Megadeth – That One Night Live In Buenos Aires

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Image Entertainment
Produced by Dave Mustaine & Jeff Balding

This was one of those historic nights a band that has been around as long as Megadeth has once in a while. The reason this particular one was so important was because it was the show where front-man Dave Mustaine said he would announce his decision on the future of the band. As gigs go, that’s pretty special.

What is silly though, is that the announcement itself is cut from the DVD. The touching rendition of Coming Home, a bonus track on the Japanese version of 2001′s The World Needs A Hero, is included, but the preceding words are missing. It doesn’t really make sense, to me at least, to release this show because of it’s history-making status, and omit the very thing that defined it?

Equally annoying are the cuts between certain songs. During the derivative intro footage showing the band making their way to the hotel and so forth some footage was included from the impromptu acoustic performance Dave and guitarist Glen Drover gave on the lawn of their Buenos Aires hotel for the gathered fans outside. During the main feature, every time a song is reached that they also played on the lawn, we cut away for a couple of lines from the chorus from the acoustic performance, for just as abruptly cutting back to the main gig. Pointless, irritating and badly executed in equal measures. Thankfully this only happens twice; before She Wolf and Trust.

Aside from yet another artist not understanding that fans absolutely hate interruptions to gigs on DVDs (most recently KISS were lambasted by fans for a similar offence which all but ruined their Rock The Nation Live DVD) this is an almost perfect concert recording. Sound, video and editing are all superb, as is the band’s performance and the setlist, including the highly surprising inclusion of I’ll Be There from the universally hated (but not by me!) Risk album. A vast improvement on the badly-shot Rude Awakening live DVD (which was itself greatly bettered by its own CD version) it’s a shame the little unnecessary annoyances are present to let the side down.

It’s even wonderfully light on pointless bonus material (although what is here seems unnecessary, since the “alternate version” of Symphony of Destruction offers very little enhancement to the version in the concert and in fact finding anything about it that is “alternate” is reasonably tricky) and the show itself shows Dave’s current lineup of the band to be every bit as good as the two previous great lineups of Ellefson-Menza-Friedman and Ellefson-DeGrasso-Petrelli. Much needed proof after the disappointing The System Has Failed album (the quality of which is demonstrated with two songs from it being the worst two played all night; dismal opener Blackmail The Universe and the tedious Kick The Chair).

The two poor songs are all but lost between the otherwise constant stream of classic technical thrash metal. The other new track, the off-beat Something That I’m Not stand proudly amongst the legendary (Holy Wars, Symphony of Destruction, Peace Sells), the old (Wake Up Dead, In My Darkest Hour) and the rare (Set The World Afire) alongside other more recent concert mainstays like A Tout Le Monde and Reckoning Day. Of course, bringing in new songs and a couple of rare ones always pushes others out of the set, and Train of Consequences, Angry Again, Sweating Bullets and others are all sacrificed. It’s interesting to note, actually, that all of the songs on this DVD that were also present on Rude Awakening appear in exactly the same order, with the different ones slotted in between.

Megadeth’s next effort, United Abominations, is released in April on Roadrunner Records, so this DVD is a timely reminder to the metal community that the band are far from done yet. A point reinforced by the band’s appointment as support act on the forthcoming Heaven And Hell Canadian tour in March and the US tour in May. Megadeth’s own European tour commences in June with appearances at nearly every major rock festival in between headlining club dates.

“ almost perfect concert recording ”

Tracklist: Introduction / Blackmail The Universe / Set The World Afire / Wake Up Dead / In My Darkest Hour / She Wolf / Reckoning Day / A Tout Le Monde / Hangar 18 & Return To Hangar / I’ll Be There / Tornado of Souls / Trust / Something That I’m Not / Kick The Chair / Coming Home / Symphony of Destruction / Peace Sells / Holy Wars
Bonus Features: Symphony of Destruction (Alternate version)

Written by Andy Lye
More: Live DVDs, Thrash Metal, Megadeth