Primal Fear

Meshuggah

Jorn

Firebrands

Eluveitie

A.O.T.W.

more interviews?

Band:Anthrax Album:Anthrology: No Hit Wonders Record Company:Nuclear Blast Writer: Matt "Xir0n" Gill MP3: Random Real Media Tracks Click Album Cover To Buy Now

Lemmie start by saying that people can’t mosh anymore. I have officially taken away the right to mosh from anyone who either wears pants from Hot Topic, or is under the age of 21. I don’t care if you mosh at your little kiddie concerts, but you are not allowed to mosh at an Anthrax concert. Why is this, you ask? Because you people fucking suck at it. If I have to stop cracking jokes about the horrible openers to laugh at your “moshing” then you should definitely not be doing it. I saw one guy flail his arms like a retarded monkey, another guy skip from one side of the pit to the other. That’s when I should have jumped in and punched him in the face. I let it pass because he looked dumb enough to make me laugh really hard. Then there was some guy that was doing this weird pacing thing where he sticks his arms way out like he’s some kind of bird or something. He looked stupid. There was a guy in Hot Topic pants that didn’t do anything but get hit. Then there was the guy in the upper end who turned around and just put his fists up like he was gonna punch someone. I wanted to walk over and kick him in the nuts for being an idiot. He also did some kind of a weird strut across the pit, looking like a chicken. It was idiotic.

Anyway, on to the show.

Opening band 1: Manntis: Sucked hardcore. Guy kept screaming, boring as all hell. Don’t remember most of this because I was too busy making fun of mosh pitters and the band itself. Pretty gay.

Opening band 2: Uh…: I really have no idea/do not care who that was. They were better than Manntis, but still sucked out of control. I remember they started playing Megadeth’s Sweating Bullets, but stopped after the intro… Me and my friends were like… “What?” Once they finished the next song I screamed “Finish the Megadeth!” and I got a couple of laughs out of the crowd. That was pretty fun.

Opening band 3: God Forbid: God forbid that anyone should listen to this band. They walked out with two guitarists, both with Dave Mustaine Signature Series DV8’s. I was like… “Neat.” And then they started playing and it was like… Ok in comparison to the last two bands, but still bad. The ‘singer’ can’t sing, apparently, as he only screeched the entire time. They covered an Anthrax song and the crowd was like, “Yay!” and they all went wild and I was like… “Is this Pantera?” Yeah… They weren’t good at covering the song. Anyway… They didn’t suck 100%, just about 96%.

Main Attraction: Anthrax! I must say, I am completely amazed at how well these guys played. Joey Belladonna was fucking amazing. He is by far the most talented singer of the big four of thrash. They brought a lot of great energy into the crowd, telling them to mosh and interacting with each other. At one point in time he changed the words in I’m The Man to include a reference to the Chicago Bears. They even talking about the Sox. Scott Ian had a really stupid guitar. They played songs mostly off of Spreading the Disease, State of Euphoria, and Persistence of Time. They played for a good two hours or so. They played all of their biggest songs that don’t involve John Bush, with the exception of Death Rider. They sounded good, and Joey was set just right as to not overpower the instruments, as he can on some of the earlier CDs. One of the best moments was when they brought this guy… Creig? To play with them on stage. That was pretty awesome. He apparently won a contest or something. I would have loved to have been that guy. Overall, the show was both physically and musically pleasing. I must say that the best part of the show was the energy from the crowd. And now I will answer the questions Mark put on the board, because I’m too lazy to think up my own.

How was the band's energy level? The band was full of energy, which totally pumped up the crowd.

Was the sound run ok? The sound was decent, there were some moments that were less audible than others, but aside from that, all went well. How was the on stage banter in between songs? The stage banter really pumped up the crowd. By including things topical to Chicago and reminiscing about old school days, the crowd got pretty pumped.

Anything interesting happen in the crowd? Joey was saluting crowd surfers. There was a lot of weed, but that’s normal. One guy got punched in the face.

What songs stood out the most? I’m the Man.

Did the band have any major fuck ups on any songs? No.

How packed was the venue? Sold out.

Summary: It was a bad ass concert. One of the best I’ve been to. It was pretty awesome to see such old school thrash guys still rockin’ out. The lack of tour shirts kinda pissed me off, but they did have an awesome ($80) jacket that I really wanted, but could not afford. Good energy, good show. I’d definitely go to see these guys again.

Band:Anthrax Album:Anthrology: No Hit Wonders Record Company:Nuclear Blast Writer: Matt "Xir0n" Gill Click Album Cover To Buy Now

To post comments CLICK HERE!