It was a nice treat being offered a chance to review this show and I am thankful to Sanguine's people for putting me on the guest-list for what was one of the smallest venues Megadeth have played in London for a very long time indeed. Not surprisingly, it was a show that sold out very quickly indeed.
The Ballroom was already packed by the time SANGUINE came on and Megadeth fans being the rather overenthusiastic fans they are when Sanguine took a while tuning up the odd call for them to get off was heard. It could have meant they were in for a hard time although Tarin Kerrey's arrival onstage seemed to shut up the hecklers and once they started to play they had nothing to worry about, or did they?
The opener was War Song with its' trademark grinding guitar sound and pummelling drumming that sounded like artillery while Tarin alternated 'tween sing and scream. The Southern Heavy was next and had some good low end bass stuff in it with shared vocals with Nick who did the low end growl pretty well. After the song Nick apologised that Tarin's vocals weren't what they should have been. It turned out she had not only a throat infection but also a perforated eardrum, but in proper Heavy Metal Style still played the show.
It did mean they concentrated on the songs she sings rather than screams and God Save was one of the songs that reminds me of Little Hell a whole lot and that is no bad thing. Contagious was possibly how Tarin was feeling but it certainly had an infectious sound to it and had a good section of the crowd going even if some of them were just gawping at Tarin's short skirt and legs.
They Got Plans had a hardcore edge to it as they battered the plans into our brains and let us know it was going to be important to dodge the Killing Seeds.That came next and seemed to go down pretty well in this crowd, no matter how much Tarin's vocals were suffering she and the band still put everything into it. They signed off with Live Consume Die:a full-on crunching guitar battle of a finish. I hope to see them again with Tarin in full control of her voice. I'd also like to thank the barman who alerted security to deal with the idiot who was abusing his girlfriend by the bar. He deserved to get 86'd.
There was plenty of chanting for MEGADETH before they came on and the place was well up for it by the time they cpened with Never Dead. It was full on sludgy as you like thrash from the outset with Dave Mustaine almost mumble singing some of the lyrics but, damn, from the first few seconds of his first guitar solo it was clear he was going to be far more inventive and varied than Slash was a week earlier as he ran his pick up the fretboard toward the end of the song.
Headcrusher really got the place going and I enjoyed seeing Dave switch microphones to make sure we could all hear the backing vocals properly as the audience also sang along to most of the set. Mr. Mustaine introduced Hangar 18 as a song we would all know and from the opening chords it seemed he was right, which is no surprise. She-wolf sounded great and very angry at being mistreated like that by a woman with a great rumbling bass underpinning it all from David Ellefson: the only other original member still in the band.
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Trust was properly menacing and seemed to deal with similar territory to She-Wolf. It saw the appearence of Dave's Flying W guitar that certainly sounded great. Foreclosure Of A Dream ground that dream deep in our brains with a scouring guitar thrash. Was it time for a Dawn Patrol? Of course it was and the more the show went on, the more Dave Mustaine's inbetween song banter improved as he took the piss out of someone upfront for moaning that it was too hot in the venue, like he had any control of that! The only thing could be That Poison Was The Cure for it.
Next up was the classic Tout Le Monde, both the slowest song of the night and the biggest crowd pleasing sing along, though thankfully there weren't too many raised phones or lighters for it. Still soon enough they were Angry Again which actually seemed prescient as during Dave's intro for the next song he was interrupted by someone shouting and told him that he would wait and stood glowering at the guy who carried on chatting till he realised the whole place wanted him to shut the f-up. Dave could then tell us the song was about the drug wars in Mexico right now and of course it was Guns, Drugs & Money which reminded me of Torme's Love Guns & Money updated for a more deadly situation. Either way it rocked.
We then got philosophical on Whose life is It Anyway: an impressive call for everyone to live how they want to and not to try to enforce your views onto others. Well they know how to build to a climax and Public Enemy No 1 was as good a place as any to do that as the pit opened up and the place went mad ahead of the inevitable Symphony of Destruction. That gave the night it's largest mosh pit by far in the heavy bits and then a gaping hole during the quiet parts. They closed the set with a great version of Peace Sells with the intent of the lyrics crystal clear as they left the stage to huge applause.
They came back to play a slowly building version of Holy Wars...The Punishment Due which also nailed the band's convictions to the walls and was a great way to go out. After more applause they were gone at the end of a truly bitching set.
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