since 1981 with their debut album Fistful Of Metal coming out in 1984. This would be my 4th time seeing Anthrax live and the band I was most looking forward to seeing again out of this triple bill. Last time I saw them in concert was in 2005 on the Gigantour, coincidentally was with Megadeth.
Anthrax hit the stage running opening their set with "Among The Living", a great start with Scott "Not Ian ripping it up and lead singer Joey Belladonna sounding and looking great, the guy hasn't aged one bit. Then an oldie "A.I.R." from the Spreading The Disease album, they actually played two songs from that album which was great to hear, the other one being "Madhouse", again the pit in front of the stage was in full mosh. Third song in was the Joe Jackson cover of "Got The Time" which was heavy as fuck. Then into "Caught In A Mosh", Anthrax were killing it. Another cool surprise was hearing them do "Metal Thrashing Mad" from their 1984 debut album Fistful Of Metal, an album that Joey Belladonna wasn't even the singer on. Other songs played in the hour long set were "Indians", "I Am The Law" and "Antisocial". Such an amazing set from these thrash veterans.
Headlining the evening of course was Megadeth. This would be my 6th time seeing Megadeth in concert, and like every other time I have seen them, Dave Mustaine has always got a different band backing him up. Megadeth just released was it is supposedly going to be his last album ever the self titled album which is their seventeenth album. This is also going to be the last tour that they are doing. I highly doubt that, but time will tell.
The band opened with a new song called "Tipping Point", the first thing I noticed though was that the sound was incredibly muddy. I thought maybe it was just because of where we were sitting, but having talked to a few others that were at the show, they said the same thing. Another thing I noticed, especially from where we were seated was how bare the stage was. Dave later in the show mentioned that one of their production trailers was involved in an accident on the way to Edmonton, so that might explain it. It took the band about five songs before the sound got better.
I also found Dave's vocals not to all that great, but then he has never really had a strong voice to start with. But he has also been through throat cancer in 2019 and is now cancer free, which is awesome to hear. So it's understandable why his vocals might not be all that strong and why he is calling this years tour his last.
The last Megadeth album I have bought was 1992's Countdown To Extinction, so there were some songs played that I'm not familiar with. Megadeth did do a good job of covering their career, even playing "Mechanix" a song from their very first album Killing Is My Business...And Business Is Good. I was very happy to hear a couple songs from the Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? album, which is my favourite album of theirs, those songs being "Peace Sells" and "Wake Up Dead". They also did some songs from the Rust In Peace album which was a strong album, the ones I recall were "Hangar 18", "Holy Wars" and "Tornado Of Souls". Also played was "In My Darkest Hour" from the So Far, So Good...So What album. I'd liked to have heard a few more from that album, but to no avail. Of course he had to play "Symphony Of Destruction" and "Sweating Bullets". The guitarist he has with him on this tour a guy by the name of Teemu Mantysaari was really fucking good. Another new song he did from their latest album was "Let There Be Shred" which I find to be a very corny song. All and all though the crowd of, my guess being about 10,000 thoroughly enjoyed themselves. A fun show of three thrash metal legendary bands. Good times!!!
T-shirt front.
T-shirt back.
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