Following their hugely successful show at Metaldays, we were more than happy to revisit the world of these Bay Area bad-boys. We are of course talking about Megadeth, and whether or not they were able to pull another beast of a concert out of the hat at Wacken.

“This is Megadeth’s first time here. Right now it’s you and me baby!”
- Dave Mustaine (vocals/guitar)

At Metaldays Megadeth had held the enviable spot as headliner, and at Wacken they nearly reprised this role, only beaten by Germany’s own darling Avantasia. Still, as they prepared to take the German festival by storm on the Black Stage, it was prime time for festival goers to hang out and listen to music.
Being so close together, it is impossible not to draw parallels and see likenesses between the two shows, but the different festival setups made some differences a must as well, such as the fact that they had a shorter time to play in here.

Still, the Prince Of Darkness intro came on and the video screen backdrop and stage screens began to run their introductory videos as appreciative shouts could be heard from the large audience. And then things went black.
Some kind of technical fault made the entire stage area black out as the concert was about to begin, and only after a very long break did someone find the right switch and managed to turn things back on again. The band hurried out and began playing Hangar 18, sadly with sound only coming out of the stage monitors (thankfully we were pretty close and could actually hear something), a problem that took some extra time again to fix. More or less I should say, as the sound continued to stand on shaky ground for a while longer with the volume rising and sinking, and it was only later still that the festival dared turn the screens and the lights back on as well. Whatever had burned out the show in the beginning must have been some powerful stuff!
By the first video interlude, the one from Silver Linings Playbook, the power went completely out again. It came back on faster this time so that Sweating Bullets could move the show along, and even though the Wayne’s World 2 clip was left in, this reoccurring electrical problem was probably why the Talk Radio clip before Peace Sells was completely omitted at this show – a shame as it was pretty damn funny!

The band didn’t seem to let all the technical difficulties get them down though, and it was especially surprising, in a very good way, to see Dave Mustaine keep his mood at the top throughout the concert. This was another lively show where everyone in the band put in a great effort, and Chris Broderick still managed to walk away as the winner with his big smile and genuine contact with the audience.
The crowd was equally happy to finally see Megadeth perform here at the world’s largest metal festival, and one can easily argue that it was about time that they were hired – Megadeth and Wacken should fit like a hand in a glove, and aside from the problems they were experiencing, they did very well for themselves.

This was no repetition of the Metaldays show though. The cards were stacked too high against Megadeth for that to happen, and no matter how hard they tried, they weren’t able to rekindle that same magic.
They did work hard though, and they should definitely be recognised for that – so many others would have been pissy and negative over all the problems that occurred, and to be frank I would have thought that Megadeth would have been at the top of that list, but Dave and his boys fought through and delivered a great performance with did not fail on their account.

Setlist:

Prince Of Darkness
Hangar 18
Wake Up Dead
In My Darkest Hour
Skin O’ My Teeth
Sweating Bullets
Tornado Of Souls
Poison Was The Cure
She-Wolf
Trust
Kingmaker
Cold Sweat (Thin Lizzy cover)
Symphony Of Destruction
Peace Sells
Holy Wars… The Punishment Due
Silent Scorn