Also an Anthrax loving post.

Last night I saw Anthrax at The Islington Academy, who were awesome. For a bunch of 50 year old guys they still rock HARD, and more importantly look like they continue to enjoy every minute. Compare that to the boring po-facedness of their old contemporaries Metallica. Anti-Social, Belly Of The Beast, I Am The Law, and many more still sound fresh thanks to the combination of the band’s love of metal, rap and punk, and their all-pervasive sense of humour.

Anthrax were also the first band I ever saw. On a bleak December night in 1990 myself and a mate from school jumped on the train from Kent into Charing Cross, only to be gobsmacked on arrival by how far we still were from Wembley (in our minds, London was just London, rather than the sprawling metropolis it turned out to be – it certainly felt a lot larger than Sevenoaks). Fortunately this was back in the days when The Jubilee Line still ran thru Charing Cross so we were soon speeding, relatively, towards north west London. When we got to Wembley Arena, man that was one big concert hall, and packed to the rafters with scary, full-sized metal fans (I was 14 and 5 foot 2 at the time). Anthrax were pretty much hitting their peak at the time, having just released the classic Persistence Of Time album and had recently scored a top 20 single with their cover of Joe Jackson’s ‘Got The Time’. They would return to The UK the following year to co-headline a tour with Public Enemy after the success of their collaboration on Bring The Noise. The show was fantastic, even in the uber-barn that the Arena is, and we were buzzing all the way back home on the last train, and all through the next day at school even though I was pretty much deaf as a post from a combination of Anthrax’s onslaught and the peccadilloes of Wembley’s acoustics.

Last night it felt both weird and nostalgic to have completed the circle from the first band I ever saw live to the most recent band I’ve seen live, spread over the space of more than 21 years. It will only last for one day as I am seeing Killing Joke tonight, but hopefully I might get another chance to catch Anthrax in the flesh someday as they are showing no signs of slowing down. Has anyone else had a similar experience with their gig going career?

Warning - track contains bass guitar solo:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=be7iNHw8QoQ

Alternative thread idea: first gig attended/most recent gig attended? Me = Anthrax/Anthrax.