| Megadeth | Podium Hardenberg-Hardenberg | Feb 17, 2005 |
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After a two hour drive and a real quest to find the venue, I finally arrived at `t Podium. From the outside the place looked like the kind of discotheque that you find in the small villages here in Holland, but once I was inside it was clear that I was at a metal concert. And not just any concert, I can tell you; I was at a Megadeth show, one of the biggest bands for me, my youth’s heroes, one of my reasons to play guitar! Diamond Head Megadeth brought Diamond Head as a support act and I must say, they could`ve picked a worse band. Shortly before the start of the show `t Podium was packed, but then again, the gig was sold out weeks before the actual show. Most of the people know Diamond Head, but often they don`t realise it. Despite the fact that Diamond Head was a well-known NWOBHM-band (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) and one the main influences of Dave Mustaine and Lars Ulrich (Metallica), almost everybody knows them from the covers Metallica played. The Diamond Head show started applicably with "Diamonds Are Forever" by Shirley Bassey, followed by the "Am I Evil?" intro. Hearing the first famous notes of that song the crowd cheered and roared. Thanks to Metallica it was mostly a show of recognition. What got my attention was the fact that the sound was outstanding. My personal experience with smaller venues is that the sound is often a bit shitty. Well, that wasn`t the case in Hardenberg; the sound was awesome and all the instruments were mixed in almost perfectly well. Only the bass guitar was at times somewhat loud. Because of the new album Diamond Head recently released, they also played a couple of new songs. But I had the idea that the classics were more popular in the crowd. When the band played their last song, "Am I Evil?", everyone in the crowd sang at the top of their lungs. Megadeth Just like Diamond Head, Megadeth was blessed with a great sound. The show opened almost the same way as their latest album: a lot of noise with some fighter jets roaring by after which "Blackmail The Universe" started. The first six songs followed each other at high speed and after "In My Darkest Hour" Mustaine talked to the crowd for the first time. He said he was honoured to play here with his band and despite some critics that `t Podium would be too small for Megadeth. He told everybody he simply wanted to play there. He also talked about his arm injury and the doctor telling him he wouldn`t be able to play anymore.Well, he proved everybody wrong, I guarantee you! Finally he mentioned that this was going to be a very special evening with some surprises in the setlist. And if you compare the setlists from previous shows he was right; there were a couple of surprises ("She-Wolf", "Return To Hangar") in the setlist. Mustaine was in very good mood and that was a good thing for both the band and the audience, because in the past there were times that his mood was somewhat `different`. During "Back In The Day" the guys from Diamond Head got on stage to sing along with Megadeth. Somewhere half way the song Diamond Head`s bass player started to bang his head and play some air guitar, which forced Dave Mustaine to walk away from his microphone because he couldn`t hold his laughter anymore. So, both the bands and the crowd had a lot fun altough Dave Mustaine fell victim to the flu epidemic combined with bronchitis. But that we can enjoy his qualities in future is a fact. He told his fans on the Megadeth Boards that it`s his wish to continue making music with the current line-up but by which name (Megadeth or Mustaine solo) is still unclear. But after seeing this show I can only encourage his wish!
(Photo`s from the archives)
(Review: Lars van Bergen |
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