Live Reviews : Megadeth & Children Of Bodom @ Festival Hall, Melbourne 19/10/2015

Words: Jonathon Besanko

Images: Mark Hoffmann

(Click here to view the full gallery)

Tonight was an evening that brought with it much anticipation, not only from myself but from the hordes of fans who attended. Megadeth are a band who have managed to stay relevant for more than thirty years, forming a key component as to the continuing popularity of thrash metal music. Being a part of the ‘Big 4’, Megadeth has seen its fair share of triumphs and blunders across the band’s three decade long career, but hit 2015, with Chris Adler (of Lamb of God) and Kiko Loureiro (Angra) respectively filling in drum and guitar duties left behind by former members Shawn Drover and Chris Broderick, tonight showed to me – and to many others as it was gleaned later – just how strong and revitalised the new lineup feels. With Dave Mustaine and David Ellefson the only two original and founding members of the group still performing live, Megadeth for the first time in a good few years feels at its freshest.

But more to that later.

Children of Bodom

As the sole opener of tonight, Finnish melodic death metal royalty, Children of Bodom, brought almost as strong and enthusiastic a crowd as the nights headliner. While obviously Bodom don’t have quite the reach in fanbase from years of activity alone, here is a band that regardless has rightfully earned themselves a loyal and dedicated group of followers. With door open happening at 7pm, Children of Bodom were set to appear onstage at 8 o’clock. But well in lead of this had an already sizeable and impressive crowd that filled out much of the floor area, which when concerning Festival Hall, isn’t exactly a small space, either. None of this is that surprising, however. The Finns were largely embraced, and perhaps most thankfully, there was never an ego up on stage as far as I could tell either. Children of Bodom recognised how big it was for them to be opening for a band like Megadeth, and as such, I was glad to see Laiho never really tried to steal this spotlight away. They just went about their business and enjoyed the hell out of it while doing it.

Though I initially had reservations about Bodom being the opener for Megadeth (it had seemed a strange choice given how separate the two band’s styles are), my concerns were quickly washed away once frontman and the ever-charismatic Alexi Laiho ushered in the band. Despite there being a few odd glances shared amongst the crowd from its slightly older audience (around their 40s), likely due to Laiho’s death-growled style, there was still a lot of cheering and crowd-band banter happening as well.

That’s something I’d like to talk about for a minute, though. One of the coolest parts about tonight for me was speaking with the fans this show drew in. From people around my age who, also like me, have been listening to metal since their early high school days, and then to older fans who have been invested in bands like Megadeth since the days of Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying? And in fact, were around at the time of its release. A man in particular I met who, after initially seeing me taking notes and asking out of curiosity if I was writing song lyrics or something, he then introduced himself to me as Steven ‘Skitz’ Chawla, “the left-handed guitarist”. A very interesting individual to speak with, we spoke for a while and he told me how Megadeth (with Dave Mustaine, in particular) were what inspired him to become a guitarist, before he flashed him his VIP pass and showed me some photos of his personal Mustaine signature Dean guitar and his own customised Warlock B.C. Rich. It was awesome just to see how metal as a genre can connect generations like this, in a way no other genre really can.

Children of Bodom were excellent, with crowd engagement at a soaring-high, and the moments where Alexi soloed together with keyboardist Janne Wirman, to Alexi amusingly crying out “how about that fucking cowbell?!” to a small two-second moment of cowbell being heard and a straight-faced “thank you”, were a joy to watch.

Megadeth

Anticipation was rattling as the floor filled out and the crowds thickened. Megadeth was soon to hit the stage. As Festival Hall darkened to an animated preview of the Megadeth logo imprinted on a copper industrial banner, the quartet emerged to the rapturous applause and sea of horns that awaited them. Megadeth exploded into “Hangar 18”, which had me lose my marbles for a moment as this is probably my all-time favourite Megadeth track (and they opened the set with it!). From that point forward, the crowd was rightfully theirs and this didn’t end until the final notes of Megadeth’s show-stopping finale of “Holy Wars”. Yes, you read that right. These two songs sat either end of what was an incredible setlist, comprising a majority of Megadeth’s greatest songs.

To stop and talk for a moment about the band’s two latest additions in Chris Adler and Kiko Loureiro, these guys were brilliant. From “Hangar 18” onwards, Kiko proved himself the perfect replacement as guitarist in the band; shredding out the solos that were made famous by the likes of Marty Friedman, Chris Poland, and so on. He played with a keen precision and a complete desire to get the crowd as involved in their performance as possible. As for Chris Adler, he was the silent and utter professional: content headbanging away behind the kit to music he no doubt would have grown up with too. He was a natural fit with the band, never missing a beat and adding a whole layer to the overall performance of Megadeth.

I’ve got to hand it to Dave Mustaine and David Ellefson as well. These two men knew how to create a quality show. They continually fed off the undying energy of the crowd, with Dave saying near the beginning, “Good evening, look at all these beautiful faces!” before leading into “Wake Up Dead”; to running and up and down either of the stage; and further to a moment where he happily posed briefly for photos from those in the audience before tearing into “She Wolf”. And to David Ellefson, this guy is just a legend. He constantly coaxed out cheering and clapping from the crowd, getting us all as involved in the show as possible, before displaying how proficient he is with the bass. Everyone in Megadeth and everyone in the audience tonight seemed completely into it, whether it was from their performance or just the excitement of seeing Megadeth tear shit up basically. With people crowd-surfing, headbangers young and old to be seen about, and scenes displayed on the stage-screens from the likes of Silver Linings Playbook, Wayne’s World 2, and Talk Radio that made mention of Megadeth in some form or another, it all aided to broaden the experience.

With songs ranging from “Sweating Bullets” (which was awesome to hear the crowd echo off Mustaine’s sung commentary in this track) to “Cold Sweat” (a Thin Lizzy cover, one of Mustaine’s favourite bands growing up), then further to new track “Fatal Illusion”, it was all quite a collective of great music. Speaking of the latter, with “Fatal Illusion” set to appear on Megadeth’s forthcoming 2016 album Dystopia, the stage-screens were used to good effect here (emulating a flatlined electrocardiogram), with the song itself providing an interesting hint towards a newer Megadeth sound. One that retains similar qualities to the earlier years, yet sounds forward-thinking in its delivery (using various samples and interesting arrangements to give its sound a more dynamic feel).

Megadeth

The show was a non-stop thrill ride, with Vic Rattlehead – who appeared in the flesh during their performance of “Peace Sells…” – our humble brakeman. It was cool to see a video at the end that paid homage to all the people involved in the show, band and crew alike.

I heard quite a bit about sound mix problems following the end of tonight, as a problem both bands faced. While I did notice moments in both Bodom and Megadeth’s set where this happened, I don’t necessarily feel this was the band’s fault, but rather the venue itself. Festival Hall’s sound and design construction-wise for the venue has in the past been fairly notorious, and I noticed that in certain areas in Festival Hall, the sound was better, whilst in others it was worse. I happened to have a pretty good spot left of stage on the floor area, and for the most part, it sounded solid. When Bodom performed their new track “Morrigan” live, it sounded great. Perhaps my biggest complaint was at times the various microphones cut out or were too low. Sometimes Alexi’s voice would quiet to a hum beneath the roar of the rest of the band, and with Megadeth, at points, you couldn’t make out Mustaine’s singing either.

Don’t miss the last show of Megadeth’s Australian tour (with special guests Children of Bodom) tomorrow night (Wednesday 21 October) at Eatons Hill Hotel, Brisbane. Tickets available now through Dainty Group.

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