Rude Awakening

Today's post you can kind of place under the farewell Live Album category. Initially upon its release, it was the bands final release. I speak of course of Megadeth. The band founded out of the ashes of Dave Mustaine's bitter dismissal from Metallica in the early 80's, is among the Big 4 of Thrash Metal. Never one to shy away from inner struggles and band changes, Megadeth had been on a downward slide since the '97 release of 'Cryptic Writings' and the even more Pop Rock friendly 'Risk'. By the turn of the century most people could see the writing on the wall and had written off the band by the time the '01 release of 'The World Needs A Hero'.

The new century brought about another lineup change for the band. Brought into the band were Guitarist Al Pitrelli (Savatage/TSO/Michael Bolton/BoC) and Drummer Jimmy DeGrasso (MD 45/Alice Cooper/Y&T). The band attempted to go back to their Thrash roots with a new album, but sadly it came across more like a Modern Rock Radio attempt. Trying to capitalize on the Megadeth name, the band released a delayed Live album in 'Rude Awakening', a two disc album that was originally supposed to be recorded in Argentina, but was delayed due to the 9/11 attacks. Instead the band chose their current hometown of Phoenix Arizona to record the album. Recorded over two nights in November of 2001, one night at the Rialto Theater in Tucson Arizona and the next at the Web Theater in Phoenix Arizona. The album was filmed for a DVD and released to go along with the album. Oddly enough the Web Theater is no more and is now being used by the University of Arizona for their College Of Medicine. The album pretty much plays out as a farewell show. 2 discs full of new material as well as the classics. An overall solid performance as the band would fall apart just a few months later.

I got to see Megadeth on this tour, just a few weeks after 9/11 happened out here at a little venue called Pop's. The place was packed, I mean wall to wall, I barely could move. They had one opener in a Nu-Metal band called Endo, then it was two plus hours of Megadeth. This was prime Megadeth too. Dave was pissed off and played like it the entire night. By years end the band would be done due to Junior leaving and Dave's shoulder injury. Of course the band reformed a few years later and continues to put out material, although having half the band leave yet again does put some pressure on em. I got to see Megadeth again a few years back when I was in Arizona, again with a different lineup. Dave at that point was the only original member. The band seemed to have lost it's edge, kinda leaning back onto to their Modern Rock Radio sound. Sadly this is one of the few bands I just wanna see the hits played and none of the new material.

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