MEGADETH
Polideportivo Envigado - Medellín, Colombia
November 29 2011

Take a look at the picture on the left: the city Vic Rattlehead dominating the city while there's a traffic jam on the road... With the name Medellin written like Megadeth!

Isn't it the best possible advertisement for a concert? Is this a metal city or what??

Those were the promotion posters for Megadeth's first concert ever in Medellin, and many fans were waiting for such a special night!

I spent a few days in Colombia in November 2011 and Megadeth where doing a Latin American Tour for their latest record: TH1RT3EN. They played two gigs in Colombia and I had the chance to see Megadeth concert in Medellin with two good friends.

I said it on the review from Iron Maiden in Bogota: ticket prices in Colombia and generally in South America are too expensive.
If promoters low down the prices, they’ll bring more people and certainly would earn more money too. As a result, less that 2000 people attended tonight’s concert. How sad!

Once at the venue, I noticed that the concert was very well organized.
Outside, most people stayed on the line and inside, there were stands with food, beer and cheap merchandising. An official T-shirt costed about 12 euro, and it was only 8 euro for the (unofficial) event shirt.
There was almost too much security, the crowds were respectful, joyful and organized.

And how was the concert itself? For the people who were seeing Megadeth for the first time, I assume it was just amazing.
But for those who’ve seen Megadeth before, it was the very minimum we can expect.

The band had customized stage and brought a very good light show.
Many efforts were made to get a good sound but it wasn’t possible. But if the sound was quite bad, that wasn’t Megadeth’s or the sound engineer’s fault: the Polideportivo Envigado is a sports arena and is absolutely not designed for concerts.

Megadeth played for 1 hour 20 minutes. They did it great, they had the energy, they played great versions of the songs but… it was too short. Especially when playing there for the first time.

Not so long ago, they used to play for almost two hours. Colombian fans were really devoted and I think playing such a short set was almost a lack of respect.

The setlist included 4 songs from the masterpiece Rust in Peace, and some of their most beloved classics. But still, tunes like Washington is Next and In My Darkest Hour were missing.

Dave Mustaine didn’t spoke much, but he thanked a lot the audience and he seemed very pleased to be there.
He thrilled the audience by changing the lyrics of Guns, Drugs & Money from "Under The Mexican Sky" to "Under The Colombian Sky".

Dave Mustaine knew what to expect from Colombian fans: Mustaine posted on facebook that Bogotá’s show, the week before, had been the best concert of the tour.

David Ellefson played the last four songs of the gig with a T-shirt of the Megadeth Colombian Fan Club... and he made sure that we all see it!

The crowds threw a flew flags on stage, which ended decorating the drums and the microphones.

At some point we felt in a football game, as we were all singing "oe.. oeoeoe Mustaine Mustaine..."

Everyone headbanged and sang the words of almost every song, including the 3 songs they played from Th1rt3en.
At some point even there was even people moshing between the seats on the side... it was the first time I saw a pogo on the seat rows!

Vic Rattlehead didn’t hit the stage during Peace Sells, but the crowd did something amazing.
Many fans printed paper sheets with the dollar $ and the peace ☮ symbols. That was the answer to the famous “Can you put a price on peace” question!

I loved this show and I enjoyed every minute of it.
Megadeth is still one of my favourite live acts, despite an almost minimalistic show.
It was good, but Megadeth can do much better! Anyway, what's important is that I’m sure the people in Medellin will never forget this gig!.

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Setlist Megadeth – Polideportivo Envigado - Medellín, Colombia – November 29 2011

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