3 Days with MEGADETH In Argentina

April 21, 2024 Sunray Magazine 0 Comments Megadeth

DAY 1

After 7 years of waiting Buenos Aires could taste the return of the band that earned the city’s heart.

A lot happened since Megadeth‘s last show in 2017: Dave had cancer, Covid-19, band members in and out, a new record. That waiting finally came to an end and Argentina had the privilege of being the only country in the tour that had 3 shows in the same city. It’s easy to see how much they longed for the band to play again there.

The first show, saturday 13 april, was a rainy day, but nothing stopped people to attend, with a smile on their faces, at the gates of Movistar Arena.

The fortunate local band that played before Megadeth was Against, a Metal band that’s growing faster than ever. Their set was on fire, and people that followed them were very happy about the band getting to support Megadeth‘s show.

Megadeth was supossed to hit the stage at 21 hs, but it delayed 20 minutes, nothing to worry about.

“The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead!” was the first song of the show, named after their last record, which came out in 2022; followed by “Dread and the Fugitive Mind”. “Skin O’ my Teeth”, the next song, was one of the treasures of the night, songs played for the fans that wants more than the most played hits. But that hits came sooner than later to make everyone sing on loud and open up mosh pits: “Hangar 18”, “Wake Up Dead”, “In my Darkest Hour”. You could see that each member of the band was giving their 110%. The argentine crowd is known for being so loud that you hardly hear the lyrics or even the guitar melodies. That came in sight with “Sweating Bullets”, “Trust”, “A Tout Le Monde”; all time classics all of them.

The time came for “Tornado of Souls”, where the crowd tested new guitar player Teemu Mantysaari. Everyone knows that this solo in particular is so mind blowing, epic and hard to play that you can easily messed it up. But this wasn’t the case, Teemu played it so perfect and made it look so easy that everyone fell in love with him in a second after the last lick.

They didn’t want us to forget that their last record was the main reason why they were touring and, of course, playing in Buenos Aires again; so “We’ll Be Back” was next on the set.

“Symphony of Destruction” made us all sing “Aguante Megadeth” as loud as we could. After 30 years of the first Megadeth show in Argentina, the chant became famous around the world, but Dave never forget where it began.

“Devil’s Island” was another treasure for extreme fans.

Then James Lomenzo started to play “Peace Sells” with that amazing bassline. After that Dave gave an end to their set with “Holy Wars… the Punishment Due”.

Everyone came to their homes but longing for the next 2 shows, here in Buenos Aires one single Megadeth show was never enough. And this time neither 2 shows.

SETLIST:

The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead! Dread and the Fugitive Mind, Skin o’ My Teeth, Hangar 18, Wake Up Dead, In My Darkest Hour, Sweating Bullets, Trust, A tout le monde, Tornado of Souls, We’ll Be Back, Symphony of Destruction, Devil’s Island, Peace Sells

Encore:

Holy Wars… The Punishment Due

DAY 2

After a great night at the opening of Megadeth‘s tour in Argentina, day two had arrived.

The opening band was the same as the first day “Against” The local band made the Movistar vibrate! leaving us all ready for the incredible thing that was about to happen!

The long-awaited moment arrived, Megadeth took the stage and When Mustaine appeared, the audience exploded with excitement and screams.

Starting the evening with the great song “The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead!” As we knew beforehand there would be a different setlist at each show, For example, in the third song they changed “Skin O’ my Teeth” to “Angry Again”

From the stalls it was incredible to see the fans’ mosh pit, something shocking, something that happened on the first night and made Mustaine and the entire band excited, is during the song “Symphony of Destruction” the crowd sang “Aguante Megadeth”.

Almost at the end of the unforgettable evening, Dave arrived with his guitar with the Argentine flag, which made us all excited, saying some beautiful words of gratitude.

It was a show to remember, leaving us looking forward to Megadeth’s last night in Argentina!

