Rampant Rumors

“AMERICAN CARNAGE” TOUR ABOUT TO BECOME “BIG THREE” TOUR?

  • Axl Rosenberg
300

“AMERICAN CARNAGE” TOUR ABOUT TO BECOME “BIG THREE” TOUR?The prospect of a Big Four tour is titillating mostly for reasons of nostalgia; it’s exciting to think about seeing all these bands live together, but not as exciting as it is to think about seeing all these bands live together twenty years ago. (Or maybe even twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four years ago.) Different people, of course, have different opinions about which of these bands can still bring it live, but the most obvious weak spot that 99% of all metal fans will be able to agree are well past their prime are Metallica. I’ve seen Trujillo-era Metallica live and I’ve cheered for Trujillo-era Metallica live and I won’t pretend you can’t have fun at a ‘Tallica gig; but you should never listen to the live recording after, because you’ll surely realize that beer, adrenaline, and sentimentality played a big part in your enjoyment.

On the other hand, I think Slayer are still great live, I think Testament are still great live, I had a lot of fun the last time I saw Megadeth live even if Dave Mustaine’s voice is increasingly creaky, and while I have plenty of misgivings about Joey Belladonna re-joining Anthrax, I could imagine that band still putting on a good show.

So Dave Mustaine’s recent assertion that Anthrax may play some dates on the upcoming American Carnage tour makes me happy, seeing as a Slayer/Megadeth/Anthrax/Testament bill would probably actually be way stronger than a Metallica/Slayer/Megadeth/Anthrax one.

Of course, right now, there’s no official confirmation that this is going down, so we shouldn’t all start jerking each other off just yet. Still, it’s fun to dream. Megadeth and Slayer are each respectively playing Rust in Peace and Seasons in the Abyss live in their entireties, allegedly because it’s the twentieth anniversary of those albums; that same year (that would be 1990, for those of you who don’t do math so good), Anthrax released Persistence of Time, which I sometimes think is actually my favorite Belladonna-era record (it’s certainly the heaviest). So maybe Anthrax can hop on that bandwagon, too.

Dates if/when we get ’em.

-AR

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