It was on a balmy spring night when I walked up to The Pageant, the largest club in St. Louis, to partake in a night of head banging, black T-shirts, and thrash metal courtesy of the infamous Slayer. The lines were long, wrapping themselves around the the building and stretching themselves down the sidewalks of the Delmar Loop. The crowd was varied in the lines, you had your grizzled, balding 40 year plus metal vets, young kids barely old enough to have a drivers license, the heavily tattooed bald men whom mothers would drag their kids away from. Walking up and down the lines where people selling bootleg T-shirts for 10 bucks, their quality could be seen a mile away with the heavily pixelated Slayer logo on the back. The Halo Bar was filled to capacity, a first for me out of the numerous shows I've been to the venue, so out in the line I had to wait. After various random conversation with people in line, the doors finally opened and into the mouth of hell I went into, straight to the pit and in front of the stage.

First up was legendary Bay Area thrashers, Exodus. From the get go, the band launched into a full-out assault on ear drums. During their six song set, the band was on point and didn't slack once. Vocalist Rob Duke commanded the stage with a larger than life presence, moving around the stage like a man scorned. The band got the crowd moving in the pit, with various circle pits acting as hurricanes of bodies and limbs. Gary Holt, whom did double duty that night with Slayer, played with full force, not slowing down one bit in light of his performance with Slayer later in the night looming. Overall, the band was excellent and I'll be there the next time the band comes to town.

Exodus Setlist

Bonded By Blood
Piranha
Blacklist
War Is My Shepard
The Toxic Waltz
The Strike Of The Beast

As Exodus exited the stage, the deconstruction began and while I mingled with various people about Exodus's performance, a backdrop with a very large skull with a blue bandanna wrapped around it rose into view. This signaled that it was time to take in a performance from arguably the most influential and important crossover thrash band of all time, Suicidal Tendencies. The band wasted no time in trying to get the crowd going, having the crowd chant "ST" with making hand signs in shapes of said initials. The band launched into You Can't Bring Me Down, as legendary frontman Mike Muir jumped onto the stage and ran back and forth like a man possessed, not stopping for a second to stand still. The band themselves were as entertaining as Mike, in particular bassist Tim Williams, who was quite animated throughout the performance. In between songs, Mike motivated the crowd with various speeches about not giving up and pursuing your dreams, something I hope resonated with the youth in the crowd. The most interesting part of their set was the band did not perform their most well known song, Institutionalized, at any point of their eight song set. I myself found that a bit disheartening, namely because I really wanted to scream about Pepsi. Overall, ST more or less stole the show, with their high energy and non-stop thrash assault.

Suicidal Tendencies Setlist

You Can't Bring Me Down
War Inside My Head
Subliminal
Possessed To Skate
I Saw Your Mommy
Cyco Vision
How Can I Laugh Tomorrow If I Can't Smile Today
Pledge Your Allegiance

Before long, the stage was set for the headliner to take the stage. Fog machines filled the air with a thick fog, creating a atmosphere of suspense while red lights flooded the stage. Four upside down crosses came down from the lighting rig, perfectly fitting considering what was about to take place. The house lights go dark, and ominous music begins to play. It's time for Slayer to take the stage and begin their loud assault of evil thrash. Beginning with Hell Awaits, the entire pit erupted into a war of moshing, bodies falling all over the place. The energy was non-stop in the pit, I barely could stay in one spot at one time, being moved around like being in a ocean during a violent storm. The set consisted of material only from their first five albums, a very interesting change from the last two times I've seen the band.

Age clearly has not held the band in the slightest, for they performed as well as they would have as young men. Tom Araya's famous yell was still as high as it was when was younger, never giving out at any time during the set. The addition of Gary Holt to the band was an excellent replacement to the late Jeff Hannemen, perfectly performing the riffs and solos that Jeff left behind. The only part of the performance that I found not to be up to snuff was the drumming of Paul Bostaph, whom at one time was the band's drummer for the better part of a decade. Perhaps it was due to see the band with Dave Lombardo twice prior to the show, but I found Paul's drumming to lack the ferocity and intensity that Dave brought to the live performance, it wasn't a true sore spot for me but it was quite noticeable. The band ended their set with an encore of two of their most famous songs, South of Heaven and Angel of Death, playing in front of a large backdrop with a tribute to Hanneman and his favorite beer, a modification of the Heineken logo.

Slayer Setlist

Hell Awaits
The Antichrist
Necrophiliac
Mandatory Suicide
Captor of Sin
War Ensemble
Postmortem
Altar of Sacrifice
Jesus Saves
At Dawn They Sleep
Die By The Sword
Hallowed Point
Seasons Of The Abyss
Chemical Warfare
Dead Skin Mask
Raining Blood
Black Magic

Encore

South Of Heaven
Angel of Death

Overall, the show was one of the very best metal shows I've been to. It brought three of the best thrash bands in the history of the genre into one location, melting the face off of every one in the venue. I'll never forget this show as long as I live, forever burned into my brain of all the fun I had. I left the venue drenched in sweat, both my own and the various people I was pressed into during Slayer, and my body feeling like it got hit by a truck. Once I managed to escape the traffic trap that took me around a half hour to get out of, I sped into the night, with Slayer turned up on full blast.

Show Review: Slayer (St. Louis, MO)