Megadeth Live @ Jakarta, 2007

"Dave Mustaine can't sing!"
"Yeah?! Well, NOBODY could sing like Dave Mustaine"

When i heard Megadeth was visiting Jakarta for their United Abominations Tour, i hadn't put a second thought of purchasing one ticket for the concert albeit that I never really been a fan of Megadeth (i heard more of Metallica than Megadeth back in my youth, and those who knew metal would surely know about the bitter bickerings between Metallica and Megadeth) and heard only a handful of their songs, but the historical dispute between Metallica and Megadeth's sole front-man, Dave Mustaine, was no strange tale for me.

The concert was scheduled to begin at 8 pm, so i went to the venue at my leisure time, since the venue was a mere minutes from where i lived. Anyway, i arrived just in time when Megadeth was doing a shound-check (only their sound-technicians were visible on stage, of course), and twenty minutes past 8 pm, the solemn intro from Sleepwalker raced with the hysteria thunder of the crowd. I was soo glad there was no opening band. The show went steadily, almost non-stop. Dave rarely addressed the crowd, he say several short words about how he liked being in Jakarta, all those bull, and right before the encore, almost two hours later, he introduces his band-mates and said that he never talked much during the show since he thought that people were paying for the concert to see them perform not to made an idle talk. I was screaming on top of my lung, "Yeah! You fucking right!". One thing i hate from concerts was that the performing artists often wasted a good time to tried to break the ice, or gave the entire verse for the crowd to sing. I mean, i came to the concert to see them singing, not to hear myself and thousands of other strangers singing. Dave only let this happen once, during A Tout Le Monde which he gave in to us to sing one of the verse WHICH he repeats himself immediately afterwards.

I was piciking a festival ticket (of course, who wouldn't?), at the moshing pit. I had an idea that the crowd will be nasty, so i had prepared myself both physically and mentally. During the first songs of the show i had been able to control myself by staying a good distance from the moshing pit, where these huge people, all muscle and shoes, kicking and flailing their arms about (sometimes with knuckled fist). But, when Hangar 18 played (one of the song that featured a killer guitar solo duet), i began to lose control, and when Tornado of Souls played, i went heedless into the moshing pit, and felt like a teenager all over again. I got my first injury, a step on my feet (my left pinky was bleeding afterward), and a nudge at my rib (bruised this morning), during the hell off of Symphony of Destruction, and almost lose my sandal when the superbly-amazing-way-to-close-the-show encore, Holy Wars, played.

All in all, it was pretty fun, and the moshers, though at first seems dangerous were great company that whenever a guy fell during the rush, several others closest to him would cover him and help him to get up. Of course, the 'victim' was all grins, because really, who would felt any pain whenever he was overflowing with energies from the euphoria? I didn't felt any pain on my feet and rib at that moment.

Megadeth played consistently with their energies for almost two hours and with only a few minute breaks (i counted three) in between. Most of the crowd were guys (of course) at their mid-thirties, which made me among the younger group of the audiences, and knew almost every older Megadeth's song. I was laughing when i heard some guys beside me, halfway at the concert puffing and huffing an said, "You can't lie to your age, you can't".

Thank you, Megadeth, for a memorable evening.