Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Bologna / Estragon / Italy
Concert date: 03.06.2016
Attendance: 4500
Ticket price: 40.00€
The day after the infamous Gods of Metal festival, a mini-reprise of it went down in Bologna, Italy. Megadeth and Gamma Ray, who had shared part of the bill the day before at the legendary Italian rock and metal festival, teamed up again for a show in Bologna.
This night was interesting for another reason, too. Exactly ten years earlier, on 03.06.2006, Idroscalo near Milan hosted the Gods of Metal festival, and that edition featured four people we got to see exactly ten years later at the show in Bologna’s Estragon club. Three of them are members of Gamma Ray, namely Kai Hansen (vocals, guitar), Dirk Schlächter (bass) and Henjo Richter (guitar), plus the brand-new Megadeth guitarist Kiko Loureiro, who played Gods Of Metal 2006 with the Brazilian prog-metallers Angra.
It’s eight in the evening. Bologna’s Estragon is already packed to the rafters and still filling up. Plenty of people will end up stuck outside and miss Gamma Ray, who in this lineup logically took the support slot. As expected, Gamma Ray made their 40 minutes count with total routine. They clearly loved the jam-packed hall and the fact that they could play a trimmed-down set and save some energy. Which means they could be completely relaxed and carefree. The band actually put together a shorter setlist than the one from November, when we caught the band on that tour in Graz. So Gamma Ray played a »mini-best of« and kicked off the show with the expected Heaven Can Wait. In the first part of the song only Hansen, Schlächter, Richter and drummer Ehre were on stage, then the band’s newest member, singer Frank Beck, joined them. Big stage, huge crowd. The guys were grinning the whole time, and there was no shortage of positive energy and feverish playing. With their enormous mileage, Gamma Ray are an incredibly seasoned crew, and it shows on stage too. They’re ridiculously tight and know each other inside out. Only Man on the Mission, the one song Gamma Ray didn’t play in November, on the first tour with Frank Beck in the lineup, showed some weak spots. Frank just hadn’t nailed the song well enough. So there was quite a bit of fumbling on stage as he hunted for the right vocal range in the verse and chorus melodies. Considering he kept shuffling left and right through the performance, he may not have been able to hear himself well enough on stage. Right through Man on a Mission, Frank generally only found his pitch once Hansen, Schlächter and Richter joined in with vocal harmonies. Otherwise, though, Frank hits every register Hansen wants to hear. He proved that convincingly. Those vocal parts, that is, that Kai himself no longer wants to sing. So, mission accomplished. In front of the stage the band had a hefty crowd of fired-up fans who either knew every verse or howled wildly the whole time, »Gamma Ray, Gamma Ray,…« They came, had a blast in a measly 40 minutes, partied, and left the stage in a flash. But they also delivered a great show. Just as you’d always expect from Gamma Ray, and as it should be.
Dave Mustaine and co. were there to present the new album »Dystopia« (2016), their fifteenth overall. While the album was being made, Dave once again thoroughly shook up the lineup, which no longer surprises anyone. Stepping in for Chris Broderick is probably Mustaine’s greatest find in recent times, the exceptional Brazilian guitarist Kiko Loureiro, whom some of you may remember from his guitar clinics, when he played Ljubljana’s Orto Bar twice, first solo, then alongside Guthrie Govan (Steven Wilson, The Aristocrats). Last year, Chris Adler of Lamb of God stepped in for Shawn Drover. »Dystopia« is the album that fans of the old-school Megadeth had been waiting for far too long, having pretty much given up on Mustaine. But »Dystopia« put everything back in its place. It has excellent material that, in any combination, blends phenomenally with the ironclad classics in the band’s repertoire.
Otherwise, Megadeth didn’t surprise anyone in Bologna. The setlist was practically identical to the one from Metaldays, except the guys slipped a few songs from the new album into the mix. As expected, Loureiro brought real freshness to the stage. The band also feels more dynamic again with him in the lineup, and his classical training is a great asset for Mustaine’s songwriting too. Mustaine, Eleffson and Loureiro kept swapping places during the show, moving between the center and the left and right sides. Mustaine remains venomous in every sense of the word. The grim frontman threw only a few glances at the crowd during the show, his tousled hair, that trademark thick curly mane, covering his face the whole time. He first addressed the crowd only after the fourth song, saying that Megadeth had never played Bologna before.
Estragon was packed to the last corner. Megadeth hit the stage at 21:25. People were still trickling into the hall. Packed in like sardines, unbearable heat, and consequently thin, used-up air. Hell in every respect. Up front, only a small ritual space for moshing barely opened up; otherwise people couldn’t even move properly. Even though it was a headliner show, Megadeth played a measly hour and twenty minutes (encore included), believe it or not. But with all the mandatory standards in the set. Tornado! No more, no less. Nothing else was to be expected. The hellishly heated, riled-up crowd just wouldn’t let up in its madness and frenzy. Mustaine held up decently on vocals, though toward the end his voice slowly began burning out, which is the standard remark we’ve been hearing at Megadeth shows in recent years. But we’ve heard far worse performances from Dave, too. A special note: Chris Adler isn’t drumming on this tour, having pulled out because of his commitments to Lamb of God; Dirk Verbeuren of Soilwork stepped in to help. The band spiced up the closing stretch of the show with the excellent new song Dystopia, then, as expected, headed into the finale with Symphony of Destruction, which the full hall of some 4000 red-hot heads once again joined in on with »Mega-deth, Mega-deth,…«
Before the obligatory encore, Mustaine asked everyone in the hall for a minute of silence in memory of the late former Megadeth drummer Nick Menza. When, after a few attempts, Mustaine realized he wasn’t going to quiet the crowd, he stepped up to the mic and said: Don’t you have even a speck of respect for the dead?!? A minute of silence, please!!« No luck this time either. Anyway, Holy Wars… still rang out, a song born from Mustaine’s impressions of touring Ireland in the late eighties, which he’ll remember for the rest of his life, and that was the finale.
Closing thought? Routine. Showed up and played. As business demands. The inconsolable Mustaine still buys the crowd’s affection very convincingly with his venomous presence, his charisma, his ruffian streak, an attitude that gives off a sense of the eternal rebel. Let’s hope this tour is followed by a club run this fall. As said, the new album and the arrival of Kiko Loureiro are the key to the rebirth of one of the most striking eminences in all of metal, who with his visionary spirit made a huge contribution to the development of the genre. In this respect Mustaine remains one of the most important figures in metal.
Setlist
GAMMA RAY:
1. Welcome
2. Heaven Can Wait
3. Fight
4. I Want Out
5. Induction
6. Dethrone Tyranny
7. Master of Confusion
8. Rebellion in Dreamland
10. Send Me a Sign
MEGADETH:
1. Hangar 18
2. The Threat Is Real
3. Wake Up Dead
4. In My Darkest Hour
5. Post American World
6. Dawn Patrol
7. Poison Was the Cure
8. Poisonous Shadows
9. She-Wolf
10. Sweating Bullets
11. A Tout Le Monde
12. Trust
13. Dystopia
14. Symphony of Destruction
15. Peace Sells
—encore—
16. Holy Wars… The Punishment Due
Photo Gallery
