MEGADETH
The Big Four at Tuborg Green Fest presented by Sonisphere Festivals
Romexpo - Bucharest, Romania
June 26, 2010

Megadeth was the second band to play at Sonisphere Romania. I would have expected them to play later; to me they deserved to be just before Metallica, at Slayer’s schedule.

If Anthrax were celebrating the return of Joey Belladonna, Megadeth were celebrating the return of David Ellefson.

Of course it would have been great to have Chris Poland, or Marty Friedman with Nick Menza in order to have a classic line-up.
But I think Megadeth has a great line-up nowadays, with Chris Broderick on guitar and Shan Drover on drums.

As you might know, Megadeth are celebrating in 2010 the 20th anniversary of the masterpiece Rust In Piece, and they were playing the album in its entirety in the US as well as in some selected European shows.

At the first show of the Big Four, at the Sonisphere Festival in Warsaw, Poland, Megadeth played the whole Rust In Peace. I was expecting them to do the same here…

The stage was decorated with a backdrop of the Rust in Peace album a bit reworked.
The drums were painted with a radioactive sign, as were 1990’s Nick Menza drums.
Dave Mustaine was wearing a white shirt, just as he used to do at that time, and he had a guitar with the Rust in Peace artwork.

Magadeth started with an incredible version of Holy Wars, followed by a great Hangar 18!
But as we expected Take No Prisoners, Mustaine said on the microphone “The next song is about crushing people’s heads” to announce Headcrusher…
The dream of hearing the complete Rust in Peace album was over.

Well, I hope next time I’ll see them they’ll play it, but anyway I’m not going to complaint about Megadeth’s setlist: Sweating Bullets, Hook In Mouth , In My Darkest Hour… They played many classics and great songs.

Dave Mustaine didn’t talk a lot. Megadeth played song after song with little time off.
He introduced Skin O’My Teeth as “This is a song I wrote on my way back from the dentist”, and before A Tout Le Monde he said something about France.

Dave Mustaine’s solos sounded great, and his right hand for the rhythm parts is impressive.
The man looks as young as in the beginning! Scott Ian, James Hetfield, Tom Araya or Jeff Hannemann they all do their age. But Mustaine still looks like a young man, even if his face is hidden most of the time by his blond and abundant hair.

It was really cool to see David Ellefson back on stage with Megadeth. I missed him! Last time I saw him side by side with Mustaine was in 2002!

Of course James Lo Menzo is great and I enjoyed a lot seeing Megadeth with him.
But when Junior started to play Peace Sells I thought “that’s right! A great bass part played by the man that should play it!”.

During the whole show his bass was very loud, but that’s not a sound problem when talking about Megadeth!

Chris Broderick proved once again that he is great in his lead guitar role.
He seems very well integrated to the band.

He goes left and right of the stage, spends his time headbanging, and his solos sound very good, even those composed by Marty Friedman’s and Chris Poland. Well, Mustaine took some of those solos, so they really share the lead guitar role now. I hope Chris Broderick will stay in Megadeth for a long time.

Now, the man that should never ever leave Megadeth is Shawn Drover.
Hey Mustaine, please read this: never fire him!
He’s one of the best, or probably the best drummer Megadeth has ever had (And yes, I know Nick Menza and Jimmy DeGrasso have played in this band).
Playing drums fast seems like a child’s play to him.
He seems so peaceful, not even pulling faces when playing hard parts.

Also, he has reworked drum parts of the previous drummers and makes them sound, if not better, at least as good as the original.

The audience responded extremely well to the set of Megadeth.
During Symphony Of Destruction everyone was singing the melody like in the Buenos Aires That One Night DVD.
Except that they sang “Me me me Megadeth” instead of “Aguante Megadeth”.

Also, after the end of the show I wanted to buy a Megadeth T-shirt but they were sold out (Anthrax T-shirts were sold out as well; there were only Slayer and Metallica clothes left)!!

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Setlist Megadeth – Sonisphere Tuborg Green festival, Romexpo, Bucharest, Romania – June 26, 2010

01. Holy Wars... The Punishment Due
02. Hangar 18
03. Headcrusher
04. In My Darkest Hour
05. Skin O' My Teeth
06. A Tout Le Monde
07. Hook In Mouth
08. Trust
09. Sweating Bullets
10. Symphony Of Destruction
11. Peace Sells
12. She-Wolf
13. Holy Wars... The Punishment Due (reprise)

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