Leo Pareti Review
for CMAC
7.11.2013
GIGANTOUR FESTIVAL REVIEW
FEATURING
MEGADETH, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, DEVICE, HELLYEAH, NEWSTED & DEATH DIVISION.
MEGADETH, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, DEVICE, HELLYEAH, NEWSTED & DEATH DIVISION.
Last
Saturday saw the reemergence of metal at CMAC, one of the best outdoor venues
in Upstate NY to see live music. This time around, metal came in the form of
Gigantour 2013 featuring Megadeth, Black Label Society, Device, Hellyeah,
Newsted and Death Division. A Spin
off of Ozzfest, Gigantour has been around for several years. The tour was
created by Megadeth, who headline the tour annually. Despite the presence of
Zack Wilde in Black Label Society, and Megadeth themselves, the overall
performance of the bands last Saturday proves that Metal is unfortunately dead in
today’s vast musical world, except of course to the many skinheads and vampire
chics that listen to it.
Outside
of this tour, metal itself has always have had some outstanding musicians SUCH
AS Black Sabbath, Metallica and Anthrax. There are many forms of great metal
that’s been around for many years and some new bands, including the Sword, All
Share Parish and Dead Sara, who are all emerging artists in that genre that
deserve a listen to. Gigantour tour has been dedicated exclusively to metal,
and the bands that have performed // over the years are at the heart of the
scene. Each band in Gigantour this year proudly has declared that, asking
everyone in the crowd to raise their ‘devil horns’ and constantly inform them
that they’re at a ‘metal fucking concert’. On those terms, this year’s ///bands
signifies that the quality and performance of most metal musicians over the
past few decades and especially the past few years have declined significantly.
The
festival was several hours long, starting at 4:30PM. It was incredibly hot
throughout the day Saturday with temperatures souring around 90 degrees F at
CMAC. This alone is confusion as to why most of the crowd was wearing black,
but that of course is part of metal scene and must be present at all metal shows.
The people in the concert were entertainment, providing a great people seer experience. The many different
shirts and their logos were enough evidence alone that you were indeed at a
metal show. Every 3rd
person was wearing a metal shirt, whether it be Black Label Society, Megadeth
or Metallica. There were some rather odd ball characters in the crowd,
including a guy who shaved his head and had tattoos all over it. Even the
people behind us, who were more dedicated to metal then we were, were saying ‘man,
that guy’s really into it!’. Some interesting T shirts were one that reading,
‘Shut the Fuck Up’, and another black shirt with a rat on it with a crossed out
x sign on top of it stating ‘NO RATS’. It’s easy to say that the people were
almost more entertaining than the bands themselves at this particular concert.
Several
of the opening bands weren’t too good, which unfortunately was the case with
most of this show. Both Death Division and Newsted proved to be over the top in
their fields with too much loud static noise overcoming any possibility of
actually hearing what the lead singer was saying. While Death Division was very
grateful for opening up the Gigantour, and Newsted featuring Jason Newsted who
was the bassist for Metallica, the positives of the first few bands surely did
not outweigh the negatives. One would expect more from Jason Newsted, who’s
been in the business for several decades now, but his band showed little effort
of variation from other metal bands in the same genre.
The
entire concert seemed like some rock star singer’s other bands from groups we
all know, which technically, the opening couple bands were. The next band
proved to be the only decent performance of Gigantour. Hellyeah, a sort of
supergroup featuring members from Mudvayne, Pantera and Nothingface exploded
onto the scene at the hottest part of the day. This didn’t keep the crowd from
jumping up and cheering them on. Hellyeah is indeed a heavy metal band, with
Chad Gray shouting out words of encouragement to the crowd to party along with
them during their set. His bright red hair made him noticeable from even the
back seats and lawn as he jumped around the stage with endless energy. They
powered through singles like ‘Hell of a Time’ and ‘Drink Drank Drunk’, getting
the crowd wound up and pumping their fists in the air, reminding everyone there
that they are witnesses a metal experience. To say the least, Hellyeah rocked
CMAC last Saturday afternoon and the band may have a bright future in store for
them based on their performance alone.
