My ears are ringing, my entire body hurts, and last night I smelled worse than I have smelled since I was a teenager, but I wouldn't change a thing. Anthrax, Testament, and Death Angel absolutely brought the goods to Indianapolis last night. My cousin Jason and I made the trip up, and had our minds blown clean apart by some super-high quality thrash metal from these veterans.
Death Angel played first, and their set was pretty short, but they brought an amazing amount of energy to the stage. Frontman Mark Osgueda ran, jumped, and banged his head like it was 1988, and his voice (unlike most other veteran metal singers) has lost very little of its youthful quality. He can still hit the high notes, and he hit them often. DA is the band that I was/am least familiar with, having only owned one album (1990's criminally underrated Act III) and one song from another album (the utterly awesome "Mistress of Pain", from their 1987 debut The Ultra-Violence), and they only played one song I was familiar with ("Mistress of Pain") but their set was fantastically enjoyable nonetheless. Osgueda said they'd be back, and I, for one, will be there to experience it.
Testament has been among my favorite bands for probably the past 20-25 years now, and last night was the first time I had the opportunity to see them live. It was absolutely worth the wait. They hit the stage and immediately launched into "The Preacher", then proceeded to play at least one song from nearly every one of their albums throughout their 45-minute-or-so set. (They didn't play anything off 1994's Low, which I love, or 1997's Demonic, which is easily my least-favorite, but I wasn't really expecting to hear anything from those albums.) They even blasted out "D.N.R. (Do Not Resuscitate)" from The Gathering (1999), and that was a nice surprise, but I digress.
Chuck Billy is probably one of metal's most entertaining frontmen, constantly playing his wireless microphone stand like a guitar when he's not singing/screaming. And speaking of singing/screaming, his voice over the years has definitely gotten deeper at the expense of the high notes, but since he did survive a very rare form of cancer, I say Chuck Billy gets to scream and sing however Chuck Billy wants to sing and scream. The rest of the band was spot-on, as well. The high points of their set were "Into the Pit", "Over the Wall", "Electric Crown", and "Disciples of the Watch", which is probably my favorite Testament song. They played three (maybe four, I can't remember for certain right now) songs from their most recent album The Formation of Damnation, which is easily one of the best current albums from any of the veteran thrash metal bands, but that's a discussion for another post - I just wanted to give it my endorsement. Onward!
When we arrived at the venue, an awesomely weird little security guy was walking the line letting everyone know that "Scotty Ian and the drummer from Anthrax, Charlie" would not be performing with the band, Scott being ill and under doctor's orders to stay home and rest, and Charlie having to go home and be with his terminally ill mother. I was a little bummed about this, but honestly I was there for Testament more than I was for Anthrax. There was a long period of my life when Anthrax was my favorite band by a wide margin, but over the past 5-10 years or so they've made it difficult for me to hang onto them. That, too, is a discussion for another post.
Since Charlie was gone, Gene Hoglan filled in on drums. Mind you, Testament had just finished playing for over 45 minutes, Gene took a 15-20 minute break while the stage was redone, then he came right back out and played another hour with Anthrax. Charlie Benante is an amazing drummer, no doubt, but with The Atomic Clock behind the kit, I honestly didn't miss his presence. No Scott Ian, though? That was going to be a tougher slot to fill, and for the first half of their set, they didn't even try to fill it. Lead guitarist Rob Caggiano played his parts (so excellently) with only Frank Bello's genital-rattling bass (literally!) for rhythmic accompaniment, and there were points where you could tell that something was missing, and things sounded just slightly off (I recall "Caught In a Mosh" and "Antisocial" lacking some heft, in particular). Death Angel Guitarist Rob Cavestany joined them during "In the End" (off 2010's overall-pretty-great Worship Music), "The Devil You Know" (also from Worship Music) and "Madhouse", and DA's other guitarist Ted Aguilar joined them for "Medusa", "Got the Time", and "Indians", and they both slayed.
The primary reason I was stoked for Anthrax is because Joey Belladonna is back on vocals (for like the 5th time since 1999, which is a part of why it's been difficult for me to keep loving them), and I never got a chance to see Anthrax with Joey on vocals in real life. Travis and I saw them in 1996, when only about 30 people knew or cared that they were still a band. They were "co-headlining with" (but really just opening for) the then-newly reformed The Misfits [when Michale Graves was on vocals (before they became the Jerry Only Sideshow, as my friend Sal refers to their current incarnation)], John Bush was their singer, Stomp 442 was the album they were touring for, it was the first time I ever participated in a pit (also the first time I ever thought I might literally die in a crowd at a show), and it was an amazing experience. Then again, I never stopped loving them when John replaced Joey, and I'm pretty sure I'm one of like 8 people in the whole world who likes Stomp 442. Again, I digress. Joey Belladonna still sounds phenomenal, and he, like Mark Osgueda, can still hit most of the high notes. I was also happy to see that his goofy stage banter was still as goofy as ever.
Their set was excellent (they even played "Metal Thrashing Mad"!), and aside from the few awkward moments early on where they really needed that second guitar (and that signature tone), they absolutely killed it. One more thing regarding Scott's absence: I knew he did a lot of backing vocals, but I never realized how much Scott's voice is all over those classic Anthrax songs until I heard them without his voice. It was a bit strange, but they still delivered the goods, and the 3/5 of the band who were there were obviously very thankful to the crowd for delivering the goods right back at them.
My only real complaint? Since Charlie and Scott were absent, I still haven't gotten to see "I'm the Man" live.
That, and $7.00 beers.
