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Archive for the ‘Megadeth’ Category

Iron Maiden (Sports Illustrated Stadium, Newark, NJ, September 6, 2026)

Posted in Anthrax, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Newark, NJ, Set in New Jersey!, Sports Illustrated Stadium on September 8, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 6, 2026] Iron Maiden

I loved these three bands back in the 1980s.  Not in the above order (Anthrax was always near the top), but I never seen them when I was a huge fan.  I saw Iron Maiden in 2000 but I didn’t know most of the songs they played that night–until the end.

When this tour was announced I didn’t really think about going–I haven’t been enjoying heavy metal shows as much as I used to and I haven’t listened to anything new from Iron Maiden in about 30 years.  But then I saw that this show was going to be an old-school tour with songs from their first decade of music.  Iron Maiden thru Fear of the Dark (I didn’t even know FotD was one of their albums).

I was able to grab a ticket for the second night–the first sold out pretty quickly.  I don’t know if the second night did, too, but Bruce said it did.

The first two bands were great but I decided to move away from the mosh pit that kept forming in front of me, so while we waited for Iron Maiden, I moved to the middle of the GA section.  The people around me were shorter (good) and I patiently waited.  (Oof, after the long fast walk and the fact that as of yet I had not gone to the bathroom I was a but cranky.  I also didn’t want to lose my spot to get a $7 water.  I know the water price because when a dad came back with water for his son and himself, I asked how much it was and he told me.  He then let me have the last inch and a half when he was done–thank you kind stranger!  This guy was really nice and I enjoyed chatting with him until the lights went out and music started.

It was Doctor Doctor by UFO.  I had seen that this was the music they played before the band came on.  But since they had been playing music the whole time, it was weird to have this song start, the lights dim and….nothing.  I don’t know the song and it felt endless and some people were into it and I stood there wondering when I’d have something to look at.

And then the familiar chords of Iron Maiden’s The Ides of March started and the video screen followed a series of streets with ALL KINDS of inside jokes.  I knew about 3 of them.  The image shifted to that of Eddie on the cover of Killers and the band started the quiet intro of Murders in the Rue Morgue and I was ecstatic for about a minute because as soon as the song started properly, the entire right side of the GA erupted into a mosh pit–and we were pretty far back at this point.  WTF.  Do people not know where the pit is supposed to be?  Well, I got elbowed a few times until I was able to get away.

This opening was my heaven, because I love the first two album so much and Bruce sings these songs perfectly, even if they’re not “his.” (more…)

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Megadeth (Sports Illustrated Stadium, Newark, NJ, September 6, 2026) [IRON MAIDEN]

Posted in Anthrax, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Newark, NJ, Set in New Jersey!, Sports Illustrated Stadium on September 7, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 6, 2026] Megadeth

As a huge metal fan back in the 80s, I loved Megadeth.  I have their first four albums and probably played them all to deth.  I never had a Meadeth v Metallica problem because they were both great and if Dave Mustaine has stayed in Metallica we wouldn’t have Peace Sell, for instance.

I stopped listening to Megadeth in 1990 and really never went back.  Over the last 30 years or so I have enjoyed laughing at how petty and vindictive Mustaine is. About nearly everything.

I never had any interest in seeing them live.  But since they were playing I did start to look forward to it a bit.  Regardless of my thoughts on Dave, he is an icon and has made some amazing songs over the years.

Dave has had myriad health problems over the years, including throat cancer (he is now cancer free) and recently Dupuytren’s contracture which kind of cramps your hand in locked positions.  He has basically said that this will be his last tour.

I didn’t know what Megadeth was going to play.  And I assumed it would be a whole bunch of stuff that I didn’t know.  But in keeping with the tour’s theme, the songs were all from albums I knew (except for one new song, Tipping Point which I feel like I’ve heard, but how could I have?)

Megadeth has gone through a ton of lineup changes over the years and it is basically just Dave’s band (other’s have complained that there were a few people who have been in the band long enough to be considered proper members, but they are all gone).

They played the new song first and I was really impressed by the guitar playing of both Mustaine and new guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari (who is Finnish).  Dave’s voice sounded terrible.  I don’t know if he was undermic’d or if we were in a bad spot but he was almost inaudible.  I did wonder if it was because of his illnesses or if it was a technical problem.  By the end of the set he was more audible.

I was intrigued by their drummer Dirk Verbeuren (who is Belgian) because he was very flashy and I imagined he was from L.A.  Bassist James LoMenzo is the only other American player (it does make me wonder if he burned bridges with everyone else in the States).