The
energy and positively from Hellyeah did not carry onto the next band. This of
course being Device which is David Draiman of Disturbed’s new band. If
anything, their performance was just the opposite and created some negative
energy towards the crowd. Fellow CMAC concert goer Scott Lamb from Rochester,
NY stated, ‘Man, I hate that guy, he might have been a big deal with Disturbed,
but not anymore.’ halfway through their set and he actually left the venue.
During one of their sets, David pointed out to two girls in the front row who
were sitting down, ‘If you can’t stand up and like us during our set, then get
the fuck out of the amphitheater and come back at the end’. To some regards,
it’s understandable how he’d want people to stand up and have a good time, but
saying comments like that is just wrong and shouldn’t be said during any
concert. After the concert in the parking lot, a group of fans walking by
stating that ‘Device sucked, they should be playing at the local distillery for
$5, not playing at a huge metal festival’.
The
biggest disappointment of the night came from Zack Wilde and Black Label
Society. This was perhaps the most anticipated act of the festival, with many
fans wearing the bands t-shirts. Black Label Society has been around for many
years now, and their reputation as being the ‘Kings of Death Metal’, ‘Skull
Bound’, and in the ‘Motorcycle club’ has followed them to today when they
graced the stage at CMAC. However, despite Zack Wilde’s legendary status as a
great guitar player, his voice was muffled and the sound of every instrument
was distorted. A familiar comparison of sound to describe their performance
maybe compared to white noise. And everyone that goes to concerts and
performances should know that sound is one of the keys to a good
performance.
Closing
out the festival was Megadeth, part of the BIG 4 (Being Metallica, Anthrax
along with Slayer). Their stage up was impressive with the drum set far above
the stage and massive video screens on each side showing a wide variety of
political and weird images that went along with their songs. Some of the good
things about their performance was that Megadeth showed several movie clips in
which their name alone was mentioned in the film. Which was funny and inspiring
knowing that the band’s reputation is even included in classic Hollywood films.
They performed most of their singles, including ‘Symphony of Destruction’. Dave
Mustaine did not leave out their political up bringing either, and he gave a
speech about the government and C.I.A listening in on everyone’s messages,
emails and phone calls. At the end he clearly stated his views on it, saying,
‘Man, I’ve been saying this shit for 30 years. Now don’t fucking spy on us!’
Despite
the lead singers energy, Megadeth’s performance was/// lukewarm at best. It was
alright to sum it up, but it could have been a lot better. For being part of
the Big 4 and a legendary metal band, one would have expected a/// better
quality performance than the one they gave CMAC last Saturday nigh,t especially
as the headliner band.
Metal
has been on the music scene for several dozen years now, but in today’s world,
it may be dissipating judging form the performances at Gigantour. Is Metal
dead? From this tour, which unfortunately had more downs than ups, it’s safe to
say that the answer maybe yes.
GIGANTOUR festival Rating
C- Or ** out of ***** Stars
Set list:
Megadeth @ CMAC:
1) Trust
2) Hangar 18
3) Kingmaker
4) She-Wolf
5) Skin o my teeth
6) Architecture of Aggression
7) Sweating Bullets
8) Ashes in your Mouth
9) Hook in Mouth
10) A Tout Le Monde
11) Super Collider
12) Symphony of Destruction
13) Peace Sells
Encore:
14) Cold Sweat (Thin Lizzy Cover)
15) Holy Wars...The Punishment Due
Black Label Society Set list:
1) Godspeed Hell Bound
2) Destruction Overdrive
3) Bleed for me
4) Forever Down
5) Guitar Solo
6) Parade of the Dead
7) Overload
8) Guitar Solo
9) Suicide Messiah
10) Concrete Jungle
11) Stillborn
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