10 years ago, to this day, I had the honour of seeing The Big Four live. And a few days ago, I attempted to relive that experience by listening/watching "The Big 4 Live" CD/DVD which was recorded in Sofia, capital of Bulgaria, our neighbouring country a mere two days before they appeared in Athens, Greece
I was never a thrash metal fan, but I did love Metallica. Since two of my friends were also going and I wanted to see Metallica, I decided to see the full Monty. Well, at least The Big Four. That is The Big Four of thrash metal: Anthrax, Slayer, Megadeth and of course Metallica. We had a problem, though. The initial line-up had Anthrax billed at 1 o clock in the afternoon. On a weekday. After a lot of complaining and name-calling on Facebook, even from Anhtrax themselves, the bill was finally corrected like this:
17:00 Anthrax18:30 Slayer
20:00 Megadeth
21:30 Metallica
As was appropriate!
Anthrax
Slayer
Megadeth
Metallica
Even though I had never listened to the other 3 apart from Metallica, I can say that I liked Anthrax a lot (and I like them even more now), wasn't too keen on Slayer (too thrash for my tastes back then, and yes, I did comment that Kerry King looked like he had killed Jesse James), I expected more from Megadeth (they didn't sound too thrash to my ears on the day and maybe that had something to do with Dave Mustaine's quote that they represented the melodic side of thrash metal - or something like that) and of course I enjoyed Metallica who were the reason why I went there. (another band that used to come to Greece often back then, but there was always something coming up and I had never had the chance to see them until then)
Kudos to Anthrax for playing Heaven And Hell as a tribute to Ronnie James Dio. My personal highlight from Slayer: At some point they started playing a song and everyone around us started headbanging. "That must be the hit single" a friend of mine commented...
As for the ticket? We had to get a VIP one, because with all these people, no one could guarantee that we would be able to see anything. On top of that the bands were alternating between the big and the small stage located at the front and at the back of the venue respectively. Moreover, the VIP area was located at the front and to the side of the stage and not inside the mosh pit which looed something like this:
Some people at the VIP area, were not satisfied with that either and preferred climbing on trees:
10 years later, I still haven't solved the mystery of who that woman was, who was watching Metallica from the side of the stage:
Finally, when Metallica came on, it started raining. That didn't affect the concert though. Us at the VIP section found shelter under the trees. (Relax, it was just rain, not a thunderstorm, so we were safe). I mentioned the rain, because it was these same promoters who had cancelled a Killers concert at the same venue a year before claiming safety issues.
It would have been a lot of fun if those very same promoters tried to explain to 20000 black-clad metalheads (who, by the way, had threatened that they would torch the place if Anthrax weren't placed at a reasonable time on the bill), that the concert would not take place because... it was raining!
Those who were truly lucky were the residents of northern Greece because at half the cost they went to the Bulgarian leg of Sonisphere Festival in Sofia and were forever immortalized on DVD. For my part, I had been in Instanbul a few days before for another concert and I saw a poster advertising the Turkish Sonisphere Festival. Have a look at what the Turkish fans could experience on their own Sonisphere Festival which was a 3-day event:
SET LISTS
Anthrax
01. Caught In A Mosh
02. Got The Time
03. Madhouse
04. Be All End All
05. Antisocial
06. Indians
07. Heaven And Hell
08. Medusa
09. Only
10. Metal Thrasing Mad
11. I Am The Law
Slayer
01. World Painted Blood
02. Jihad
03. War Ensemble
04. Hate Worldwide
05. Seasons In The Abyss
06. Angel Of Death
07. Beauty Through Order
08. Disciple
09. Mandatory Suicide
10. Chemical Warfare
11. South Of Heaven
12. Raining Blood
Megadeth
01. Holy Wars... The Punishment Due
02. Hangar 18
03. Headcrusher
04. In My Darkest Hour
05. Skin O' My Teeth
06. A Tout Le Monde
07. Hook In Mouth
08. Trust
09. Sweating Bullets
10. Symphony Of Destruction
11. Peace Sells
Metallica
01. Intro-The Ecstasy Of Gold
02. Creeping Death
03. For Whom The Bell Tolls
04. Ride The Lighting
05. Harvester Of Sorrow
06. Fade To Black
07. That Was Just Your Life
08. The End Of The Line
09. Sad But True
10. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
11. Broken Beat & Scarred
12. One
13. Master Of Puppets
14. Blackened
15. Nothing Else Matters
16. Enter Sandman
17. Breadfan
18. Motorbreath
19. Seek & Destroy
Our only bad experience from that night was the fact that after the concert had ended we had to walk for about half an hour, in total darkness, and without any sort of help or guidance from the organizers in order to find the... VIP Parking.
As soon as we got there, most people went to take a leak (no, there were no toilets and it was all done in pitch black darkness, but at least the girls went to one side and the boys to the other). You see, all the other parking sections had to be emptied before we could leave. So much for VIP parking. I took a nap at the back seat and when I woke up we were still in the same place (it took us about 2 hours to get out of there). I even noticed a couple having sex on the hood of their car (It was very dark and they probably thought that they could not be seen. At least, they found a fun way to pass the time).
I still wonder though what these, apparently permanent, residents of Terra Vibe, thought of the whole festival)