They played the next song, Hangar 18 but I didn’t recognize it.  It’s possible that I don’t know Rust in Peace as well as I thought, but listening to it now, I do remember it pretty well.  It may have been the vocals that threw me off.  I do love that in nearly every song, Dave and Teemu switch off between little guitar solos–much shredding.

They followed it with Take No Prisoners, another song I should have known better.  I was never bored during these songs, so I imagine part of me vaguely recognized them.  Interestingly, it was Seating Bullets, from an album I don’t have, that I recognized more–airplay somewhere?   Actually I just looked at the video and it was entirely familiar.  The opening of the song, Hello me, it’s me again” spoken in Dave’s gritty voice makes me imagine him reading a bedtime story to his grandkids (he has at least one).  If he read Goodnight Moon, you’d assume the moon was going to be blown up.

He then said that they were going to play a song for all of those who were there last night.  Actually it was for all of the New Jersey, New York area.  It was a song that people have been asking them to play for ages.  It was Devil’s Island, which I didn’t recognize  the title of, but as soon as that guitar riff started and the crowd went bananas starting a massive mosh pit, I was pretty psyched to hear it.

I didn’t recognize Symphony of Destruction, but holy crap, with the bass opening of Peace Sells, my childhood came rushing back and I was super psyched to hear this one live.  Whaddya mean I ain’t kind?  I’m just not your kind.

They left the stage, which was kind of weird for an opening act.  So I guess technically this was an encore, but whatever you call it, when they started up Holy Wars, I was super psyched because I’m guessing if I didn’t know all of Rust in Peace, I sure knew this song.  The riffage was great, the soloing was great and Dave even sounded good for this one.  They even did the acoustic guitar middle-eastern riff mid song (Teemu on a propped up acoustic guitar).

First mistake? Last mistake.

I really enjoyed this set and while I don’t wish that I had seen them when they were younger, it was still a great set and scratched an itch I didn’t know I had.

The night before they played She-Wolf instead of Take No Prisoners and The Conjuring instead of Devil’s Island [I got the better deal].

Tipping Point ∉
Hangar 18 ⊗
Take No Prisoners (Tour debut) ⊗
Sweating Bullets √
Devil’s Island (Tour debut) $
Tornado of Souls ⊗
Symphony of Destruction √
Peace Sells $
Encore
Holy Wars… The Punishment Due ⊗


∉ Megadeth (2026)
√ Countdown to Extinction (1992)
⊗ Rust in Peace (1990)
$ Peace Sells … But Who’s Buying? (1986)

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Anthrax (Sports Illustrated Stadium, Newark, NJ, September 6, 2026) [IRON MAIDEN]

Posted in Anthrax, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Newark, NJ, Set in New Jersey!, Sports Illustrated Stadium on September 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 6, 2026] Anthrax

I was a huge Iron Maiden fan starting with Number of the Beast.  But when Anthrax came out, I like them even more–I feel like they invented the word Mosh (probably not but hey certainly used it more than anyone else).  I liked that they were super heavy and also had a good sense of humor.

Amazingly, I had never seen them live.  Not sure how that happened.  Although in fairness, I haven’t really listened to them since the early 1990s.

But I really wanted to see them at least once.  Indeed, I probably wouldn’t have gone to this show if Anthrax weren’t opening (this was the only venue where they played).  So the fact that I almost missed them because of Newark police is insane.

They went on at 6:10 (originally 6:30) and I left my house at 4 for an hour drive.  And I walked onto the floor as the band played their first chord.  Because when I got near the Harrison bridge, the police rerouted my side of the road (if you were in the left lane, you got to cross the bridge.  If you were in the right lane, you had to go straight).  So I followed their detour and looped back around where I Was about to get on the bridge only to see that they closed off the onramp as well.  There were people crossing the bridge, but not us.  So we all had to drive past the bridge and go to one of the parking garages.  I happened to find one that was relatively close (and much cheaper) and then hoofed it back to the venue. (more…)

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Iron Maiden / Megadeth / Anthrax (Sports Illustrated Stadium, Newark, NJ, September 5, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Anthrax, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Newark, NJ, Set in New Jersey!, Sports Illustrated Stadium on September 5, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: September 5, 2026] Iron Maiden / Megadeth / Anthrax

I loved these three bands back in the 1980s.  Not on the above order (Anthrax was always near the top), but the only one of the three I’d seen was Iron Maiden.

