Here was my chance to witness Heavy Metal history in the making, Anthrax reuniting with Joey Belladonna! Granted this wasn't like the first time they played reunited, but it was the first time they played reunited in Kansas.
Other than God Forbid, I didn't want to see the openers Sworn Enemy and Manntis who both just sound like generic Metalcore to me. My accomplice and I arrived just as God Forbid was taking the stage and they owned the stage as much as an opener could. Doc's guitar playing was really on key for the evening. Byron definitely made his presence felt as he communicated with the crowd nicely as well as not missing a note on any of his vicious barks. Overall their setlist didn't really have too much variance, one song from Determination, three from Gone Forever and the rest of the set was off their new album IV: Constitution of Treason. I was honestly expecting them to play longer. I have also read reviews of several other concerts they played and they included a Pantera cover after they played To The Fallen Hero which was dedicated to Dimebag so that would have been nice. I would have to say that my favorite song that they played was Chains of Humanity. The song structure is just very tight and they pulled it off nicely. God Forbid has just matured so much since the last time I saw them with Machine Head. Way to go, guys!
God Forbid's setlist:
01. End Of The World
02. Force Fed
03. Chains of Humanity
04. Anti Hero
05. Gone Forever
06. The Lonely Dead
07.To the Fallen Hero (Dedicated to Dimebag Darrell)
08. Broken Promise
Now was the time I had been waiting for years. Finally I get to see Anthrax, the Heavy Metal legends, and they did everything but disappoint. Before coming to the concert, I revisited the early albums since I was only like 4 years old or younger when they were released, and it ended up with me not knowing the words to only 4 songs from their set. Starting out with Among The Living was an excellent choice as well as following it up with Metal Thrashing Mad. The crowd went totally fucking nuts! I have never seen so many people crowd-surfing at a fucking Metal concert! Then when they played Skeletons In The Closet, it was game over!! Scott Ian also announced that this was the first tour they were playing the song, so that made it a little more special. Just when I thought they couldn't top it, two songs later Indians - good God, they just wouldn't stop. Joey looks awfully old compared to the other guys but no one in the entire venue had more energy than him during this song. He was running all over the place and pumping his mic stand in the air; it was truly awesome. Frank was going nuts the whole night, headbanging and just in general being totally fucking METAL! Dan didn't miss a note with his solos, Scott had the rhythm done just as well and to finish up, Charlie banged the holy shit out of drums. They ended with I Am The Law, which totally rocked though it couldn't be compared to Indians or Skeletons In The Closet.
Anthrax's setlist:
01. Among The Living
02. Metal Thrashing Mad
03. Got the Time
04. Caught In a Mosh
05. A.I.R.
06. Madhouse
07. A Skeleton In The Closet
08. Antisocial
09. Indians
10. N.F.L.
11. Aftershock
12. Be All, End All
13. I'm The Man
14. I Am the Law
I would be more than happy to see Anthrax again, any day out of the week. Here is to waiting for some new material hopefully with Joey.
