Just got home from seeing Megadeth, Testament, and Exodus at Stubb’s BBQ in Austin.

I have to make this brief as well… it’s late, I’m tired and want to go to bed. 🙂

Exodus was alright. Only one original member of the band, so in a lot of respects it seemed like a cover-band up there. But they were tight, thrashed pretty hard. I don’t remember the whole set list, but I know “Bonded by Blood” opened things up. “Fabulous Disaster”, “War is My Shepherd”, and of course “Toxic Waltz” were played as well. The vocalist had a thing for “old school” and “circle pits”… sorry but it’s not how many people are “old school” at this show.. .it’s how many of us are just old. 😉  But still, they put on a heck of a show for an opener.

Testament was the main attraction for me. They played all of their first album “The Legacy”, which was awesome. They also added a couple more songs, “D.N.R.” and “Three Days of Darkness”, which was more awesome. What sucked tho was their sound mix. It was terrible. Toms and kick drum were very clearly heard, everything else was lost. It was pretty bad and they need to fire that sound guy. Plus Eric Peterson had some technical problems at one point (you could hear the bad ground). Nevertheless, Testament was awesome. My neck will be sore in the morning. 🙂

The catch with Megadeth was playing all of “Rust In Peace”, which sounded terrific. I admit I’m not the biggest Megadeth fan, and what I do like tends to be older stuff like “Peace Sells” or maybe the most recent would be from “Symphony” (tho the new one, “Endgame” is pretty cool). They were tight. Just boom boom boom, song after song, little banter in between. Just a machine gun out there. In addition to all of “Rust In Peace”, other songs included “In My Darkest Hour”, “Trust”, “Symphony of Destruction”, “Skin of My Teeth”, “Peace Sells”… can’t remember them all. That new guitar player, Chris Broderick… man, he’s awesome.

Good show. Marred by poor sound mixes and some technical problems, but apart from that most enjoyable.

One question tho… why do people feel a need to fling their full beer cups across the place into the crowd? Not only is that a waste of good beer, but I know I wouldn’t appreciate getting smacked and soaked like that. If it doesn’t bother you, then instead of throwing the beer like that just pour it over yourself and hit your own head. Assholes.

Other observations. Lots of young people there… I mean like under the age of 16… even under 10. Saw a good-looking chick with a Cannibal Corpse tank-top on… that’s a rare sight. And boy… everyone has a mobile phone. No more lighters going up… it’s all LCD displays lighting things up. Pictures, video, texting, messages… it’s amazing how much “LCD pollution” there is during a show. I’m guilty of it myself (kept snapping pics and emailing my buddy W who couldn’t attend the show).

Anyway… off to bed. Tomorrow (well… it’s after midnight now so I guess today) shall be interesting.