MEGADETH - Rock City (live) Posted by claire on Wednesday, July 18, 2001 The Support act was Defenestration. This group certainly know how to play decent rock music. Right from the beginning of their set the audience were jumping around and moshing. The audience were buzzing with excitement in anticipation of the arrival of Megadeth. Everyone in the audience was wearing the stereotypical rock attire- faded jeans, rock T-shirts, denim or leather jackets. Not a single teeny bopper to be seen- it was how things used to be at Rock City. As soon as Megadeth arrived on stage, they blasted straight into ŒDread and the Fugitive Mind1. Dave Mustaine`s unique growling voice sent a shiver down my spine and made the audience go absolutely berserk. This was moshing at it1s best. This is the way I like my gigs to be, loud, fast, and extremely energetic. After the first couple of songs my ear drums began to feel like they were going to explode due to the extreme volume of Megadeth`s sound system. At this point I notice that there is something different about Megadeth, they have a new guitarist (Al Pitrelli), which I instantly recognise as Alice Cooper`s former guitarist. Al Pitrelli is a brilliant replacement for Marty Friedman. In fact I could not spot any differences between their amazing playing ability, Al Pitrelli seems to be a lot more relaxed on stage than Marty Friedman used to be. Not to be outshone by Al Pitrrelli, Dave Mustaine decided to show how calm and relaxed he can be by talking to one of his guitar technicians whilst playing a blistering, lightning speed solo. In no time at all, Megadeth had whizzed through their classic hits like ŒSweating Bullets1,ŒA Tout Le Monde1, ŒTrain of Consequences1 and ŒPeace Sells1. At this point Dave Mustaine swapped his flying V guitar for a double-necked guitar to perform ŒAlmost Honest1. They then abruptly said bye and walked off the stage to a thunderous applause. However after such a brilliant performance, there was no way that the audience were going to let them go home without doing an encore. Sure enough the band returned to do an encore. The encore included the all time classic ŒSymphony of Destruction1, which had an extended guitar solo incorporated into it. Megadeth never fail to amaze me. They are so talented and entertaining yet they never quite managed to achieve the same success as bands like Metallica. Dave Mustaine has that air of evil round him every time he is on stage, and his growling voice and snarling face leaves me wondering if he is actually the devil in disguise. They always put on an excellent show and they have found the right balance between audience participation and playing songs. The only downside is that this gig was probably too loud, I know that I said that I like gigs to be extremely loud, but I also like to hear what people are saying to me two days after the gig. Apart from that it was an exceptional gig. Luke Seagrave.