As winter starts to bite and the nights roll in, it’s good to keep busy and when Megadeth were due to hit town I wasn’t going to miss the show. It’s well-publicised that their upcoming self-titled album will be their last, and that there will be a tour to follow. I only hope they’ll make it to Glasgow, but just in case… The Hydro was the place to be this evening.
The queues were huge outside, with a lot of security on – only the second time I’ve seen metal-detection doorways being used (the other, oddly, for Slipknot), but I made it in in good time to grab my seat before the lights came down. The venue was packed and you wonder if Megadeth may consider booking the same place for their farewell shindig, though my money would be on Academy-sized venues.
Anyway, in a rarity I’m going to go through the setlist as there will be no spoilers for two reasons: it’s the end of the tour and they have played a different set every night. This is hugely unusual for any band, not just changing one or two songs, but picking between maybe 20 song for each show’s 11-or-so song selection. Maybe they’re gauging crowd reactions for next year? If so then they’ll struggle after tonight as every song was well received.
Opening with “Skin o’ My Teeth”, Megadeth were note and beat perfect, held together by Dirk Verbeuren’s on-point skin-bashing. Playing guitar solos crafted by Marty Friedman must be a challenge for anyone, and I was sad to see Kiko leave as he was a superb boot-filler. However, Megadave has done well with Teemu Mäntysaari who was blistering on every track tonight.
“Dread and the Fugitive” mind was an interesting choice, though was followed by mandatory classic “Hangar 18”. By this point, a couple of small pockets in the crowd were going appropriately mental with a couple of pits opening up and the first crowdsurfers getting prepared. One issue for them was a large walkway bisecting the crowd which the band didn’t see, to be using until partway through “She-Wolf”, but it meant that the fans in the centre of the crowd were actually really far from the main stage and ended up crowdsurfing to emptiness with aa very long walk back around again.
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Still, with “Sweating Bullets” and “Dystopia” following, the headbanging and cheers continued until finally, Mustaine took a minute to engage the audience. For about 30 seconds to introduce the new single “Tipping Point”. This was the last we heard from him barring lyrics and guitar until the end of the set. A man of few words, unless he’s singing them!
“Tipping Point” is a great number, and it was good to hear it being played live. Here’s hoping the remainder of Megadeth matched up. We headed back to Rust In Peace (my personal favourite album) for “Tornado of Souls” before James LoMenzo, on his second stint with the band, marched up the empty walkway and played “that” bass intro riff to “Peace Sells”. The audience response to being allowed to sing the chorus without the band involved was as loud as I’ve ever heard it, and there were cheers when the intro to “Symphony of Destruction” came next. Sometimes the simple riffs are the best – I wish they’d play “Train of Consequences” live more often, it has similar chunky, simply guitar work.
Mustaine took a little longer after this to thank the crew and techs for their hard work throughout the tour and promised that we’d meet again (and also avoided telling a guy in the crowd that he loved him) before introducing and ploughing through the traditional set-ender “Holy Wars”.
It’s perhaps time that Megadeth rested on their laurels, and I respect Mustaine’s decision to do so. He’s the only mainstay left in the band, and it’s his baby now. However, given the strength of this performance and the promise of a strong farewell album based on the evidence so far, there’s no doubt in my mind that they’re going to go out on a high note. Tonight was as good a Megadeth set as I’ve seen, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing what they pull out of the bag for the final tour.
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Photos by Angela Heeb
