'Rust in Peace' 20th anniversary tour part one:

Megadeth's darkest hour in Baltimore

	Megadeth's Dave Mustaine

Read the Rust in Peace 20th Anniversary tour part two here

MEGADETH (view live photos)
TESTAMENT (view live photos)
EXODUS (view live photos)

March 16, 2010
Rams Head Live
Baltimore, Md.

By JEFF MAKI

We were completely stoked for this special show in Baltimore, a stop on Megadeth's Rust in Peace 20th anniversary tour. But as many of you have heard, it didn't end well. I wouldn't consider it a disaster, (we did get to interview Chris Broderick before the show) but it definitely was a bad night for Megadeth.

Veteran thrashers Exodus opened the show, a fitting band for a tour celebrating a classic thrash metal album, as they have one of their own, Bonded by Blood. Now on their third vocalist, some of the nostalgia is lost these days with Exodus, but they still put on an ass-kicking show led by current frontman Rob Dukes. The other Exodus guys, even guitarist Gary Holt, pretty much take a back seat to Dukes, who is obsessed with moshing and circle pits, encouraging the crowd through the whole set. Bonded by Blood was represented in the set with the title track, crowd favorites "A Lesson in Violence" and "Piranha," and the closer, "Strike of the Beast." Slowly, after seeing them open for Arch Enemy earlier in the year and now for Megadeth, I'm finding myself with a renewed interest in the band.

I was a huge fan of the Testament albums Practice What You Preach and Souls of Black—this was when the band was in its heyday in the late 90s. Over the years, they've transitioned from an early thrash band to more of a mainstream metal act to almost a death metal band today. But sticking with the theme for this show and presumably the entire tour, Testament played their debut album, The Legacy in it's entirety. The 1987 album was released before my coming of age, so I was a bit lost at first. In fact, I barely recognized the first five songs or so, as one thrasher blended into the next. It wasn't until "Souls of Black," "Alone in the Dark" (which featured some great crowd participation) and "Into the Pit" that I finally had some sense of familiarity.

Vocalist Chuck Billy has a menacing frame, and boy, has he packed on the pounds over the years. But his signature vocals are still there and that's what matters. But dammit, get this man a guitar! If you've ever seen Testament live, you know what I'm talking about, as Billy plays his mic stand like an air guitar, furiously banging his head when he's not singing. It was a bit silly, really.

After an ass-kicking set from Exodus and a solid one from Testament, the lights went down for Megadeth about 9:45 p.m., only to quickly turn right back on. Some loud distortion could be heard (and I'm talking as loud as gunshots) as the band was experiencing heavy technical difficulties.

	Testament's Chuck Billy

After about a 30-minute delay, Megadeth main man, Dave Mustaine stormed out onstage with guitar in hand to rousing applause only to begin speaking on a mic that was barely functional. When we could finally hear him, he told us that the venue's PA system "took a shit" and they were trying to fix the problem. He called out the promoter for booking them at a venue with a "piece of shit PA" and urged the crowd to make phone calls and make Rams Head Live fully aware of the issues (though I'm not entirely sure what he exactly meant by this or what good it would do).

After Mustaine exited, there was another delay of about an hour or so, with the road crew scrambling about, checking things, soundchecking and trying to fix the problem. Contrary to other reports of fights and other excessive rowdiness, I feel like the crowd handled the situation well given the circumstances. Sure, there may have been one "almost fight," but doesn't that happen at most shows?

Finally, close to 11 p.m., Megadeth took the stage to a Black Sabbath intro meshed with the announcement intro to "Endgame." Immediately, the crowd was taken aback at how bad the sound was. Mustaine's vocals could hardly be heard over an abnormal bass-mix, and the guitars were drowned out, as well. But give the band some credit, as they actually tried to pull it off by opening with "Set the World Afire," "Wake Up Dead" and "In My Darkest Hour." Midway through "Wake Up Dead" it seemed as if the sound was returning to normal and things were looking up. But then the bass guitar was cutting in and out, five times louder than the rest of the band, everyone was out of tune and sync, and the whole show went completely to shit.

Mustaine once again addressed the crowd, saying they were going to "try and fix the bass problem." But the band did not return. It all became clear when rumors started swirling around the venue that someone had thrown a beer onto the soundboard. Those rumors were confirmed when we overheard a member of the crew and later that evening in a message from Mustaine himself:

What follows below is a Blabbermouth.net transcript of the TheLiveLine "audioblog" Dave Mustaine left late last night describing the circumstances that led the band to cut its set short.

Dave Mustaine: "I'm calling right now from Baltimore. It's approximately 10 minutes to midnight, and unfortunately, our show turned into an absolute disaster tonight," Mustaine can be heard saying.

"We had problems with the P.A. from the beginning of the night.

"I went out on stage and I had said that the P.A. was a bit inferior to what we were used to using, and after the P.A. completely took a shit, we went into the dressing room, waited another half hour to 45 minutes, used the house P.A. and went back out and started playing again. And some delirious asshole decided that it was a good idea to throw their beverage over the [mixing] console, thus ending the concert.

"So, to the good people of Baltimore, I'm sorry for us having to end your night early tonight, but I can tell you honestly right now that we will be back. It's not like we have better things to do tonight than perform for you. We love you, and we're very sorry about this situation. And hopefully next time we'll be able to play in like a gas station with a couple of generators and a P.A. that'll work. ['Cause] that piece of shit we played in tonight didn't."

Then in a surprising turn of events, the show was rescheduled at Rams Head Live the very next night, March 17, St. Patrick's Day.

Here was the post from Mustaine regarding the rescheduled show:

Dave Mustaine: "Last night was a difficult night for me, MEGS, and for our sold-out audience of MEGADETH fans in the great city of Baltimore.

"You see, we were plagued with equipment failures, the ensuing delays getting on-stage (Axl Rose, I am NOT), and the lack of intelligence of the fan who was convinced that throwing his beverage on the console, thus ending our second attempt at taking the stage last night, was an intelligent thing to do.

"In other words, it was the end of the evening for me and for Baltimore.

"Alas, Megaman to the rescue!

"Late last night I was informed of the availability of the venue the following evening, meaning tonight, and I agreed to stay another night here in Baltimore and to try to play this venue one more time."

Live-Metal.net attended at the makeup show, so continue reading for the full report and see how the story ends.