Although in the last three or four years Bucharest has started showing up on the tour map of many notable artists, it\u2019s not every day that you get to see all \u201cbig fours\u201d (Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica) on the same stage, on the same day. Historical events have happened before on a festival stage in Romania\u2019s capital city \u2013 the first one that pops into my head is the Marilyn Manson\/Alice Cooper double duet from 2007\u2019s last day of B\u2019estival \u2013 but a full day of good old school speed\/thrash metal attracted an even larger crowd at the venue, one of the biggest I\u2019ve seen at a Romanian festival so far. <\/p>\n
Anthrax<\/p>\n
They had a very short performance (about 45 minutes), but they were one of the most energetic bands from the festival\u2019s line-up. Even though they have been around for about 30 years, this was their first gig in Romania, and they performed at around 4:30 in the afternoon, when most of the audience was still waiting outside the venue, in a huge line, which made warming up the crowd a difficult task. And yet, after the first song, ”Caught in a Mosh”, they managed to gather a large headbanging audience in front of the stage and acted not like they were opening (which technically, they were), but like they absolutely ruled the place. <\/p>\n
Megadeth<\/p>\n
Next up in the line-up, Dave Mustaine & co. slowed the pace a bit. They played both songs from their older albums, such as \u201cRust in Peace\u201d, and their newer ones, like \u201cEndgame\u201d, which was released last year, and just like Anthrax, they made some feel nostalgic, and others sorry that they hadn\u2019t been born twenty years earlier. Because the crowd we saw at these two gigs was so different from you\u2019d expect, a mixture of old rockers packed in leather, kids with Slayer T-shirts, half-naked, beer bellied wannabes and people who had showed up at the festival simply because it was \u201cthe big thing\u201d happening in Bucharest and it could not be missed, although they\u2019d never listened to any of these bands before. <\/p>\n
Slayer<\/p>\n
Fortunately for everyone, rock fans are loyal to their idols, and Slayer\u2019s performance proved that once more. Although most of their audience was already waiting for Metallica, Slayer managed to get people\u2019s attention without using all the old tricks in the book (talking in Romanian for 5 minutes, like Manowar does every time they perform there, or preparing an elaborate show with lights and vampire teeth, like Metallica did later during Sonisphere\u2019s day 2). It was a full-throttle experience that made Anthrax and Megadeth\u2019s performances seem, by comparison, soft and fluffy. \u201cAre you ready for war?\u201d they growled at the audience. And ready they were, for \u201cWar Ensemble\u201d, \u201cJihad\u201d, \u201cMandatory Suicide\u201d. Slayer was one of the few bands that did not headline the festival, but came back on the stage for a couple more songs, \u201cSouth of Heaven\u201d and \u201cRaining Blood\u201d. <\/p>\n
Metallica<\/p>\n
At their third performance in Romania, Metallica already had a clue of what to expect from the audience there. They knew that people like being talked to, that they love a good, theatrical show and an inspiring sing along. So they did it all. Kirk Hammet had a Dracula \u2013 decorated guitar. Hetfield wore vampire teeth, and, although they usually brag about how much they hate Bram Stoker’s fictional character, most Romanians present secretly loved that. They also loved all the old songs Metallica never forgets to play, such as ”Fade to Black”, ”Master of Puppets”, ”Nothing Else Matters” (hence the heart warming sing along), ”Enter Sandman” or ”Seek and Destroy” (when they returned for an encore). <\/p>\n
What they didn\u2019t love was the so often recurring Bucharest\/Budapest confusion that you really wouldn\u2019t expect from a band that\u2019s already performed in that city twice. Luckily for him, Hetfield pronounced \u201cBudapest\u201d in a way that could be sounded a bit like \u201cBucharest\u201d, and then quickly tried to fixed things by calling the people of Bucharest every five minutes until the end of the show. <\/p>\n
Judging by the huge number of people present at Sonisphere\u2019s day 2, in spite of a ticket that cost about half of the minimum wage, it seems that a good old speed\/thrash marathon, accompanied by a nice, cold beer, even though the festival was held in the middle of the city, on concrete instead of grass – was something that rock fans had really been waiting for. Sonisphere did not disappoint – neither the public, nor the artists, who were welcomed properly, like the gods of metal that they are. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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