40 years. 4 decades. A lot changes over that amount of time. We can potentially see 10 new U.S. Presidents. 40 different championship teams from various sports. Marriages. Divorces. Births. Deaths. Picture for yourself something that you owned as a child. And now imagine having that item for the next 40 years. All the love and care you’d put into it to keep to looking new, the memories you have with that item, and even the issues you’d encounter with it. It is a lot of work and effort to keep something in prime condition for 40 years. Yet, this is exactly what Anthrax has done.
The thrash metal band founded its roots in Queens, NY back in 1981. And it would be a year later when the band would have its first performance at Great Gildersleeves, a club in Manhattan, NY to start their road down to greatness. The band would go on to play at the New York mecca of Madison Square Garden, participate in The Big Four concerts, and most recently took part in The KillThrax Tour with Killswitch Engage and supported Slayer on their final world tour. And while the band did have some rough spots, including pressure to change their name during the U.S. anthrax attacks in 2001, and lineup changes through the years, Anthrax ultimately shined through it all. Joey Belladonna (vocals), Scott Ian (rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Jon Donais (lead guitar), Frank Bello (bass, backing vocals), and Charlie Benante (drums), was ready to throw down for their 40th Anniversary celebration presented by Danny Wimmer Presents.
With 11 studio albums under their belt, there’s a ton of material they could have focused on during this celebration. The 22 song setlist, encompassing about 2 hours and 12 minutes of playtime, picked a lot of well-known favorites along with some rare gems. Half of the list came off of two of the early albums, Spreading the Disease from 1985 and Among the Living from 1987. I was ready to start moshing around my own living room as soon as I heard the opening to “Madhouse” and even more when they followed it up with their ultimate mosh pit song “Caught in a Mosh”. It was even better when they performed one of my favorite tunes, the dedication to the comic Judge Dredd, “I Am the Law.” Those notes and chorus ran goosebumps down my arms as I was singing along. But, it has to be “Indians” from Among the Living that truly brings fans back to the classic Anthrax days.
They played a few songs from State of Euphoria from 1988 all in a row. It was a nice tribute to the album that included “Be All, End All” that gave a high energy punch to the performance, “Now It’s Dark”, where Scott flipped off the camera right as the song was starting to build, which made me laugh, and then my favorite track from the album “Antisocial.” Scott‘s guitar intro to that song is absolutely worth nothing because it’s a fantastic guitar riff that gets your blood pumping.
The newer songs weren’t left out and in fact, I felt some of them were the true gems of the livestream. “Fight ‘Em ‘Til You Can’t” from the 2011 Worship Music was the opener and Joey was literally up close and personal with the camera during the performance. It was that smack you in the face thrash style you wanted, no, expected, from Anthrax. “The Devil You Know” from the same album gave us some awesome drumbeats from Charlie. But, for me, the true gem was the performance of “Blood Eagle Wings” from the 2016 For All Kings. The opening riff, the vocals, the chorus, just everything makes it a fantastic Anthrax song. This is one I wish they would play more often live.
There was an awesome surprise in this set when Anthrax performed the Public Enemy cover “Bring The Noise” and had Chuch D singing the vocals with them. THAT was completely awesome.
And in between the performances, we got to see video clips of various musicians and other celebrities provide their congrats to Anthrax on reaching their 40th Anniversary. Everyone from Carla Harvey (Butcher Babies co-vocalist and Charlie‘s girlfriend) to Jason Momoa (Aquaman) to Corey Taylor (Slipknot and Stone Sour vocalist) gave their praise. Sammy Hagar made me laugh when he said, “40 years?! I’ve been with 10 bands in 40 years!”. The best was Paul Stanley (vocalist and rhythm guitarist of KISS) explained how the world survived exposure to 40 years of Anthrax. These tributes were heart-felt, funny, and truly touching.
There is something I recognized and wanted to point out about Anthrax. This band is the master of the song intro. Multiple times throughout the livestream I caught myself focusing on the intro to the song. Sometimes it was just Jon playing out some riffs. Other times it was Scott doing the same. Other songs was a mix of Jon, Scott, and Charlie together starting up the song. And on “Got The Time” from the 1990 album Persistence of Time, Frank opened the song with a bass solo! Those intros build the excitement leading into the song and I feel it’s one of the reasons why their songs are so memorable. On top of that, Anthrax truly loves instrumental solos. Jon and Scott got to show off their guitar skills so often in the middle of songs and even Charlie had his own drum solo. These are things I noticed modern bands don’t use often enough. Bring back the instrumental solos!
Oh, did I also mention there is a 46 minute Behind The Scenes film to watch?! This documentary first covers some of the practice sessions at The Den before the filming of the event. Then Scott Ian walks us through various areas of New York City and how they related to Anthrax‘s history. This included a trip to Megaforce Records office where he shows off the 2-inch master tapes they used to record albums. The location of Great Gildersleeves where they played their first show. Electric Lady Studio where they recorded one of their albums. And of course Madison Square Garden.
There are many congratulation videos from people on the Behind The Scenes including Chuck Billy (vocalist of Testament), Lajon Witherspoon (vocalist of Sevendust), and Danny Wimmer (President of Danny Wimmer Presents) and Gary Spivack (Executive Vice President and Head of Talent Booking at Danny Wimmer Presents). Once again, these are truly heartfelt and wonderful to watch.
It’s a fun trip down memory lane, plus there are 3 additional songs performed in the Behind The Scenes.
The setlist from the livestream is:
- Fight ‘Em ‘Till You Can’t
- Madhouse
- Caught in a Mosh
- Metal Thrashing Mad
- Got The Time (Joe Jackson cover)
- I Am the Law
- Keep It in the Family
- Lone Justice
- The Devil You Know
- Be All, End All
- Now It’s Dark
- Antisocial (Trust cover)
- In The End
- Madusa
- Evil Twin
- Indians
- A Skeleton in the Closet
- Aftershock
- Blood Eagle Wings
- Bring The Noise (Public Enemy cover)
- A.I.R.
- Among The Living
Behind The Scenes setlist:
- Breathing Lightning
- Protest and Survive
- Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)
I couldn’t say enough good things about this livestream and the production behind it. If you haven’t seen it yet, you still have time! The livestream will be available until July 25th at 11:59 PM ET. Go over to anthraxlive.com and buy your ticket and even pick up some exclusive livestream merchandise! You can go over to anthrax.com to purchase music, merchandise, and get info on upcoming tour stops.
Congratulations Anthrax on 40 years of awesome thrash metal music! From this Brooklyn New Yorker, thank you for all you’ve done in representing our great city!
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