Dave Mustaine and Jason Newsted Cover Metallica Song One of them Actually Wrote

I know it’s wrong to make broad generalizations such as this, but I’m gonna do it anyway: last week, Summer Slaughter and Gigantour both hit NYC on the same night. It should go without saying that Vince and I went to Summer Slaughter, because the bill for this year’s Gigantour isn’t even mildly exciting. But as I drunkenly stumbled home from Summer Slaughter, I had to walk past the venue that was hosting Gigantour — and I did so just as the show was letting out, allowing me a glimpse of people who prefer Dave Mustaine and Jason Newsted to The Dillinger Escape Plan and Periphery. And those people were exactly who you’d think they’d be: older folks who go to see Megadeth every time they come to town no matter what, just because that’s, like, what you do.  Issues such as “Is Dave Mustaine a horrible person?” and “Is Megadeth’s new album roughly as enjoyable as having to wear tight-fitting underpants lined with sandpaper for a few hours during the middle of a heatwave?” don’t even enter into the equation for these fans. Just ten blocks north, Revocation was performing modern thrash that’s actually, y’know, good, but these people have probably never even heard of Revocation before. They make no effort to remain engaged with and up-to-date on the scene they allegedly love, and their taste is anything but discerning. In their minds, Dave Mustaine was awesome in 1986, and will therefore be awesome forever.

I mention this because last night in Toronto, Mustaine and Newsted finally made good on their threat to perform an old Metallica song together — specifically, “Phantom Lord,” a song Mustaine co-wrote years before Jason Newsted was even in Metallica. I don’t really know why this idea excites people — it would be like Dan Spitz covering “Deathrider” with Rob Caggiano. But, clearly, the crowd’s reaction was to go completely apeshit. Which seems even stranger to me because Newsted didn’t even play bass for the performance… instead, he handled lead vocals. So what we have here is ostensibly a few thousand fans going totally fucking nuts because Jason Newsted got to enjoy the coolest karaoke session ever. Like, really… who gives a shit?

Watch video of the blessed event below, then explain to me why this is exciting in the comments section below.

[via The PRP]