Megadeth !!

March 31, 2010. The Palladium in Hollywood. Megadeth, Testament, and Exodus. This was the 20th Anniversary Tour for Megadeth's album 'Rust In Peace'. They played the entire album, and a few other songs as well. Amazing, amazing, amazing. I've seen Megadeth several times before, but watching them play one of their best albums from beginning to end, especially an album from 20 years ago was just perfect. Dave Mustaine is one of my all time favorite guitar players...not because I think he is the best player, but more because the stuff he plays just works for me, and because he has such STYLE on stage. Went to this show with a good friend and his son (a sophomore in high school), his son's friend and another guy. Got lucky enough to be given a photo pass for Megadeth, by another good friend. Thank you very much Mr. Clarke!!

Overall, the concert was one of the best I've seen. Exodus was very very good, although I am not the biggest fan of their current vocalist. They played mostly 80s era material. When Testament hit the stage, I must have been the only fan in the world that didn't know they were playing their entire 1987 album 'The Legacy'. One of my favorite albums of any group, to be able to see it played in its entirety live, was just mind boggling. I can't imagine a much better concert experience than what Testament provided for me. Megadeth was equally as great. I got to shoot the first three songs, amongst 35 or so other 'photographers'. Yes, I put photographers in quotes for a couple reasons. First, many of them had really really low level cameras. I was quite surprised...some didn't even have SLRs. Weird. For sure, though, I was the only one there with a Nikon rig. I was talking about this with someone, and they asked me what that meant to me....I said it meant I was the only professional there. Haha.

A great by product of this show, Christian, the friend of my friend's son who went with us....this was his first concert! Holy crap. He's set the bar quite high. He is a short, short, very good kid. Went down to the pit, got hoisted up and did some serious crowd surfing, said he high-fived Dave Mustaine and basically had the time of his life. In addition to never forgetting the concert, I will never forget the look on Christian's face following the show. Pure and total joy. If I could bottle that look and sell it in a cream or pill, I'd be a gazillionaire.