Slayer/Megadeth/Testament @ Cow Palace

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The American Carnage Tour, featuring Slayer, Megadeth, and Testament, was supposed to come through in January. Though I groan about high-priced concerts, I eagerly bought a ticket last fall, as this would (nearly) be an opportunity to make up for the legendary Clash of the Titans concerts I missed as a kid. Tom Araya’s emergency back surgery meant that this concert was postponed another eight months. So I could’ve had a kid in the time I waited for this show, making it the longest cleft between ticket purchase and concert that I’ve yet experienced. If I were still 14, this wait would have been intolerable. As an adult, of course, I have much more important things to worry about in the meantime. Everyone once in a while though, I would look at the ticket in my drawer and smile giddily to myself and think, “Holy shit, I’m gonna see all of Rust In Peace“.

Cosmo shared his thoughts recently on playing the favorites, and I have to say, I am a sucker for the “play our classic album in its entirety” trend that’s sweeping the live music landscape – especially if that album is Rust in Peace. RIP is in my personal all-time top ten, a primer on hooky, heavy, lateral songwriting, and alongside Reign in Blood, perhaps the most focused burst of thrash inspiration from that era. Watching Seasons in the Abyss performed was an enticement, though I’d have preferred South of Heaven. Still, there are several undeniable tracks on Seasons, and if it’s been 15 years since I’ve seen Slayer live, I’m well overdue for a re-up.

Approaching the Cow Palace in South San Francisco, I’m happy to find the metal parking lot a scenario fixed in amber – this could be anytime, anywhere. Dudes both male and female are pounding beers and yelling “Slayer!” at me. Everyone’s got a band shirt and a drink, and appears to be getting amped up for the show. Someone offers me an ice-cold beer while waiting in line. Enthusiasm abounds, and for a moment I’m touched to share this raw excitement with so many.

That feeling didn’t necessarily endure. Once inside, I see that the aggressive pit jock subspecies still thrives. Some things never change, and I can still tell who I don’t want to have near me when the pit starts. Actually, I’m surprised by how many metal archetypes are still alive and well. There’s still the angsty 15-year-olds with longish hair wearing their freshly bought concert shirts (I was one of those). There’s still the shirtless, buff dude in baggy Dickies with a “White Pride” tattoo on his back. (Actually, I saw one of these guys get his ass kicked at my first Slayer show.) There’s still the washed-up groupie wearing stiletto heels in the pit and tight, pseudo-designer denim. If metal’s been crossing over in recent years, it’s barely altered the touring thrash band’s demographic. I don’t see too many people who couldn’t be pegged as the metal guy/gal in their own personal spheres. I do see more women than ever before, but other than that (and the omnipresence of smartphones), this could be 1994.

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The show started brutally on time with Testament hitting the stage at exactly 7pm. I’ve never been the biggest Testament fan. I don’t think they have a single indispensable album in their collection, though they definitely have at least a handful of excellent songs on all of them. There’s a default setting on too many Testament songs wherein a forgettable riff in E plods at midtempo. Coupled with poor live sound, this made very little of the set stand out for me. New track “The Formation of Damnation” was an enormous highlight, however. Testament is one of those rare thrash originals where it makes perfect sense to prefer their later stuff, as it’s some of their heaviest, most memorable work. Classic “Over the Wall” sated my desire for the oldies. Testament’s career peaks are their earliest and most recent LPs, and it’s fortunate that their current set acknowledges that much.

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Megadeth took the stage and launched right into Rust in Peace, followed by a decidedly selective collection of latter-era hits. In light of my excitement for this spectacle, I don’t think I can be too objective in my assessment. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and even though knowing what you’re getting starts to stale the whole thing after a while, this is a fantastic album whose deep cuts are all basically hits for the band’s fans. Sing/shout-a-long potential was high for most of these tracks, as the call-and-response vocals in tracks like “Take No Prisoners” and “Five Magics” were a sincerely fun part of this show. Good for Megadeth that everyone was so game to help out, as Dave Mustaine missed or otherwise neglected his lines several times per song throughout their set – not in that “now you sing” way, either. Perhaps the difficulties of playing complex guitar and singing have caught up with him, but at least he and lead guitarist Chris Broderick more than delivered on the former. I happen to be a big fan of RIP‘s lyrics, but I’m an even bigger fan of the riffs (I even paid tribute to one of them on IO), and these are such optimized paeans to the form, I found myself slackjawed a couple times, hearing them in all their stadium-filling glory.

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Opting to change things up slightly, Slayer played a couple of new tracks off World Painted Blood before starting Seasons in the Abyss. There’s a reason you’ve never heard of a tired, uninspired Slayer show; if they exist, they are as vaguely documented as Sasquatch sightings. Perhaps the only thing that could derail the orchestrated intensity of this band live is to force them to play an album like Seasons. Slayer have a lot of great material, but their deep cuts cut less deep the further along you follow their career. I would argue that phenomenon began in earnest with Seasons. I don’t precisely dislike these songs, but “Expendable Youth” and “Temptation” really dragged live. Perhaps it has something to do with a lack of spontaneity. Expecting “Hell Awaits” and getting “Expendable Youth” is quite different than expecting “Expendable Youth” and getting “Expendable Youth”. In the former case, you might wonder why Slayer are taking it down a notch, then decide that the next song will be that much more brutal. In the latter, the lack of spontaniety has greater dimension due to the fact that it was a requirement, not a decision. That’s not to say Slayer weren’t eminently enjoyable to watch, or that I didn’t have a great time. They were, and I did. Ultimately, there are few albums by any band that merit this kind of treatment. Ones that are truly no more than a collection of songs are not them. Of course, it does increase anticipation (my own included) and, as Dave Lombardo mentioned recently, promoters like it when you do shit like that.

Perhaps my assessment of this show also has something to do with age: mine (30) and the members of these bands, most of whom are pushing 50. At this point, these guys are career thrash musicians. It’s a job, albeit a pretty cool one. Then again, these guys have to pony up for things like mortgages, kids, and back surgery with the funds reaped from sweaty dudes watching them play 20 year-old music. One wonders when the fun stopped. I might not think these thoughts if I were still 15, but at this point I can’t help watching any live music without a critical lens. I’m a musician, and I rarely leave a show without adding a few entries to an internal DOs and DON’Ts list, establishing lines of integrity and principle for how to make music. The more perspectives I consider, the more meaningless these DOs and DON’Ts become. Enjoyment is an unprincipled thing. After lapping up two bands who pandered to my sentimentality in order to rake in some cash, I’m honestly about to throw that list out.

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Photos by Dave Schalek from Long Beach Arena, August 30, 2010.
Schalek’s show review appears here.

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