Anthrax , Fatal Order , Dumpstar
Club Oasis 160 , Chicago Heights, IL.
Friday May 28th , 2004
by John Haseltine
What a treat it was if you were in the Chicago or Minneapolis area on the 28th & 29th of May . After a brief rest, just coming off their tour of Australia and Japan, Anthrax play two nights here in the U.S. before heading off on a six week trek of Europe in support of their latest live cd/dvd, Music Of Mass Destruction. Club Oasis 160 was the venue in Chicago Heights who hosted the masters of the mosh.
First up to warm things up a bit were Chicago’s Dumpstar. Dumpstar put out a great effort for the night. By the crowds reactions at the beginning of their set, it seemed they were relatively unheard of. Well they seemed to change the attitudes of the crowd after only a 30 minute set of blistering metal core , which left the remnants of Dope, Murder Dolls, Slipknot and Soil in my head. A very good set. ’One Try and Goodbye ’ were a couple of songs that left a impression. A band to keep your eye out for.
Next up were, what my senses seemed to pick up are local favorites, Fatal Order. Fatal Order are an excellent, old school metal band who for no other reason than metal, do what they do. They opened their set with ’Made In Hell’ by Halford. They put the place in an uproar with such metal classics as ’Hallowed Be Thy Name’, ’Skin Of My Teeth’ and ’Ace Of Spades’ as well as some very powerful originals. Correct me if I’m wrong on the titles,’ Kicked In The Balls Again, Branded For Life, & Spellmaker’. As well as a few others I wish I did catch the names of. Even with the mighty Anthrax on deck, the crowd could not get enough of Fatal Order tonight who put on one hell of a show.
“Good evening ladies and gentlemen”, the Blues Brothers theme starts on. And out come Anthrax. I’m sure the floor would have been total chaos, but due to the no moshing policy at the venue, the crowd went as wild as they could with out slamming into one another too harshly. Being this the tenth time I have witnessed Anthrax, and even if you have only seen them once, you’ve gotta just say wow. Anthrax kick ass. I can’t find any other words to describe it. As plenty of you already know. Whether you caught them on the last tour, or have seen the new dvd, you still need to go see them again when they return to the states as they have changed up their set list with some of the old school Anthrax classics. Bush states,” well hell, we couldn’t come here and play the dvd live, so we changed things around a bit for you.” and so they did. An amazing set by one of the masters. In addition to changing the set list, Anthrax welcome long time Bush friend and old band mate Joey Vera to fill the vacant bassist slot of Frank Bello who is off playing with Helmet. Will this be a permanent decision on the part of Bello? We’ll find out in time. Vera (Armored Saint/Engine) did a superb job cranking out the licks of the many classics as well as the new tunes. The set list is as follows, ‘What Doesn’t Die, Time, Caught In A Mosh, Keep It In The Family, Random Acts Of Senseless Violence, Anti-Social, Any Place But Here (very first time played live), N.F.L. , Madhouse, Only, Safe Home, Death Rider, Indians and of course Bring The Noise’. Anthrax have a lot of goodies in store for the very near future for us all. I stand and applaud Scott, Rob, Joey, John and Charlie. Thank you for over 20 years of Anthrax without ever letting up. A great show as always guys.
