The HU
Mesmerizing, primal, heavy; this is The HU live. This rather large cast brings to the table elements of rock, folk, & metal with traditional Mongolian instruments. The musical end of their live show being what you would expect to hear as a pre-battle ritual before an epic fight. Their cinematic blend of throat singing and primitive instrumentation is something that allows the listener to appreciate both the modern and ancient elements of their music. During the last song Wolf Totem, the crowd erupted in chants of “HU! HU! HU!” with a thunderous applause at the end.
Megadeth
Always the professionals, intro cued a little early & the band flew out of the gate with Hangar 18. Dave is known for his “take no prisoners” delivery & the band was ready for war. Dueling guitar solos, Dave’s battle axes, I mean, flying V guitars, trademark lion’s mane, walls of Marshall cabinets spliced into video walls showing dystopian (fitting) images of everything from anatomical medical illustrations to historical moments, war, poverty. And that was just the first song. Dave talked about their new album The Sick, the Dying…and the Dead, thanking the crowd for making it number 1. The crowd screamed with every song, including the new releases. While introducing “We’ll Be Back”, Dave gave a little backstory stating his PR team wanted them to do a visualizer for this song. “What kind of horseshit is that? So we did our own video, we figured we weren’t going to take shit from anyone”. With war clips from the cinematic video playing behind them, the band launched into the classic thrashic elements Dave helped pioneer-chugging intros, screaming harmonics, finger tapping, leading into Symphony of Destruction. Vic Rattlehead joined the band onstage for the classic Peace Sells, adoring fans of all ages sang along as they closed out the show. The audience demanded an encore, & the band closed with Holy Wars, Dave introduced his bandmates & they tossed out picks to the audience. The video wall rolled credits naming the band members, the stage crew, even Dave’s trainer (side note, he had posted his brown belt jiu-jitsu accomplishment earlier that day!).
The classic country standards between the last two bands were a hit. Lastly, the crowd started chanting the chorus to Accept’s metal standard Balls to the Wall getting them back in the game for the last set of the night with 5FDP.
5FDP
“You wanted trouble? You fucking got it!” As the temperature dropped and as the crowd grew crazier, 5FDP took the stage for the final kill of the night. Bringing with them razor sharp BC Rich guitars, monumental stage production, epileptic seizure inducing lights, and enough double bass to re-arrange your rib cage; the band played a hour and a half long power set. The fans were there in numbers and in style. The arena was decked out with groups of fans sporting their custom 5FDP gear. The band did something very special for one St. Louis family that night. 28 year old US Army Specialist Jackson Johnson lost his life in Kuwait in 2019. With the family present onstage that night; Ivan read part of a letter detailing their loss. Specialist Johnson’s sister Renee was there celebrating her 19th birthday. The band welcomed the family with hugs and several pieces of signed merch before going on to dedicate their performance of Bad Company to them. The crowd erupted into chants of “USA! USA! USA!.” Close to the end of the night Ivan would remind us, “We are the people’s band.”
PHOTO GALLERY OF SHOT: https://carriezukoski.smugmug.com/ConcertPhotos/Pointergeist-2022/
