May 27, 2010 10:24
Went to see slayer last night ... the first time I've seen them live since 1992! :) Was awesome. Am now deaf.
Opening act were a band called The Haunted. They were quite good if you like screamy singing though very loud, so much so it was difficult to pick out individual parts of the music. Couldn't hear much other than the rhythm guitarist chugging away on hisd dropped tuned explorer-a-like.
Still - they were full of energy and got the crowd going. Then there was a wait ... I never fully understood why it takes so long at gigs to switch between bands. Obviously I'd expect a wait of 15 minutes or so whilst they hook everything up, but 40minutes? *sigh*
Anyway, then Slayer started their set with World Painted Blood. Hae to admit to not owning the new album so only vaguely knew the song. Still, judging by the pit it was pretty popular. :) They played a good mix of older stuff, including some rarities that several people around me were non-plussed about; "what was that?" and "I don't know that one" were common phrases. Bloody youngsters! The one that most surprised me would be them playing Aggresive Perfector. Nice.
They ended the set on the unholy trinity that is South of Heaven, Silent Scream and Angel of Death. Tom Araya forgot the first half of the lyrics to Angel of Death which was highly amusing. He walked off to the side of the stage whilst protending to shootr= himself in the head. King and Hanneman just plugged on.
The thing I'll take away most though is the King/Hanneman thing. Everyone bangs on about Kerry King being the heart of Slayer and an amazing guitarist etc and he is but Jeff Hanneman is a beast! He pretty much picks every note of his insanely fast solos and doesn't always resort to dive bombs, pick scrapes and other "weird" techniques that seem to comprise of most of King's solos. Prefer his signature guitar to King's as well. ;)
All in all a great evening and it has reminded me that I need to go to more gigs.