When this tour was announced I didn’t really think about going–I haven’t been enjoying heavy metal shows as much as I used to and I haven’t listened to anything new from Iron Maiden in about 30 years.  But then I saw that this show was going to be an old-school tour with songs from their first decade of music.  Of course, I am so unfamiliar with Maiden’s post 1990s output that when it said from Iron Maiden to Fear of the Dark, I didn’t realize Fear of the Dark was even one of their albums(!).

Tickets were expensive, and I think the pit area sold out pretty fast.  If I was going to this show I didn’t want to be far away.  Then my friend Jae said that he was going and I was pretty surprised.  Then they added a second night and even though it would have been fun to go with Jae (he actually wound up being late and missed Anthrax entirely) so I grabbed a pit ticket for Sunday.

 

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Metal Evolution

Posted in Anthrax, Arthur Brown, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Deftones, Dream Theater, Faith No More, Genesis, Helloween, Iggy Pop, Iron Maiden, King Crimson, Korn, Marilyn Manson, Mastodon, MC5, Megadeth, Mercyful Fate, Metallica, Motorhead, Queensrÿche, Rage Against the Machine, Raven, Rush, Saxon, Sepultura, Slayer, The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Stooges, Tool, Venom, Yes, Yngwie Malmsteen on December 15, 2012| Leave a Comment »

[WATCHED October-November 2012] Metal Evolution

metal evolutionVH1 aired this series last year and I was intrigued by it but figured I had no time to watch an 11 hour series on the history of heavy metal.  Of course, this being VH1, they have since re-aired the series on an almost continual loop.  So, if you’re interested, you can always catch it.

This series was created by Sam Dunn, the documentary filmmaker who made the movie Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey.  I had heard good things about the movie, but never saw it.  After watching the series, I’m definitely interested in the movie.  Dunn is a keener–A Canadian heavy metal fan who is really into his subject.  He knows his stuff and he knows what he likes (heavy metal) and what he doesn’t like (glam metal, nu metal).

The sheer number of people he interviews is impressive (as are the number of locations he travels to).  Part of me says “wow, I can’t believe he was able to interview X,” and then I remember, “X is really old and is nowhere near the level of fame that he once had.”  Given that, the few hold-outs seem surprising–did they not want to have anything to do with VH1?  Are they embarrassed at how uncool they are now?  Just watch the show guys, you can’t be as low as some.

The only mild criticism I have is that the show relies a lot on the same talking heads over and over.  Scott Ian from Anthrax, whom I love, is in every episode.  Indeed, he may be a paid VH1 spokesman at this point.  There are a few other dudes who show up a little more than they warrant, but hey, you use what you got, right?

What is impressive is the volume of music he includes with the show.  I assume that he couldn’t  get the rights to any studio recordings because every clip is live.  This is good for fans in that we get to see some cool unfamiliar live footage, but some of it is current live footage which often doesn’t compare to the heyday.  Having said that, there’s a lot of live footage from the early 80s–of bands that I never saw live anywhere.  And that’s pretty awesome.

With an 11-part documentary there’s the possibility of exhaustion and overkill, but Dunn is an excellent craftsman  he jumps around from old to new, talks about how the history impacts the current and, because of his own interests, he makes it personal rather than just informative. (more…)

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Simon Garfield–Just My Type: A Book About Fonts (2011)

Posted in Anthrax, Fonts, Megadeth, Metallica, Research, Simon Garfield, Slayer on September 18, 2012| 3 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK:  SLAYER-Live from Sonisphere 2011 (Palladia TV 2012).

Did I get into heavy metal because I loved typography or was it the other way around?  All metal bands love creating logos, and images that resonate with their music.  Nearly every metal band that I liked had a logo, easy to identify from a distance.  Perfect for marketing.The Metallica logo is pretty iconic, but the Slayer logo moves it up a step–crazy lettering with swords that almost make a pentagram.

When I was a young metalhead, Slayer was like forbidden fruit–so evil it was scary.  I love how this video dispels this image of the band.  Kerry King talking about “the kids,” and look how much Tom Araya is smiling through the whole set.  Never has anyone been happier singing the word “eviscerated.”

This show was during the Big 4 tour–Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer and Metallica.  So Slayer performs a few of their more popular songs.  I actually don’t know how long their set was, but this thirty show must have contained about half of it.

