Dark Roots of Thrash II Tour - Gig Report / Pics

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DannyM

DannyM

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Last nights Exodus / Testament shows was one of the best shows ever!
I'll put it up there with Metallica's Master of Puppets and Slayer Reign In Blood gigs that I saw back in the day.

Both bands were tight.
Vocals: Zetro and Chuck Billy brought out their A game.
Drums: Tom is a beast! Gene's kit was shaking the building!
Bass: Jack did a great job as did Di Giorgio
Guitars: Gary Holt, Eric Peterson, and Alex Skolnick .... fuckin' A :rock:
Wish Rick was still in Exodus but Lee did a great job.

Tone:
Last night was the second time I've seen Exodus since they starting using the Kemper Profiling Amps in their live rigs.
I saw them in November with Slayer and I was underwhelmed and not impressed by the KPA. Gary has monster riffs and his Marshall (Tempo of the Dammed) and ENGL tones are crushing. At the Moody Theater in Austin the guitars felt weak and would get lost in the mix. I wrote that off as maybe the sound man was having a bad night as all the other times that I've seen Exodus their guitar tone was brutal...even when they were using Tripple XXX's. The same thing happened last night....the guitars would disappear and seemed to easily get overpowered by the rest of the band. I cant blame the sound guy again so I'm going to say that the KPA's were to blame. They may sound good in the studio but if the mighty Exodus has had two bad tone shows in a row (that I have seen) then I hope they ditch the KPA's from their live rig before I get to see them again. Leads didnt seem to fly off the fretboard out of the PA and the amazing riffs that Gary and Lee were playing would just get lost....I am disappoint.

Eric and Alex had great tone! I couldnt see what they were using but it was most likely EVH 5150 III for Eric and a Marshall Mode 4 or his new Budda for Alex. Alex's lead tone filled the theater and Eric's riffs were in your face and crunchy.

Setlist:
Testament - Full-album performances of 1987’s The Legacy and 1988’s The New Order plus some stuff from Practice What You Preach....Probably the best setlist ever!
It was like we all died and went to heaven LOL
The only thing that would of made Testament's setlist better for me was if they had played Souls of Black and Green House Effect

Exodus - they played some old and new stuff. I'm still bummed that the guitars seemed to get lost and that Gary and Lee's riffage was not upfront and all in your face......No ear spank for me : (

Here are some Testament pics
http://douchecrew.com/Testament_AztecTh ... 615_01.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Testament_AztecTh ... 615_02.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Testament_AztecTh ... 615_03.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Testament_AztecTh ... 615_04.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Testament_AztecTh ... 615_05.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Testament_AztecTh ... 615_06.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Testament_AztecTh ... 615_07.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Testament_AztecTh ... 615_08.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Testament_AztecTh ... 615_09.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Testament_AztecTh ... 615_10.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Testament_AztecTh ... 615_11.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Testament_AztecTh ... 615_12.jpg

Here are some Exodus pics
http://douchecrew.com/Exodus_AztecTheat ... 615_01.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Exodus_AztecTheat ... 615_02.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Exodus_AztecTheat ... 615_03.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Exodus_AztecTheat ... 615_04.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Exodus_AztecTheat ... 615_05.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Exodus_AztecTheat ... 615_06.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Exodus_AztecTheat ... 615_07.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Exodus_AztecTheat ... 615_08.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Exodus_AztecTheat ... 615_09.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Exodus_AztecTheat ... 615_10.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Exodus_AztecTheat ... 615_11.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Exodus_AztecTheat ... 615_12.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Exodus_AztecTheat ... 615_13.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Exodus_AztecTheat ... 615_14.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Exodus_AztecTheat ... 615_15.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Exodus_AztecTheat ... 615_16.jpg
http://douchecrew.com/Exodus_AztecTheat ... 615_17.jpg

Testament_Exodus_sm.jpg

It was like I died and went to heaven !!!! :D
 
Two of the most under-rated bands ever. Gary Holt is one of my idols.
 
I'm jealous cos I'd love to see that show (Yeah, I'm pissed that tour's not coming to my town - I saw them both on their last run though!).

I thought Tempo was 5150s?
 
Everytime I've seen Exodus I have had the same impression.
I tend to believe that the crushing scooped tone that Gary uses for the studio just doesn't cut it live. He should dial in some more mids, you know, and not try to exactly mimic his studio tone. It kind of puzzles me how such a talented and seasoned player still falls into the scooping mistake for his live tone. They are a monster band, and it's a shame you can barely tell what the guitars are doing live :aww:
 
chaosmonger":12ukdsgz said:
Everytime I've seen Exodus I have had the same impression.
I tend to believe that the crushing scooped tone that Gary uses for the studio just doesn't cut it live. He should dial in some more mids, you know, and not try to exactly mimic his studio tone. It kind of puzzles me how such a talented and seasoned player still falls into the scooping mistake for his live tone. They are a monster band, and it's a shame you can barely tell what the guitars are doing live :aww:
Click to expand...

I didn't hear it but I would think a boosted DSL would have some decent mids.
 
Yep, but my ear tells me he's still scooping the mids on the Marshall... and scooped Marshall is scooped, no matter what :-)
 
Gary doesnt use Marshalls anymore with exodus. Only uses the dsl's with Slayer. Engl and kemper with exodus. That's the reason for the horrible lack of mids.
 
I caught this show last night in Niagara Falls, NY. I agree with the OP's assessment of Testament ( :D ) and Exodus. I've seen Exodus quite a few times but this was the first with Zetro. He's the man ! Sounded just like the records he's on and better than the Exo records he's not on ! I hated Rob Dukes with a passion and my long standing opinion of Paul Baloff mirrored that of what the rest of the Exodus guys thought of him when they kicked him out in 86/87 (that he sucked live). Sorry !

Holt is one of my favorite all time players but good lord did his Kemper tone suck. Zero dynamics, no pick attack, no detail; just an indistinguishable ultra compressed over scooped mess. He was audible, just not discernable. When the techs were sound checking the Exodus guitars, it was loud yet strangely had no impact. A good analogy would be like playing a CD through the PA between bands, and when the band kicks in you can feel the visceral impact of the music in your gut, even if the volume is the same as the prerecorded music. Impact was not imminent last night, despite a solid performance. I had similar perceptions of recent Megadeth shows when they were using AxeFXs direct, though they weren't quite as bad because they use seemingly less gain and more mids than Exodus. Still, all the openers I saw play before Megadeth used real, miced up tube amps and their guitars were so much more present and satisfying than that of Megadeth.

Not going to say much about Testament other than they were great and their guitars sounded real, not canned. Alex had his signature Budda and Eric the EVH 5153, both with matching cabs. I could hear Steve Digorgio's 3 string (!) bass very clearly all night. Really adds to the music when you can actually hear the bass guitar.

Now to nurse my volume hangover :aww:
 
I wish I would have gotten out to see them this time around. I saw Exodus and MOD back in '87 or '88 at Perkin's Palace (Pasadena), what a great time that was! It was my first real thrash show and holy cow it was an unforgettable experience. It's amazing that they're still out there tearing it up after all these years.
 
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