Wednesday, 23 June 2010
Four hours. Four bands. The Big Four. Immortalized Forever. And now in hi def, on a cinema screen near you.
Its big long awaited - way from way back in the nineties. People wanted to see 'the Big Four' - the premier metal bands of their time -
playing together on the same stage. Anthrax. Megadeth. Slayer. Metallica. It seemed mythical, like it may never happen. hell, there
were salivating paroxsyms of joy when Clash of the Titans - Slayer & Megadeth - toured back in 1990. But now, touring around stadiums in Europe, its happening.
Somewhere, somewhere, thought it was a good idea to film it and, by broadcasting it around the world to cinemas, bring it to the countries where the tour isn't playing. That'll sell a few tickets.750 screens across the world, some 500 in each - thats about 300,000 people, paying roughly £15 a time. Thats a hell of a lot of money. And judging by how packed tonights screening was - about 20 spare seats in a 500 seat auditorium - thats the ectasy of gold.
And for that amount of money, you'd think they'd offer a bit of a better deal. I couldn't help but feel short changed - the stated start
time of 6Pm comes and goes, and we are treated to 15 minutes of group interviews with various band members, followed by interminable shots of roadies line checking. Endlessly. If you've seen one drum roadie linecheck, you've seen them all, and it really adds nothing to the evening at all. Especially bearing in mind how shortchanged we are later - do you think we'd rather be watching a roadie tuning up? Or the music the people have paid to see?
The roadie, obviously. its frustrating, avoidable, and utterly fucking pointless. Especially when you realise that every single set has
been truncated for time purposes, multiple songs missing, interaction with the crowd and stage speeches pruned effectively. Obvious
to anyone whose ever seen any of the bands before, but not for the uninitiated. Well, there's 25 minutes at the beginning you could
have used, but no, fuck it, lets shortchange you, lets charge a premium price and give you a knowingly, intentionally shortchanged
product. Complete with motion blur everytime the double bass drum kicks in.
Yes, I felt cheated. Tickets said 6PM, the stuff started at 6.25pm. By 10.25pm it's over. Well, thats four hours for £15 - good value, yes, but its not like the cinema needed to close earlier. There's still films showing another hour after it finished. Please, don't treat your
paying customers like cunts - give them what they've paid for. I know the fault doesn't lie with the cinema, but the organisers of this simulcast, but if you're going to do this again, make sure you do it properly. Mind you, given that its inevitably going onto DVD release
later in the year, I can't help but feel doublecheated - Im going to be buying it, and that version will feature the shows in full. probably for less than i paid to watch a truncated version as a one off!
Anthrax, I can't help but realise, have been shortchanged by daylight and a limited set. From the opening crunch of "Caught In A Mosh", its as if they never went away. Frankie Bello still jumps in enthusiasm like a loon, and Scott Ian still riffs like a motherfucker with a ZZ top beard. And I've never appreciated just how good Charlie Benante is on the drums until now.Reunited with singer Joey Belladonna, Its as if the nineties never happened. Wrapped in a bulletbelt and big hair, it looks like he's been in cryosleep and then thawed out. Even more surprisingly, its how they don't just come out and play the old stuff exactly the same way they did, in the same way they used. "Got The Time" is a surprising choice, second in the set, strong and total thrax. Which given that its a cover of jazz legend Joe Jackson, is another off the wall choice. Playing "Antisocial" in a different arrangement, teasing the crowd, its enough to make me run and see this festival in the UK. oh, but hang on, its not playing anywhere in the UK, is it? Whoops! Epic fail there, mr promoters.
Alas, its five songs in before I see my first ESP explorer pointy guitar. And with a brief extract of "Man In the Silver
Mountain" by Rainbow as a tribute to metal god now gone Ronnie James Dio and the classic "I Am The Law", its eight songs and gone. Makes me wish I could see them. Joey Belladonna rocks so goddamn hard, he even pulls out his in ear monitors. I presume its so he can hear the crowd, rather than listening to himself failing to hit the high notes. Not that I seen this band play live on video too often, its just that I can predict the next song from the stage raps. Me bad.
