At The Avalon

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By Thraxer

Seven months later: Anthrax at the Avalon. Enough said the review is done.…

Despite opening bands that sucked and the lame ass sound guy that was finger pointing kids in the crowd that were throwing bottles on stage at the shit hardcore bands to the security guards, the crowd was pretty solid. I mean again when a band has to remind its fans how to mosh it kind of kills it. I saw a lot of high tops and denim; looked like a thrash video out of the 80’s…it was comforting.

I got to mention this in hopes the guys from Anthrax will read it: they did not search us at all.

Anyways so were hanging out in the alley on the side of the venue and who else do we see walking down towards us? Scottie Ian with his fiancé Pearl. He was cool. Gave us the fists of fury. Dan Spitz also blew past us…didn’t really feel the fans to much.

Inside we went and they started into Among the Living and in those first 30 seconds everyone is doing their stretches and away we go. The pit was about ten times better than the one back in January and if you were at that show you know how insane the pit was. One big difference was that that night in January we were missing Charlie but tonight we had him and the songs sounded a whole hell of a lot better. So they went right into Caught In A Mosh and kicked our asses. The start of that song live is like revving an engine. Next up was I Am The Law, which was pretty cool to hear at the beginning of a set rather than towards the end, so that was a treat. It’s like they fast forwarded the show but then kept playing for two hours. And thank god Charlie was there because N.F.L. sounded heavy as fuck with dad on drums. The pit was swirling for this one and would only loose speed when people slowed down to yell out “N!”, “F!”, “L!” They played yet again only the second time I ever heard this song live, A Skeleton In The Closet and it was solid.

If you like to mosh this was the show you’d be telling your grand kids about one day. No matter how drunk you were, falling down hitting on the atm machine or tired, broken and bruised from the previous numbers your ass was running.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get faster they pulled out Indians and just played their fucking brains out. It was like the old school videos you see people jumping out of the trees and just moshing. Right before war dance they broke it up and started playing a Zombie number which had us all kind of stop and figure out some math but then right into war dance we went and everybody was kicking up dust stomping around in metal fury. So far they played the heaviest block I have ever seen in my life N.F.L., A Skeleton In The Closet, and Indians. But they kept going with One World. Listen to those four songs and imagine seeing them play then back to back to back to back. Kids were running out of the pit with busted noses. This jam was pretty bad ass, you enjoyed singing it just as much as running to it. The boys looked like they were enjoying it. Danny was shredding on guitar on this one and Joey’s pipes were just as great as ever. At then end of that one they went right into A.D.I./ Horror Of It All. Oh and you know we felt like the luckiest mother fuckers in the world to see this song live. As soon as the stampeding drums kicked in we were off. The music told us to run, faster and faster. The end of this song was a trip they started flashing the strobe lights and all the people were getting messed up, just running in every direction like a bunch of chickens without heads.

Next was Imitation Of Life but they only played the first few seconds of it then went into Got The Time. Frankie was shredding on this one as you all know. At this point they have only been playing for an hour but from what Scott said we still had a few more to go.

They also played Antisocial, and Joey dedicated Medusa to all the chicks that ever did us Anthrax fans wrong.

The live version of Metal Thrashing Mad can never be explained it has to be experienced which was a pretty sick song live. They nailed it! Best version I’ve seen to date.

Last number of the evening was none other then Bring The Noise, which they stopped about 20 seconds into because we weren’t destroying enough, so they went from the top again and we all danced one more time.

All in all Anthrax is always a fun band to see live. The crowd yet again was fucking cool. Talk about respect and looking out for your fellow brother Anthrax fan. You went down you came back up, if you were getting fucked up moshing, someone helped ya out. When someone got hurt or went down people were cool and got out of their way and helped them out. They should of filmed that show, it was pretty bad ass. One of thee best shows ever. Never thought I’d get to experience shit like that once let alone twice.

And from what Scottie mentioned, that line up will be recording a new album, so should make for some good music.

Stay Heavy!

deadguy - 9/28/2006 8:28:34 AM
But I disagree on one thing with Newsferatu: the heaviest block ever played was the "Postmortem-Raining Blood-Altar of Sacrifice-Jesus Saves" block by Slayer on the "Divine Intervention" tour 94. No half-assed medley there, just one killer song after the other...

deadguy - 9/28/2006 8:17:02 AM
Anthrax are amazing live performers...I did like the John Bush-era a lot, but never got to see them with Joey on vocals. Hope this will happen very soon.

goin-blind - 9/24/2006 2:59:04 AM
i don't get anthrax they release what is without a doubt thier best full album to date in "weve come for you all" then get rid of the singer..wtf?

bosox1 - 9/4/2006 3:17:29 PM
Good review and better calling out the shows security not seaching ya...hello do we remember dec,2004 ??

digi_aussie - 9/4/2006 12:21:29 AM
Good review. Brings back memories of the last time Anthrax played in Sydney. Great show at the Uni of NSW Roundhouse. Had a great night that night, band was playing great. Have seen Anthrax 3 times now and loved seeing them every time. Dont know what John Bush will do now, but if he went back to playing in Armored Saint it would be good, cause that band rocks too. Cheers, Digi :)

3crdpkr - 9/1/2006 10:15:09 AM
i am definately sorry i missed this show.

VicRattlehead502 - 9/1/2006 8:25:33 AM
Cool review. It's refreshing to hear a review from someone who ISN'T a self-proclaimed WORD-SMITH. It's from a person who was in the thick of the pit, where you SHOULD be, instead of someone standing to the side, writing down the set list and a few witty notes. I don't mind if it's not in perfect english, as long as they capture the experience for those of us bastards that weren't there. So sayeth the Rattlehead!!

haloofflies - 8/31/2006 7:08:38 AM
Sounded like a cool show. I would like to see more off of Spreading the Disease and Fistful of Metal. Do away with the rap shit. Throw in A.I.R and Armed and Dangerous. That would be better than the rap shit and Antisocial.

givemeaname - 8/29/2006 7:47:09 PM
ANTHRAX was fuckin sick...that shit was awsome...best fuckin circle pits ever, even if the lame ass harcore bands suck ass. but it was a kic ass show. and yeah there was pure denim and high tops..metal is back muther fucker and here to stay!!! METAL THRASHING MAD!!!

geetarist13 - 8/29/2006 2:36:17 PM
yeah

Totems - 8/29/2006 5:00:43 AM
God I hate this band from there love of rap to jams and betrayal of band members.Oh ya I remember reading a interview with Ian about 5 years ago and he said Anthrax would never go the way of pentagrams and such well look at them now.

bobby1766 - 8/28/2006 5:22:22 PM
we do`nt want them in new york either,motley rules 4 life.

RitchieDagger - 8/28/2006 11:38:58 AM
Fuck Anthrax! go back to New York!

twilighthotel - 8/27/2006 3:09:14 PM
Look Mummyman, I am sick of you dissing my reviews. Well, guess what? My girlfriend helped proofread this "rant" and I got one coming next week!

jerryskid1 - 8/26/2006 6:58:26 AM
John Bush with Anthrax was OK, but the most popular lineup will always be the one with Joey on vocals. How many gold albums does Anthrax have with Belladonna?

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