Megadeth unleashed a monstrous 19 song set on Saturday night, delivering the entire Countdown To Extinction album sandwiched between classic thrash hits, and the best part is that New Yorkers can catch this show all over again on Wednesday at the Best Buy Theater.
Dave Mustaine and his band have been touring relentlessly since 2010, playing a pair of local arena shows with Slayer (read about it here), the main stage of Mayhem Festival, a Gigantour run, coheadlining with Rob Zombie and of course, the Big 4 at Yankee Stadium. But Saturday night was the second date in the domestic Countdown To Extinction 20th Anniversary tour and the first local ‘Deth concert not shared with other headliners in years, making the theater show feel especially intimate and exciting.
Opening act Kyng stoked up the crowd with just the right mix of crushing riffs, melodic vocals, and impressive lead guitarwork, offering catchy hooks and some beautiful harmonies. Mustaine has suggested that his fans come early to check out Kyng’s strong sound, and this Examiner is grateful he did. The California band’s 40 minute set was a perfect warm up for the evening, setting the pace for the thrash gods in Megadeth with their low-key, yet undeniably heavy performance.
Make no mistake though: the evening was all about Megadeth. From t-shirts commemorating every Mega-tour to chants of “Dave! Dave! Dave!,” the thousand or so Long Islanders packed onto the floor of the Paramount were wild, drunk, and ready to headbang. Mosh pits started churning the second Megadeth hit the stage with Trust, and never stopped until the final climactic riffs of Holy Wars.
In between those songs awaited one of Megadeth’s most popular and best-selling albums, 1992’s Countdown to Extinction, as well as a half dozen other favorite tracks. Three massive video screens offered one of the most high end stage productions the band has ever brought out, splashing wild, vivid imagery behind the four musicians.
Unfortunately technical problems plagued the video displays, visibly upsetting the notoriously perfectionist Mr. Mustaine. But that didn’t stop him and lead guitarist Chris Broderick from ferociously shredding on Hanger 18, the two axemen battling back and forth over the outro solo while fans screamed “Me-Ga-Deth!” and moshed to their hearts’ content.
Only four songs into the set, though, Mustaine apologized to the crowd before storming offstage and forcing a 15 minute delay of the show as the crew attempted to get the screens going but to no avail. The floor of metalheads waited patiently, or as patiently as metalheads can wait, and cheered wildly when the band finally reemerged. “I think I know whose fault this is,” snarled Dave when he finally retook the mic. “And they’re getting their asses kicked tonight!”
It’s Mustaine’s chip-on-the-shoulder, take-no-prisoners attitude that has always embodied Megadeth’s raw vitality, and nothing makes for a better Megadeth concert than a pissed-off Dave Mustaine. The band knocked out newer track Public Enemy No. 1 with a vengeance, playing against the darkened screens with just a single spotlight and wreaking havoc on the mosh-happy crowd with their thrash metal assault.
“This is Countdown To Extinction,” Dave announced with little fanfare before drilling into Skin O’ My Teeth. There’s always something special about hearing an album played live, and as the furious Skin led to the sinister riffs of Symphony of Destruction, every fan in the audience sang along to the metal anthem.
Cuts like Foreclosure of a Dream and Architecture of Aggression have rarely, if ever, been played live, and served as a treat for those of us craving setlist variety from recent Megadeth tours. Interestingly, Dave played several solos from the Countdown album himself rather than handing them off to Broderick. Given Mr. Broderick’s virtuoso fretting talent, one could only assume that Dave played them himself out of nostalgia for the 20 year-old recordings.
Sweating Bullets was a clear high point of the evening, fans stomping about the concrete floor to the staccato riff as strobe lights flashed, screaming out the title lyrics with gleeful malice. A scorching peak on the brilliantly-paced record, there was nothing but smiles all around when the song finally crashed to a finish.
Countdown offers more melodic singing than most of Megadeth’s discography, and it was impressive to see Dave fearlessly reaching for high notes that were originally recorded when he and his vocal cords were much younger. The sound didn’t always carry through the amplifiers, but the crowd easily covered for any vocals that weren’t cleanly picked up by the microphone.
The end of the album came all too quickly as the band powered through track after track. While every note was flawlessly recreated to perfection, Captive Honour proved to be an interesting variation from the studio original. Mustaine declined to pipe in the various recorded voiceovers of Ronald Reagan and others that populate many of the songs from Countdown, and the absence of the judge and prisoner’s voices turned Captive Honour into a mostly-instrumental performance, allowing the riffs, leads, and melodies to shine in a way never heard before.
With Ashes In Your Mouth, Countdown concluded as fans slammed back and forth almost the entire width of the floor. Frankly the night could’ve happily ended there, but bassist David Ellefson led the way for a two song encore, first on the bombastic Peace Sells, a sing-along favorite for even the casual-est of Mega-fans, and followed by Holy Wars and its piercing outro guitar solo for a pure thrash finish.
Despite Megadeth’s touring the New York region more heavily than any other A-list metal band, Saturday night’s show felt fresh and exciting as fans were finally given a full length Megadeth set unhampered by time constrictions or competing headliners. The band’s discography is simply too spectacular to fit into the 12 song sets from recent years, and a club show like this offered the intimacy lacking from the arena tours, letting fans push within a few feet of the guitar gods on stage.
Even the deepest tracks of Countdown To Extinction are ingrained in the brain tissue of longtime Megadeth listeners, and like 2010’s Rust In Peace tour, the album performance was a unique chance to experience a favorite record as performed by its principle songwriters. (It’s worth noting that as always, Chris Broderick effortlessly nailed every note of Marty Friedman’s brilliant guitar solos with a gusto all his own.)
With Wednesday’s Starland Ballroom show relocated to the Best Buy Theater in Times Square due to Hurricane Sandy, New Yorkers get a second chance to catch this heavy duty show in another great venue. Assuming the technical difficulties have been worked out, the concert should be even better than Saturday night’s, if that’s possible. Tickets for the Starland show will be honored and with Best Buy’s capacity significantly larger than Starland's, plenty of tickets are now available for those with a renewed interest. This Examiner also recommends showing up early to catch Kyng’s very worthwhile set.
There is simply no better thrash metal show than Megadeth at the top of their game, and this iteration of Megadeth is very much on fire. See this show before it’s too late!
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Additional photos from this and other concerts can also be seen on my tumblr: Heavy Metal NYC.