And all throughout, two rows behind me... a guy is playing air drums. perfectly.
Megadeth have always been notiously unreliable as a live act. Either stunning or flaccid, tonight sees the extremly welcome return of
Dave Ellefson to the fold. Precise and tight, and sound spotlessly clear, its Megadeth living up to every single bar thats ever been
raised. I've heard them live before, and everytime I have I've been unimpressed. Tonight, they impress in spades, despite a dodgy
sound mix at the beginning.
Trapped in time like a fly in sweet amber, You know that Dave Mustaines gonna be wearing a white frilly shirt and push his hair behind his ears whilst trying to stare out the monitors, his head ducked endlessly. i always had them down as a ropy live band, but this - Quick, tight, efficient - its the sort of performance I never thought I would see them do. An opening one-two of "Holy Wars" and
"Hangar 18" is a perfect opener. Merging from the forgettable "Head crusher" into the monumental "In My Darkest Hour" throws me
off considerably. Not a spare second or gap in the set, its tight, lean, mean and before you know it, a few rows back there's
sycnhronised crapping and singing at the top of their voices. 11 songs later, and there's hardly a song there you wouldn't call a metal
classic. With a back catalogue the size of Megadeths, there's bound to be a classic or two left out - "Wake Up Dead" is a noticable
omission - but again, its enough to make me want to buy tickets. Sadly, I can't.
Seeing at the movies does have one major advantage. it rains less. The heavens open and pour down for the first few songs of the Megadeth set, and any of the front of stage cameras can't see a damn thing. Its pretty unusuable, so lets hope there's a major re edit involved before you can buy it in the shops.
Slayer are supposed to be formidable live. There's a rule of thumb - no one goes on stage after Slayer. No one. Thats mainly because no one else invented thrash metal. No one else wrote "Angel of Death". No one else wrote "Raining Blood". Brutal, fast, spiky as Kerry Kings wrist band. thats Slayer. An all conquering metal behemoth on a blitzkreig to leave your house feeling like satans very own moshpit.
But not tonight.Tonight Slayer are limp. A terrible sound mix, a surfeit of new material, and a static stage show. Behind them a wall of Marshall stacks. But they are only using two of them each, despite the backline of about twenty for each guitarist. Its an old trick - the same as KISS used in the seventies - but its obvious when you suddenly relaised that only two of the speakers are miked up for the
PA and the broadcast. Funny, I thought Slayer were beyond such fake bullshit. So when two of the three opening songs are from the
new album, and with a limp sound mix, its not that impressive. Neither is the the that Kerry Kings beard looks really funny when it
bounces off his chest as he headbangs. boing boing boing. Neither is the fact that Jeff Hanneman looks like the fattest fuck on the
planet, like a gigantic metal tube in plastic bondage gear and long blond hair. Meh. And I know its a classic, but its the worst version of "Angel of Death" I've ever heard. Sloppy, inconsistent, and practically instrumental.Tom Araya sings the first line of every verse, and expects the entire of stadium to do the rest. Same for the choruses. Funny, anyone would think he'd paid us to sing, not the other way around. Lazy, sloppy and insulting. Given their fearsome live reputation and the previous two band son, Slayer are a crushing disappointment. Even if Angel of Death does get a huge round of applause.
its funny to note though, during the Slayer set, the camera work and editing massively improves. Even the director is seemingly scared of upsetting Slayer. Or possibly, just Kerry King.With that metal spiked wristband, I can't blame him though.
A quick tribute to Ronnie James Dio, and its Metallica time.
