If you have been looking for a good metal show to come to town, then you got your wish on Tuesday, October 4th! Megadeth came to town for the second appearance in 2016. This time, they played at Roy Wilkins Auditorium and brought Butcher Babies, Metal Church, Suicidal Tendencies, and Amon Amarth along. This was an early show and 5 bands were on the bill, so I was ready for a long night! When I got there, the crowd was pretty small still. However, it was only 6:00pm, so I’m sure many people got stuck in traffic or didn’t get off work in time. As the night went on though the venue started filling up.
Butcher Babies went on first and even though it was a quick set, they got the people there rocking pretty hard early on! If you haven’t seen them before, they are a super high energy band live and I don’t think they ever stop jumping and moving around. They are known for getting out in the crowd, but with an almost 7 foot tall stage, they weren’t going to get down there easily and stayed up on the stage this time.
Next up was Metal Church. I’ll admit I hadn’t heard of them before and didn’t quite know what to expect. However, with and 80’s style to their music, it was really entertaining to listen to. They also did a great job getting the crowd up and moving, though their songs were very long, so they didn’t have much time to talk between songs. However, there were a good number of people that knew them and enjoyed the show!
Suicidal Tendencies is a band that has been around for a while. I remember seeing them live back in the late 90’s. Don’t let that make you think the show doesn’t have any energy though. With the obvious exception of the drummer, the band was racing back and forth on stage the entire time! It got to the point that I stood in one spot and waited for them to run over by me to grab my photos! I would love to catch these guys again in the future!
Now it was Amon Amarth’s turn to wow the crowd. Once the giant boat was constructed on stage, I knew this would be interesting. The crowd was decent for a Tuesday show by this point and they got a great show from Amon Amarth! Lots of screaming and growling, but this “Viking Rock” was just what everyone was looking forward to! There was lots of hair flying energy coming from the band, and that made for a great performance!
Finally, it was time for the main event! Megadeth took the stage with a flurry of lights and cheers. There was a huge LED screen at the back of the stage playing clips having to do with the songs they played and some lights that moved up and down in front of that. Between those, the rest of the stage lighting, and the spot lights, the stage was lit up like an explosion at times! The crowd started jumping, moshing, and crowd surfing as the energy that Megadeth put out increased with every song. I especially liked how they went over to the side of the stage where the VIP people were to play in front of them. If anyone left their performance unhappy, I can’t imagine why!
Just like that, the night of metal was over! It was definitely a show to remember with current metal and metal still going strong.
As always, get out and support live music and I’ll see you out there.
