I am not huge on reunion tours, as it seems too many bands are staining their legacy with cash grabs, there are few exceptions to this rule, however I was not able to pas up the chance to catch a few of my favorite bands from High School. Committing to venturing to an outdoors concert after May in Florida is an even greater test of your fandom. Really just me venturing out of the house and forcing my misanthropic ass to be around people is a testament to how much I like a band. Thanks to misinformation in regards to the actual start time, and traffic going into the venue we missed Fear, who could be heard playing from the highway as we reached the venue. The half mile walk from parking to entrance and display of general stupidity from the concert goers who were corralled at the entrance like cattle all helped the delay so once we set foot inside the Amphitheatre, Fear had finished their set.
Megadeth took the stage at 7:45 with a rather stripped down stage set up, Dave has been bitching about the cost of touring these days so this was not a surprise. They were surprisingly better than expected. I saw them back in the day a few times with their Clash of the Titans performance being the stand out. They might have lacked key members from that era, but were impressive. Sticking to the hits, they played two songs from their latest album and cranked out all the "Peace Sells" and "Sweating Bullets" you might and was never that impressed. They stuck to their "hits" opening with "Hangar 18". They only played two new songs, aside from those it was all the songs you might expect from "Peace Sells" to "Sweating Bullets" . They closed their set out with "Holy Wars". Dirk from Soilwork was behind the drums and pulled every thing off as needed. It was odd thinking how the White Lion b assist was able to take care of business, but that is what happened. They brought out Lee Ving for a cover of "Nothing is Something" which did not go over as well since no one knew it. But I was glad I got to see him sing one song having missed Fear.
Punk in a massive 20,000 capacity Amphitheatre is an odd oxymoron for outsiders. If any one was going to do it the Misfits would be the band. In line waiting to enter the venmnue a disgruntled "punk" was complaining about Megadeth opening , and asked why was it not Minor Threat. The very nature of this question says he had no clue what Ian MacKaye was about, and only a punk in the sense of wasting his life by being wasted. A shame he missed Fear as well. The Misfits are larger than life so that is why this show worked. Their stage was flanked by two giant pumpkins and the back drops of Vegas like video screens, They were not about ideals but teenage aliens and pulp monsters. They opened with "Death Comes Ripping" , which was the most suitable song to start things with.
Danzig sounded fine which was my main concern as he sounded like he had lost all ability to belt it out on his terrible Elvis covers album. There was an amusing casual attitude to his onstage banter, he at least acted like he was taking requests from the audience, which I find it hard to believe there were not people within earshot screaming for "Angel Fuck" which did not make an appearance. But as Danzig said they do know a lot of songs, I did not expect all of them to be played, though the fact most are under three minutes gave them time to cram a bunch into their set. They have great songs, some of the highlights for me were "Vampira" , "Where Eagles Dare" , "Hybrid Moments" , "Some Kind of Hate" and "Skulls". This was billed as the "Original" Misfits but the line-up was bolstered by the addition of Dave Lombardo on drums, and Dope / Joan Jett guitarist Acey Slade, who stood behind Jerry Only on stage. Dave did his job, obviously this was less demanding than playing Slayer or Mr. Bungle. Doyle has more of a metallic guitar tone, and due to the benefit of the big production this was a much better sound than they had originally.
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