Even though this show was pretty much hyped as a mini metal festival with a line up featuring Static X, Bring Me the Horizon, Lacuna Coil, Devil Driver, and Megadeth; to me, it was just a big return to Australia for Megadeth with some bigger than usual support acts.
I was actually looking forward to checking out these other bands on the night but even though I arrived at the venue within an hour of the doors opening (so I was lead to believe) and it was still light outside, I seemed to have missed a hell of a lot of the show. Rock shows just aren’t what they used to be, they seem to run earlier than scheduled rather than finish fashionably late. I managed to arrive just as the swirling crowd headed out of the theatre and to the bar as Lacuna Coil finished their set. It was at the bar that I was informed that I had already missed Static X, the support act that I hoped would be on just before the headliners. Within no time at all, Devil Driver hit the stage. It was already hot and sweaty inside Thebarton Theatre and the crowd were really pumped. Devil Driver took advantage of this energy and kept it alive for their entire set, ending the heavy and intense performance by encouraging the crowd to create a circle pit which had the majority of the floor patrons swirling and moving as one entity. This was actually a fairly light-hearted and fun way to lead into the always serious business of a Megadeth performance.
After yet another lightning-quick break, Megadeth hit the stage (not sure what happened to Bring Me the Horizon, they must have played an hour before the doors opened). It was quite surreal to see Megadeth’s main man on stage. He has been an iconic figure in the heavy metal scene for more than 20 years but he still looks exactly the same as he always has. Right from the first chord, Megadeth delivered to the masses. The packed house lapped up every minute of the performance. Although Dave is the only constant member of the always evolving line-up, it is certain that Dave Mustaine IS Megadeth. I last saw the band over ten years ago with a completely different line-up but it may as well have been the same band at this show. Although they were a great bunch of performers and played the songs to perfection, Megadeth will only ever really be about the Dave Mustaine experience. The highlight songs of the set were all the classic tracks, Holy Wars, Peace Sells, Symphony of Destruction, Hangar 18, In my Darkest Hour, and Wake up Dead as well as the very memorable rendition of La Tout Le Monde with guest vocals from Lacuna Coil’s Cristina Scabbia.
When it was all over and the hot and sweaty crowd poured out of the atmospheric Thebarton Theatre, I couldn’t help but feel that Megadeth should be so much more revered than they are within the history of modern music. The two thousand or so in attendance at this show certainly experienced a classic performance of some of the most intelligent heavy metal songs ever written.