If you know your Metallica, you know its the usual Metallica festival greatest hits set.Exactlythe same as they've done for the past
seven years, every European summer. I could just write the songs, and you could fill in the rest. The bit in Creeping Death where the
crowd sings "Die! Die!" in the instrumental breakdown. The bit at the end when lars presses the bass drum once, and Rob runs up to
the top left of the stage - you knwo its going to be "For whom the bell tolls", because thats where the roadie always sticks the wah wah
pedal. The Bit when the pyro goes off during "one". The slow guitar feedback at the end of "Nothing Else Matters" , knowing that Enter
Sandman will come up next. In fact, the only bit that isn't ridiculously predictable - and i've seen them play pretty much the same set at every festival appearance this decade, and practically all of them have been televised. In fact, its the variations, not the predictability, that I look forward. Hearing songs "That Was Your Life" And "End Of the Line" - as stunning an opening pair as possible - yet ignored for "Creeping Death" for 1,867th time instead.
There was a time when Metallica weren't so predictable. Always dependable - you know they are going to rock you like a hurricane -
but predictable.No matter how fucking good they are - and they are fucking good - they are boring by now. Even the fans know the all
the live adlibs from this tour - when the crowd sings along to the guitar line of "Master Of Puppets" or "Seek And Destory", for
example, or jaymz ridiculously hyperbolic speeches.
Or for that matter, how about cutting out a third of their set - 7 songs - from the broadcast eh?
In fact, the high point - and the only moment of unpredictability tonight - comes during the encore when the band reel out the rarely
played "Am i Evil?" As a big massive momma jam, with Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer on stage also. James Hetfield, Joey belladonna and Dave Mustaine each take a verse - Dave sings the same verse twice! - and the sound is mammoth. Huge. like a invading army. Charlie Benante and Dave Lombardo get a snare drum each to play, and Dave Lombardo can't stop himself from bashing on lar's toms when Lar's isn't looking. Dave Lombardo also plays air cymbals to the opening, even though he doesnt have any, all he has is the snare. I gotta love a rock drummer whose so into it, he can't stop himself playing air drums...
Impressively directed with flair, and style, tehcnically flawed and savagely edited, It rocked like a quarry. ive never been in a cinema
before and seen so many people singing along, clapping in time, and playing air drums. With a little bit more thought, it could have
been almost perfect - we've paid our money, now give us what we've paid for. Dont hack out songs and stage raps clumsily out. We
are fans. We will know the difference. Don't treat us like idiots - we will know. Give us the whole bundle, and don't shortchange us.
Flawed, but a fascinating idea, its the sort of thing that done properly, would be well worth a second visit. If done correctly. if done right. But as it stands - the savage pointless, needless editing which served no purpose whatsoever, is enough to put me off. And it
has. I can't imagine doing this again after the deliberate, wifil, pointless negligence for time purposes. And there was no need at all to do it. After all, i could have stayed at home and bought the DVD in a couple of months. For less. And got more. So if I do that next
time, don't blame me will you?
A one off, four of your favourite bands playing in an auditorium packed full of metalheads playing air guitar, air drums and singing
along at extreme volume - hell, its more Metal-Mia than Mamma Mia, and more like thrash metal heaven.
Anthrax :
Caught In A Mosh / Got The Time / Mad House / Antisocial / Indians (inc Man In the Silver Mountain) / Metal Thrashing Mad / I Am The
Law
Megadeth:
Holy Wars / Hangar 18 / Head Crusher / In My Darkest Hour / Skin O My Teeth / Hook In Mouth / Sweating Bullets / Symphony Of Destruction / Peace Sells / ... the Punishment Due (Reprise)
Slayer:
World Painted Blood / War Ensemble / Hate Everyone / Seasons In The Abyss / Angel Of Death / Mandatory Suicide / Chemical Warfare / South Of Heaven / Raining Blood
Metallica:
Ectasy Of Gold / Creeping Death / For Whom the Bell Tolls / Harvester Of Sorrow / Fade To Black / Cyanide / One / Master Of Puppets / Nothing Else Matters / Enter Sandman / Am I Evil (Ensemble) / Hit The Lights / Seek And Destroy
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