People from all over Eastern Canada braved the freezing cold Montreal weather to see the metal monsters Anthrax and Killswitch Engage co-headlining show at MTelus on Thursday night. This was the first show of the “Killthrax II” tour that runs until March across North America.
Opening the night was Denver’s trash metal band Havok ,who just last year had their own headlining tours in North America and Europe, and are on the current bill until March. The four man band delivered their short set to the enthusiastic audience and proved trash metal is indeed alive and well.
As anticipation for the night’s headliners rose in the crowd, and the band had not even gotten on stage yet, when Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast came on, and within the matter of seconds, the middle of the floor had turned into a huge mosh pit. Anthrax kicked off their show with Among the Living and Caught in a Mosh, and continued onto Joe Jackson cover Got the Time with fans loyally singing every single lyric of each song.
Anthrax. Photo by Ignacio Galvez.
L-R: Charlie Benante, Frank Bello, Scott Ian, Joey Belladonna, Jon Donais
The band is clearly on top of their game, and singer Joey Belladonna certainly knows how to entertain the audience by encouraging the crowd to throw him joints on stage and made sure to make eye contact and quick chats with individual fans all over the venue during their show.
Equally entertaining to watch and listen were the guitarist Scott Ian, whose performance was undeniably impeccable, and the bassist Frank Bello whose energetic and animated performance was a pleasure to watch. The mosh pit was pretty much consistently circling the floor, and many would argue that Anthrax completely stole the sold out show.
The band finished their set with the Trust cover Antisocial, and as a last song, started, and restarted Indians after messing up the beginning of the song, to which the amused Ian admitted was no the first time it has happened.
Killswitch Engage was picked to headline the Thursday night show, and the floor in front of the stage was even more packed than for Anthrax. Their show started with Rose of Sharyn and Strength of the Mind after which singer Jesse Leach was joking about the band having not played for a while and just getting used to being on stage again.
Killswitch Engage at Montebello Rockfest 2017.
Photo by Laura Collins.
Leach’s vocals were consistently powerful through their one hour set, and the rest of the band was tirelessly energetic and entertaining to watch. I was lucky enough to photograph Killswitch Engage at last year’s Montebello Rockfest, but at Thursday’s show I considered myself even luckier to be able to watch the full set, uninterrupted from the soundboard.
MTelus is a perfect venue for show like this, and the band’s sound tech did a phenomenal job to make the band sound better than ever. My Last Serenade got the entire venue to sing the chorus on top of their lunch and the experience was more than goosebumps inducing.
During Heartache the band’s energizer bunny guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz ran off the stage into the crowd, and made his way all the way to the balcony and the audience was loving it.
As a last song of the night, the band paid tribute to late Ronnie James Dio with their cover Holy Diver as Joey Belladonna joined the stage with Leach and the rest of the KSE, which in all honesty was the best ending to a concert anyone could have ever hoped for.
Anthrax Setlist:
- Among the Living
- Caught in a Mosh
- Got the Time (Joe Jackson cover)
- Madhouse
- Fight’em ’til You Can’t
- Breathing Lightning
- Medusa
- March of the S.O.D. (Stormtroopers of Death cover)
- Blood Eagle Wings
- Be All, End All
- Antisocial (Trust cover)
- Indians
Killswitch Engage Setlist:
- Rose of Sharyn
- Strength of the Mind
- Self Revolution
- Vide Infra
- Hate by Design
- Soilborn
- Always
- My Last Serenade
- When Darkness Falls
- Absolution
- Reckoning
- My Curse
- Alone I Stand
- Beyond the Flames
- Heartache
- In Due Time
- Holy diver (Dio cover with Joey Belladonna)
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