Megadeth In Manila

"This is our first time in Manila... I can tell you I'm very impressed...The thing about coming to the Philippines is, it's been long overdue. We should have come here a long time ago." - Dave Mustaine

I was fortunate to witness the one night performance of Megadeth in Manila last Sunday night. To top it off, I was able to watch it together with old bandmates that have a similar liking to listening and playing to Megadeth's music. Needless to say, I've been a Megadeth music fan since post college.

We waited for about 3-4 hours before the show started. The fans' long wait was well worth it when the band came in a little past 8:30pm to begin their set. Aside from playing songs from their latest album ("13"), they ran through their best hits. Below is what I was able to recall:

- Hangar 18

- A Tout Le Monde

- Peace Sells

- Angry Again

- Sweating Bullets

- Symphony of Destruction
- Trust
- In My Darkest Hour

- Dawn Patrol



And, of course, with Dave's backdrop story of the bad happening all around ("The Chinese. The Russians. All bullshit."), he enters the ever familiar intro to the song that launched their place in rock history:

- Holy Wars...The Punishment Due



Swaying to the Symphony...



For one and a half hour, I started out jumpin' and headbangin'. There was a mosh pit 1 or 2 feet from me and I was REALLY tempted to jump in. Unfortunately, my 38-year old self had to pull back my teenage version from possibly getting hurt from the (enjoyable) carnage. Still, as I looked for an empty space to catch my breath, I headbanged away as Megadeth's music brought me back to my past when I was, in my humble standards, a sure shoo-in for Dave Ellefson's bass playing.



Megalights!



The whole concert experience was what I wanted it to be. I have this DVD/CD set of Rude Awakening that I bought over E-Bay years ago and the sound was as darn beautiful as I hoped it would be. As this was a standing-only event, I could only scan Dave and his compatriots by tip-toeing from time to time. But I was ably content: even if my eyes couldn't see, my ears heard and experienced Megadeth...LIVE!

It was a surreal experience seeing Megadeth playing live. I wished they played more songs that night, their objective of leaving the audience wanting for more was met. But still, we all had a darn good time. The ticket price of 2,930 pesos was well worth it. Damn it, if I knew the 5,000 peso ticket would be THAT close, I would've bought that one! I was glad that I made that gamble of buying the ticket and watch my rock heroes play live, even after running a full marathon that morning.

And yeah, I (finally) bought myself my first Megadeth shirt ---with the Manila/Asian tour written at the back. That shirt will be with me for years to come!

To borrow a line from Peace Sells, "If there's a new [Megadeth concert], I'll be the first in line!"

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Annie Alejo of Manila Bulletin has a more exemplary review of this concert. You can read it here.