[DID NOT ATTEND: January 31, 2023] Anthrax / Black Label Society / Exodus
Anthrax is the only band of the classic heavy metal landscape that I’ve never seen (who I want to see, anyhow). I thought seeing them in Montclair would be an easy decision. They’re back to almost their original lineup (okay, not original, but “classic” lineup). And I thought a Tuesday night show less than an hour away would be perfect.
They had played this tour in Philly back in August and I just wasn’t feeling it. I don’t really care about Black Label Society, and it just felt like a lot of work. But a close show seemed like a much better idea.
S. said she’d like to go too, so I got us both a ticket. About a month ago I found out that it had sold out. And I realized that I didn’t really want to go to a sold out metal show at the Wellmont. I assumed it would be well attended, but a sold out show gave me visions of the worst metalheads all smashing around each other and it suddenly felt really unappealing.
When I saw that it had sold out, I figured it would be an opportunity to sell my tickets and get my money back. When I saw what people were reselling their tickets for, I realized that I might even make a couple dollars off of it. So I undersold the other tickets and quickly got rid of these tickets.
I guess I’ll probably never see Anthrax, and that’s okay. I haven’t listened to anything they’ve released in twenty years anyhow, so I really should have seen them in the 1990s.
Black Label Society is the band created by Zakk Wylde. I’ve never cared about him and his silly name (although I didn’t realize he was from Bayonne, so that’s kind of cool). I now he played with Ozzy, but that was long after I cared about Ozzy too, so whatever. When this tour was announced, I listened to couple of songs and thought they were okay. Their presence on the bill definitely impacted my decision not to go. If it had been a band I liked more, I might have stuck it out.
Exodus is one of the few classic metal bands that everyone loves that I never really liked. I’m not sure why but they never did anything for me. I have since seen Gary Holt play with Slayer and his guitar playing was great. But I didn’t feel the need to see his band.
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