Tuesday night in Buffalo NY, the best club in Buffalo had one of the best and most enduring, and most deserving metal bands on the planet,crush the packed house of metal-heads that have been awaiting the return of Anthrax!!! It’s been a very long wait indeed, The Clash of the Titans Tour way back at the old Darien Lake Amphitheater in 1990. But absence making the heart crave metal!!
The Town Ballroom holds about 600 tight and is the perfect setting to see a band as legendary as Anthrax, who can now be known as part of the BIG 4 playing stadiums. But Anthrax is a band that is just as comfortable playing a small up-close club as they are in a stadium, maybe they even get off more playing up-close and personal with the people knowing that this is where they come from and have returned full circle to their hardcore roots of thrash and pure volume!!
Anthrax proved that they are still at the top of their game and started the set off with 2 from their latest “Worship Music, setting the tone for what would be a time capsule of thrash favorites for the rest of the night. They were as tight of a band as they have ever been and just as aggressive! This only fueled the crowd into a frenzy!! The circles in the pit were a sight to see during “Caught in a Mosh” and especially during the war dance breakdown in “Indians”! I never would have thought that at 41 yrs old that MY music as a teenager would become as big as it rightfully should have and that i would see it come around back to the ground floor and at a small club!! You could tell this was the feeling that everyone had there as well as Anthrax!! To make the set complete they pulled out the signature cut from “Fistfull of Metal” “Metal Thrashing Mad” which to me always defined my generation’s love of thrash!! And the little tease of Sepultura’s “Refuse/Resist” was the best ending i could have hoped for! What a killer set from one of metals’ finest!
Opening was another of speed metal’s true pioneers, The almighty Testament !! Touring in support of their latest The Dark Roots of Earth, Chuck Billy and company blasted through 14 song set that was a literal clinic of metal. From “The New Order”,”Souls Of Black”,”Disciples of the Watch” and “Practice what you preach” Testament was a non stop force of volume and chops!! But unfortunately the mix of their set was not the best, they were Super loud, which by all means is a per-requisite, but made it hard at time to figure out what song they were playing. But that didn’t stop the crowd from going ape-shit!! All of this metal in a small place is to be savored and never to be forgotten!
LONG LIVE OLD SCHOOL METAL!!!!
Anthrax Set List:
Earth on Hell
Fight em til you Can’t
Caught in a Mosh
Anti-Social
I’m Alive
The Devil You Know
Indians
In the End
Got the Time
N.F.L.
Encores:
Among the Living
Meatl Thrashing Mad
I’m the Man/refuse Resist (Sepultura cover)
I am the Law
Testament Set List:
The Preacher
New Order
Envy Life
Practice What You Preach
Over the Walls
Souls of Black
Inot the Pit
Electric Crown
Henchmen Ride
More Than Meets the Eye
D.N.R.
Disciples of the Watch
Photos by Gus Griesinger
We would like to thank Rikki Zazula from Adrenaline PR and Heidi Ellen Robinson-Fitzgerald from Herfitz PR for setting up the credentials for Backstageaxxess.com to review the show.
