Megadeth Concert Review-Metal Tour of the Year- AZ Federal Theater 2021

Megadeth Metal Tour of the Year- AZ Federal Theater 2021

Megageth Arizona Federal Theater

Dave Mustaine-Megadeth

Concert Review and Photos By Roc Boyum

Megadeth, headlining the “Metal Tour Of The Year”, ripped through Arizona like an armored tank plowing through the desert. To bring the band to the stage, the venue echoed with the chanting roar of…Meg-ga-deth!….Meg-ga-deth! …Meg-ga-deth!  

Dave Mustaine and company emerged and then dropped the metal hammer down on the sold out crowd of the Arizona Federal Theater, with their metal assault! This tour has definitely lived up to the name, “The Metal Tour Of The Year” with the full lineup of Megadeth, Lamb God, Trivium and Hatebreed who all blasted the roof off the Federal Theater.

Megadeth hit the stage hard and heavy with Hanger 18 that ignited the crowd like a  spontaneous combustion explosion, similar to throwing gasoline onto an already raging open fire!

The show began with songs from their 4th studio LP, the 1990 classic, Rust in Peace, with Hanger 18 and Take No Prisoners. Hanger 18 has a number of blistering guitar solos,  led off by the Brazilian metal shredding of Kiko Loureiro. For the final guitar solos of the song, the shred master Dave Mustaine, took command of the stage ripping across the fret board of his guitar with several brilliant lightning fast solos that led the song into it’s climatic conclusion. Wasting no time, Megadeth launched into a rocket fueled version of Take No Prisoners, a song that’s a brutal assault on the senses.

Take No Prisoners takes off with grinding and aggressive rhythm guitars that are accented by bassist James LoMenzo (Ozzy Osbourne), and Belgian metal drumming master Dirk Verbeuren, (Soilwork). Together they unleash a series of rapid fire one bar staccato accents, with Verbeuren pile driving your head with his double bass attacks. The song may be one of the shorter songs in the set but pound for pound this song is one serious metal onslaught. 

Megadeth’s entire set marched forward like a juggernaut that relentlessly plowed through everyone and everything in it’s path!

During the song Symphony of Destruction, Mustaine had a guitar change due to a technical difficulty; and Mustaine flawlessly continued without so much as a flinch. In that same song, however, something that did get Mustaine’s attention was an out of control fan who somehow managed to jump on the stage; fortunately he was immediately chased down by security and swiftly dispensed of before he could cause any real havoc!

The explosive set came to a conclusion with Peace Sells, which included crowd surfers, and a serious raging circle pit without anyone wearing masks….that’s metal to the core!

At the end of Peace Sells, the venue once again echoed with the chanting roar for Megadeth in a show of appreciation and an attempt for one last song! Megadeth were brought back to the stage via the chants of Meg…ga…deth!…Meg…ga…deth!…Meg…ga…deth!

For their encore, the band unleashed the fan favorite, Holy Wars….The Punishment Due, eight minutes of head hammering metal; brilliant!. For this crushing finale, Mustaine came out with guitar in hand, paused and looked at the cheering crowd for a bit before giving a long nod of appreciation. Without so much as a word, he introduced Holy Wars with an impromptu guitar jam that led the band into a blistering version of Holy Wars…The Punishment Due. At the song’s conclusion, Mustaine thanked Arizona over the final musical song outro before departing.

Dave Mustaine serves as an inspiration to us all. As a cancer survivor at age 60, his is out hitting the road, playing some truly brilliant guitar shredding metal and rockin’ the hell out of metal fans worldwide; who wouldn’t be inspired by that?

Megadeth absolutely brought down the house, and this is a tour you definitely do not want to miss!!!

Megadeth Federal Theater Photo Gallery!

The set list was:

Hanger 18

Take No Prisoners

She Wolf

The Conjuring

A Tout Le Monde

Trust

Conquer and Die!

Dystopia

Tornado of Souls

Symphony of Destruction

Peace Sells

Encore:

Holy Wars….The Punishment Due