Megadeth,Volbeat and Lacuna Coil The Palladium Ballroom Thursday, March 1
Not better than: Seeing Motörhead on this bill.
So, if a ticket for a hot co-headlining tour with two legendary metal acts costs $50, wouldn't it make sense for the price to be lowered if one of those bands couldn't play?
Silly me, this is unrestrained capitalism we are talking about. Fifty bucks is $50, with or without Motörhead.The handwritten signs on the ticket windows at the venue informed the unwashed masses that, due to illness, Motörhead was a no-show.
No problem, just increase the time the other three bands get to play and we'll call it even. But it wasn't a fair trade, not by a long shot.
And I wasn't the only one to think so. In every part of the venue, I encountered people who had purchased a ticket in order to have their eardrums pummeled by classic Motörhead fare such as "Ace of Spades" and "Killed by Death." Even the poor crew at the merchandise table bemoaned the fact that they were told to take down and not sell any Motörhead paraphernalia.
But, as P.T. Barnum famously said, the show must go on. And since several hundred area metalheads gathered together, on a school night no less, the evening was ripe with odd possibilities.
The assembled brood was treated to several hours of classic noise, music made for air guitar nirvana. Watching the crowd was more fun than watching the players on stage: It was (mostly) guys in their 40s remembering when this music made them hate their own parents.
Many of these folks were there to see Megadeth -- Dave Mustaine and the rest of his beautifully coiffed four-piece did not disappoint. They blasted through the expected fare like "Hanger 18" and "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?" I got the feeling the crowd would have showered Megadeth with adulation even if the band played a set of songs by the Monkees in some sort of metallic tribute to Davy Jones.
In the end, it was a perfunctory performance for all involved. The bands did their part and the audience responded. Walking away, I felt the same as if I had gone to work and done a fairly decent job.
And I still missed Lemmy.
Personal bias: I love me some Motörhead and I was in a fairly shitty mood the entire evening knowing that I would not get to see one of my all-time favorite bands.
Random note: Some super dad brought his eight-year-old son to the show and that kid did some major headbanging. I could envision him visiting the school nurse today, complaining of neck pain.
