Megadeth,Testament,Exodus-Scranton PA 3-18-10

Megadeth rolled through Scranton PA,  playing the Scranton Cultural Center’s Grand Ballroom on March 18^th on their 20^th anniversary tour for their Rust In Peace album. Their set started off with Skin O’ My Teeth, In My Darkest Hour and She Wolf. And then the moment everyone came for, band went in to their 1990 album Rust In Peace. The encore seemed to please the crowd starting with Headcrusher from the 2009 release Endgame. Next up was Trust followed by the classic Peace Sells. Holywars ended the bands set .

But lets not forget the bands that opened this show. Megadeth followed thrash metal bands Testament and Exodus. Testament played their 1987 album The Legacy in it’s entirety. The highlight of Testament’s set was the 2 closing songs Alone In The Dark and Apocalyptic City.

Exodus opened the show. And after seeing all three bands they looked like the headliner. I know someone reading this, that might have been there may beg to differ. Let me explain. Megadeth and Testament ripped through 2 great sets of killer music. But, Exodus looked and sounded hungry. As if they came to kill the first 10 rows of people. Singer , Rob Dukes knows how to control a crowd and does it well. I have not seen a pit that energized since my last Pantera show. Exodus played  for 45 minutes and did songs form Bonded by Blood , Pleasures Of The Flesh and Fabulous Disasters. Before their last song, Rob Dukes asked for a wall of death and he got one just as they went in to The Toxic Waltz. This was one of the best nights of metal that I have seen in a long tome.

Bango Tango

I walked in to find the club almost empty. I could tell right away the energy was not good at all. I don’t care what band is on stage, as a fan if the crowd sucks its kind of hard to get into the show. The band took the stage and come out swinging. Guitar player Alex Grosse (Beautiful Creatures) killed on guitar as did Drummer Trent Anderson (The Dogs Divine, D Molls) and Bass player Lance Eric. Joe didn’t sound all that great he tired to get the crowd into it but from what I could see it just was not happening. Again the crowd was very small in front of the stage. I did not count the people but if I had to take a guess I would say about 20 people at best. The rest of the crowd sat at the bar doing nothing. Joe hit his head 3 times on an over head monitor . The last time was a pretty good bump but he didn’t stop. The band closed the show with Some One Like You .

After the show I spoke with Joe about The M3 Festival taking place June 19^th in MD. He said “they would be playing the second stage” but he didn’t know what time slot. When asked about the new CD he told me “it would be out some time this year“.