Setlist:

The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead!, Dread and the Fugitive Mind, Angry Again, Skin o’ My Teeth, Wake Up Dead, In My Darkest Hour, She-Wolf, Countdown to Extinction, Sweating Bullets, Hangar 18, Trust, A tout le monde, Tornado of Souls, We’ll Be Back, Symphony of Destruction, Peace Sells

Encore:

Holy Wars… The Punishment Due

Megadeth “Acoustic Surprise”

Can we say that Megadeth had a ‘side show’ in Buenos Aires between their second and third show at Movistar Arena? Yes, we can!

Against all odds (literally, that day was raining as hell), they came out the Madero hotel, where they were staying, to give all the fans outside an unplugged show. Dave’s bodyguard, Adriano, said previously that he went all around the world with Megadeth for so many years and never saw Dave wanting to do this like he wants to do in Buenos Aires (Megadeth played an unplugged show outside Four Seasons hotel in Buenos Aires in 2016 too. And Dave did it in Neuquén, Argentina, when he went there to see vineyards). So that was an once in a millon thing. Buenos Aires enjoying their privilege with Megadeth once again haha.

The set was filled with 3 classic hits: “Trust”, “Angry Again” and “Symphony of Destruction”, making all the fans shout “Aguante Megadeth” in the streets of Puerto Madero. After this special thing, the band went to Movistar Arena to do the soundcheck for their 3rd and last show in Buenos Aires!

DAY 3

Finally we made it to the 3rd show. And there we were at the Movistar Arena one last time to see Megadeth crushing the stage once again in Buenos Aires, his favourite crowd in the whole world. The support band was Horcas, a legendary local Metal band formed around 35 years ago. They’re a common headliner band at local gigs, so a lot of people knew their songs and sang along showing their support.

21.00 pm lights went out and people started to cheerish. Megadeth came onstage starting the set with “The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead!”, now known as a common starter song. Next they played “Skin O’ my Teeth”, “Angry Again” (as they did in the second show) and followed with the Thrash classics “Wake Up Dead” and “In My Darkest Hour”. “Countdown to Extinction” and “Sweating Bullets” to make people sing as loud as they could (as always of course, Buenos Aires take very seriously this thing!). The first surprise of the show was the induction of 2 “Rust in Peace” treasures: “Dawn Patrol” (with James hitting the stage alongside Dirk) and “Poison Was the Cure”. Then the setlist was filled with undenyable classic songs that cannot be torn aside: “Hangar 18”, “Trust”, “A Tout Le Monde”, “Tornado of Souls” (making us look at Teemu with eyes wide open the way he played perfectly every single note in the solo. As he did the other 2 shows). “Symphony of Destruction” and a warm argentinian crowd ready to sing, do I have to say anything else? The whole stadium was shaking as “Aguante Megadeth” was sung. The second and last treasure for the 3rd show was “Mechanix”, reminding us a young Dave Mustaine hungry for Metal who started writing amazing songs like this one and ended up changing the Metal scene with his band.

James appeared onstage once again to made us go “hey hey hey” as Dirk gave us the tempo, just to start playing “Peace Sells” and leaving no one without jumping and singing. Major of them inside wild mosh pits!

After that, Dave took a time to say thanks to the audience and ended the last Megadeth show in Buenos Aires with “Holy Wars… the Punishment Due”. We all know he’ll miss the city as the city will miss him. But maybe we won’t have to wait another 7 years to have them back again! We all hope not.

That three Megadeth shows were special; people waited for so long, some of them never got to see a single Megadeth show until now. And they’re looking forward to watch them again. It doesn’t matter how much times you see Megadeth live, it will NEVER be enough.

SETLIST:

The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead!, Skin o’ My Teeth, Angry Again, Wake Up Dead, In My Darkest Hour, Countdown to Extinction, Sweating Bullets, Dawn Patrol, Poison Was the Cure, Hangar 18, Trust, A tout le monde, Tornado of Souls, Symphony of Destruction, Mechanix, Peace Sells

Encore:

Holy Wars… The Punishment Due