Music Discussions

On Sunday a friend of mine and I saw Megadeth at the Peoria Civic Center on the tour promoting their new album “Endgame”. The experience was much different than I had expected.

I had missed Megadeth the last several times that they came to Peoria, so I bought my ticket the week they went on sale this time to make sure I didn’t forget. There were three opening acts before the main attraction. Brian – my friend – and I skipped The first act altogether as the venue did not have seating and we did not wish to stand for four performances, so I am unable to comment on the quality of Suicide Silence. We decided that the second group, Arcanium, either sucked, the acoustics in the venue aren’t the best, the sound technician was an idiot, or we are getting too old; all we could hear was drum and the occasional guitar or vocal. Machine Head was okay, but I think that they would be better in a different hall or on a studio album as their vocals also seemed absorbed by something. Megadeth suffered from this vocal eating phenomena as well, but nowhere near as badly as the other two acts that we saw.

Megadeth performed a good mix of new and older tracks: “Hangar 18”, “Tornado of Souls”, “Wake up Dead”, “Sweating Bullets”, “A Tout Le Monde”, “Trust”, “Rattle Head”, “Symphony of Destruction”, “Peace Sells”, “Skull Crusher”, “Sweating Bullets”, “Washington is Next”, “Holy Wars”, and others. There were some notable omissions however including “99 Ways to Die”, “Train of Consequences”, “Die Dead Enough” and “Kill the King”; however, I realize that, due to the large body of their work, they can only play a very limited selection. The song ordering was chosen very well with “Peace Sells” directly following “Symphony of Destruction” for instance. This particular order placed two of their best known songs back-to-back which allowed for people who are not extremely familiar with the band to recognize a series of songs.

As with many groups, besides just the impromptu audience participation of fans singing along to every song, there was suggested audience participation on a couple of tunes. “Peace Sells” and, in and effort to bring more attention to their new album, Endgame, “Head Crusher”. I believe fans were encouraged to sing along on a few others as well, but I cannot remember for sure.

Actually, the audience participation became rather humorous at times. And, in fact, several parts of the concert felt like a comedy show – so I got to enjoy two attractions for the price of one. Mustaine asked the audience to say “head crusher” after a specific riff and then proceeded to go through it once to make sure that we all knew what to do. Most of us tried, but were not quite on queue and were not very loud. Mustaine responded by telling us that our performance was “really lame” and that he was confident that we could do better. At this point, someone in the audience decided to hold up both middle fingers which was greeted with “I heard you do it”. To this, the would-be heckler gave a dual thumbs-up which prompted Mustaine to add, “I heard you do it pretty badly”.

Another humourous incident occurred when Mustaine noticed that there was a small child in attendance. He commented to the child that “your daddy is raising you right” and then added “unless that’s your kidnapper”. At another point, someone held up a sign or t-shirt with writing on it. Mustaine apologized that he could not read it. When the attendee persisted in holding it aloft, Mustaine said “seriously, you must think that I am the bionic man, I can’t read that”. The last humorous comment that stands out – and yes, I realize this is not original, and has become kind of a cliche, but I did not expect it at a metal concert – was at the very end when Mustaine said “good night Peoria. You’ve been great, and we’ve been Megadeth”.

This was an extremely enjoyable concert, and if Megadeth is coming to your area, I would highly recommend getting a ticket. I was really surprised that not only is Mustaine funny, but he is also extremely quick on his feet as his interactions with the heckler show.