[DVD review]

Megadeth

That One Night: Live in Buenos Aires

(Image Entertainment)

Review by Chuck Bacon

So, Dave Mustaine is still doing the headbanging thing. He may not have a huge-ass following in the US much these days, but they sure do love him down South America way.

Just out for US consumption, That One Night is a DVD of a concert at Obras Sanitarios Stadium in Buenos Aires on October 2005; it’s proof positive that Megadeth are indeed still alive and kicking, still thrashing out Mustaine’s own style of loud-ass rock & roll. This is a video testament of a smokin’ show they put on to a huge crowd of adoring Argentinean headbanging Megadeth fans. The disc starts of with some before-show banter of Dave, chatting about how it’s been a while that he’s been a rockin’ dude and so on and blah, blah, blah, as he’s riding in a limo to the gig in Argentina. Then, mercifully, the yammering is cut short and the show starts and – ta-da: Megadeth jump into it feet first, starting off the show with “Blackmail the Universe” a kind of interesting but typical Megadeth tune.

One thing I can say about Mustaine & Company is that they’ve aged, musically, better than their former rivals, Metallica, Dave having been at one time a guitar player in Metallica in the early Megaforce days until they kicked him out of the band for smoking too much hash and becoming a drag on the band. Oh well, ”screw them,” said Dave and started Megadeth.

Then next thing you know, a few years go by and what happens? Well, that all-important buck enticed Metallica to suddenly go soft, cut their hair short and go all “establishment” on us. Megadeth themselves never really went away, they, going through various personnel changes, kept on rocking speed-metal style, mostly under the radar, then almost doing a Metallica in the wake of their semi-hit song for the Last Action Hero soundtrack in the 90s, “Symphony of Destruction”, but luckily things did what they did and disaster was averted.

For all you speed-metal purists out there who hate Metallica for selling out that way and even cutting their hair, then That One Night is a DVD that will please you – it’ll give you that exciting, warm rush of a feeling to know that just because headbangers age doesn’t mean they have to get mellow and turn into Journey or something, you know? Kudos to Megadeth for that! Well, OK, I’ll admit it, Megadeth are still pretty all right at what they do, but if you want to see a band that has stayed totally hard-core speed-metal all this time, look at Slayer, they’d make Mustaine et al look like the Archies.

Anyway, the concert itself is a loud, fast, ear-splitting bombast-fest. Mustaine’s still got quick, nimble fingers that fly all over the neck of the bitchin’ Flying V guitar. Some of the highlights, besides the opener, include “Reckoning Day”, “Tornado of Souls”, “Something That I’m Not”, “Kick the Chair” and even a blast of the past with a smokin’ “Peace Sells (but Who’s Buying?)” as well as other double-barreled bass drum, ass-kicking rockers. Jimmy eat your heart out! [http://www.megadeth.com]

CB