And the band sounds really good–still playing really fast (Dave Lombardo on drums is a madman).  It also makes me laugh to think of Kerry King back in the early days having a leather bracelet with 4 inch ten-penny nails sticking out of it.  Now he’s just got a huge chain hanging from his belt (and a shaved, tattooed head and a very very long goatee).  Gary Holt from Exodus is replacing Jeff Hannemann for this tour because Jeff has Necrotizing fasciitis (which sounds like a Slayer song anyhow)

The Palladia show isn’t online, but there’s another show from this Big 4 Tour recorded in Chile that’s online.  And the interview with Tom Araya at around 11:30 is amazing,  Tom is such a nice, soft-spoken guy–and he was given the key to the city!  Incredible to hear him scream like that.  (And I see that Kerry has the nail bracelet on for the first song in this show too).

I’m also very pleased to see how many fans are wearing earplugs.  Not metal, but sensible.

[READ: September 10, 2012] Just My Type

A few months ago, Karen wrote posts about this book (links are below).  All I need to do was to read her first paragraph to know that I wanted to read this book.  I love typography.  I took a typography class at the School of Visual Arts and I have always been fascinated by logos and text.

This book is an awesome book for anyone who loves fonts but who doesn’t want anything too heavy.  There is some history of the various type creators, but for the most part this looks at type faces in the past and in popular culture.   Chapter 1, for instance, is called “We don’t serve your type” and is ll about the overused and much derided Comic Sans.

Karen wisely spread her review over five posts because there was so much in the book.  Looking at her review now, I had already forgotten these two things that she mentions: “the quandary Westminster Abbey was in when it was discovered the designer of the signage at the Stations of the Cross was an incestuous pedophile (among other things).  Or the story of the font that was drowned to keep it out of the wrong hands.”

Each chapter (about 8-10 pages) follows the adventure and misadventure of a font,  a series of fonts or the creator of said fonts.  In between chapters we got Fontbreaks, two or three pages about a specific font. (more…)

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Steven Heighton–“Bystanders” (The Walrus, April 2010)

Posted in Adventure, Anthrax, Culture Shock, Death, Megadeth, Metallica, Nature, Slayer, Steven Heighton, The Walrus on April 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: Big 4 Thrash Tour (2010).

During my recent trip down metal memory lane, I learned that the Big 4 Thrash bands may be touring together.  The Big 4 would be: Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer.

When I was a young metal dude, these were definitely my big 4.  I own the first 5 or so albums by all of these bands.  Megadeth was the first to fall out of favor (around 1990), then Anthrax (around 1993), then Slayer (around 1994) (although they came back nicely in the last few years) and the Metallica (around 1997 although really they’ve drifted the furthest from the thrash world, and probably I should’ve stopped sooner).

I haven’t really listened to any of these guys’ newer releases (although I did get Slayer’s 2001 release, God Hates Us All–and I wanted to add this wonderful quote from Araya, who sings of ever so much death and destruction: “when you see someone and if you’re a human being you respect them and treat them as human beings”), so I can’t say that I’m the target audience for this tour.  However, I am delighted that these 4 bands, whose music I loved while growing up, are still together and still touring.

I wonder what the audience make up for this show is?  Is it old fogeys like me (who are still younger than the band members, at least) who would have wet themselves for this tour back in 1989, or is it a new generation of thrash kids who would mosh the crap out of me?

Either way, I won’t be going to this concert (in Poland or in Greece for that matter) but nor will I be going should it come to a theater near me.  But I’ll be delighted to hear how it goes.

[READ: March 29, 2010] “Bystanders”

I was prepared not to like this story (actually an excerpt from a novel).  It is set on a mountainside on the border of China and Tibet.  And it was about mountain climbing, a subject about which I care very little.  And as it started  feared it was going to be another story about battling with the elements on top of a mountain, blah blah.

But rather, the story went in a different direction entirely.  While the young protagonist is watching the sun set on the mountains she hears gun shots.  Ad i the distance, she sees a man fall.  The guides come over to offer her a hand but she refuses.  They force her down behind the rocks as they call for her father.  Then she flashes back to another time when her father selflessly came to someone’s rescue.

There were many cool ideas in this story.  I loved the idea that she was sitting in two countries at the same time.  I loved even more the later idea that the glacier has moved the border between the to countries and that soldiers had to remeasure and replace the flag.  But really, it was the final line, “that by making his care, his very life and limb, equally available to all, he deprived [his family] of an exclusivity they had a right to expect” that was incredibly moving.

I don’t know that I’ll track down the novel Every Lost Country, but I did enjoy this excerpt quite a lot.

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