I know there are like, maybe two metal fans out there? Who might be interested in this. I saw Megadeth’s Gigantour last night.

Seeing High on Fire, the first opening band, at a huge arena was one reason I wanted to go to this show and the reason we had to get there early. I did not want to miss them. We also went because Megadeth is my son’s all-time favorite (and his birthday is next week) but also one of my husband’s faves, too.

This was my 7th time seeing High on Fire. Last time I saw them play was at Alex’s Bar in Long Beach, which is a small bar that probably holds a couple hundred people (if that). So it was exciting to be able to see them play to such a giant crowd. And to be able to hear the vocals! Usually I’m so close against the stage, I hear the music from the monitors more than through the PA speakers, and Matt’s vocals are more audible from his own mouth than from the PA.

Set list:

Rumors of War
Turk
Cometh Down Hessian
Waste of Tiamat
Speed Wolf

Matt dedicated “Waste” to President Bush. The crowd received them pretty well, I thought. He’d tell them to throw their arms up and they would. He told them he wanted to see a pit, and more people started moshing. The crowd hadn’t completely filled in, since the show started at 5:30, but there was still at least 10 times more people there than I’d ever seen them play to.

The other opening bands didn’t do much for me. First up was Job For A Cowboy. Yes, there’s a metal band called Job For A Cowboy. I think they should have the label “metal” revoked just for their name alone. I played my PSP through their set.

At least the bands progressively got better. Sort of.

Next was Children of Bodom. They had a lot of fans there. I can see why—they were good. Not compelling enough for me to go to if they were headlining a show, though. Did I mention they had a keyboard player? Yeah. They’d get kind of heavy and then…tinkle tinkle, in comes the keyboard. And out comes the PSP. But at least they didn’t take themselves too seriously—for their final song, they launched into a Van Halen song that starts with keyboards—I think it was “Jump.” They only played a few bars as a joke. I was kind of disappointed they didn’t do the whole song.

Then came In Flames. I’ve actually seen them before, at Ozzfest a few summers ago. I don’t really remember their set then (too busy trying not to puke from sun stroke). And I barely remember their set from last night. The singer has dreadlocks and likes to talk a lot, I remember that. At one point he thanked everyone for coming, said someone told him backstage tonight was the American Idol final. I yelled, “Yeah, and I’m missing it for you.” Everyone else started chanting, “F—- that s—-! F—- that s—-!” It was funny.

Before Megadeth came out, they played some songs over the PA that had everyone singing along. One was “Crazy Train” by Ozzy. Another was “Run to the Hills” by Iron Maiden. Good stuff. It wasn’t like everyone was trying to sing together as a crowd. It was more that no one could resist singing along to the songs.

Megadeth were awesome. Dave Mustaine first came out alone and played a little guitar intro before the band came out to join him. Mr. Metal Hero himself. They started out with a song from the new album, “Sleepwalker.”

Setlist:

Sleepwalker
Take No Prisoners
Skin O’ My Teeth
Washington Is Next
Kick the Chair
In My Darkest Hour
Hangar 18
Burnt Ice
A Tout Le Monde (Set Me Free)
Tornado of Souls
Ashes in Your Mouth
Sweating Bullets
Symphony of Destruction
Trust
Peace Sells
–
Holy Wars

Dave Mustaine doesn’t talk a whole lot between songs, which I greatly appreciate. He did take the time to introduce “Burnt Ice” as being about a drug some people consider a social lubricant, but he said it’s dangerous and it’s killing people. BTW, his voice sounds good live. I know some people disparage his voice, but I like it. And he sings in tune and sounds good live.

On “A Tout Le Monde (Set Me Free),” Dave let the crowd take the chorus. It’s one of the recent songs I’m not as familiar with. I asked my son after the show which song everyone was singing and it wasn’t till he told me that I figured out why I couldn’t understand what anyone had been saying. It was in French.

There were a whole ton of people crowd surfing. There were about 20 security guys in front of the stage, behind the crowd barrier, pulling people who surfed up front off the crowd and sending them back out around the sides. There was one woman on someone’s shoulders who hiked her tshirt up to expose her boobs. She was there for about 30 seconds before the guys around her noticed her and started grabbing her. Then she was sailing along the top of the crowd, boobs hanging out, to the front where the security guys grabbed her and yanked her shirt down and sent her back around the side of the barrier. I think I saw her being pulled out of the crowd again later but I didn’t see her in time to notice if she was naked that time.

After awhile a couple security guys actually got into the crowd and started yanking people who were crowd surfing off the crowd and over to the waiting security guys behind the barrier. I saw a few people who ended up almost doing face plants. Always entertaining.

After the encore break Dave quickly introduced the band members and then launched into “Holy Wars.” That was the only encore, after which the band all came up to the front of the stage and tossed their guitar picks and drum sticks out into the crowd. They took a final bow and we started making our way to the parking lot before they left the stage. Dave ended it with his signature, “You’ve been great! We’ve been Megadeth. Good night!”