1980s thrash metal fans unite! Finally, for the first time ever in the US, Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax shared a stage for one night only at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, CA. Each of the four bands, approaching the 30 year mark, played a full set for their over 50,000 fans, young and aged, who all seemed to be sporting their iconic faded black band t-shirts. The ghosts of Coachella 2011 were definitely present with the horrible traffic that lasted for hours to just enter the parking lot to the fived other abandoned tents of past stages that held such acts like Odd Future, PJ Harvey, and Shpongle just one week earlier.
The lone East Coast band Anthrax hit the stage first and started with their hit “Caught in a Mosh” while tattooed bodies starting the day right by flinging themselves at each other throughout the crowd. The tattoos definitely caught my attention most of the day while the heat caused the black t-shirts to come off and hilarious metal inspired tattoos to make their presence known. My personal favorite tattoo was on the belly of a man in a Canadian cape. The night before the Big 4 Festival, he got the BIG 4 logo with the fake shattering of rock tattooed to his body. Fans showed off their pride in many ways than just their tattoos and clothing and the overwhelming excitement to be part of special moment in metal history truly stayed a constant with all the fans.
Megadeth hit the stage next. After my three songs were up to shoot Megadeth, I headed to the back of the polo fields to the giant ferris wheel. There was no line so I hopped in to watch Megadeth from a couple hundred feet in the air. Lead singer Dave Mustaine sounded great and his lovely light orange hair graced the mega screens beautifully.
At dusk, Slayer emerged on stage to roaring fans and started up with the title track from their latest album World Painted Blood. Guitarist Gary Holt of Exodus filled in for Slayer’s original guitarist Jeff Hanneman since he is still recovering from a severe case of flesh-eating disease or necrotizing fasciitis caused by a spider bite. How metal is that? Hanneman did make a surprise appearance to join his bandmates during their two-song encore of “South of Heaven” and “Angel of Death.” Holt will continue to fill in for Hanneman until his full recovery, which works out with Holt while Exodus will be opening for Slayer during their Northern American summer tour.
The crowd eerily waited patiently for the night’s headliner to hit the stage. From my spot, no one fought to get to the front or shouted for Metallica to get on stage; either they were too excited to make a sound or way too exhausted from the heat, day drinking and moshing to A/M/S. Commencing the arrival of Metallica, the mega screens lit up to “The Ecstasy of Gold” from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and as the clip expanded to show the vast cemetry, Lars popped out to his drums as the opening riff to “Creeping Death” greeted the screams of the fans to lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and rhythm guitarist/singer James Hetfield. During “Fuel,” flames of fire and fire works erupted around the stage with such an explosive sound that it literally destroyed my camera. K.O. by Metallica’s pyrotechnics team is now a personal accomplishment in my concert photography career. “This is history tonight, and we’re glad you’re part of it, ” said Hetfield who truly showed his appreciation to the fans by inducting everyone at the fields in the Metallica family. Rad, I’m now related to Lars! The heartfelt words of Hetfield continued when he appeared onstage for the encore and introduced all the bands of the BIG 4 to the stage to cover Diamond Head’s “Am I Evil?” but only after members of each band stood around hugging each other for a minute. \m/ \m/
The winds of the desert picked up causing an obnoxious dust storm: that was all that was left in the end.
ANTHRAX’s setlist:
- Caught In A Mosh
- Got the Time
- Madhouse
- Among the Living
- Antisocial
- Indians
- Fight ‘Em Till You Can’t
- A.I.R.
- I Am The Law
MEGADETH’s setlist:
- Trust
- In My Darkest Hour
- Hangar 18
- Wake Up Dead
- Poison Was the Cure
- She-Wolf
- Sweating Bullets
- Head Crusher
- A Tout Le Monde
- Symphony of Destruction
- Peace Sells
- Holy Wars… The Punishment Due
SLAYER’s setlist:
- World Painted Blood
- Hate Worldwide
- War Ensemble
- Postmortem
- Raining Blood
- Dead Skin Mask
- Silent Scream
- America
- Circle of Beliefs
- Seasons in the Abyss
- Snuff
- Encore
- South of Heaven
- Angel of Death
METALLICA’s setlist:
- Creeping Death
- For Whom the Bell Tolls
- Fuel
- Ride the Lightning
- Fade to Black
- Cyanide
- All Nightmare Long
- Sad But True
- Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
- Orion
- One
- Master of Puppets
- Blackened
- Nothing Else Matters
- Enter Sandman
- Encore
- Am I Evil?
- Hit The Lights
- Seek And Destroy
Awesome, you have me and my sons pic at the top of your page! What a great time.