In concert: Megadeth

Megadeth's "Rust in Peace" still had plenty of roar at the 9:30 club on Monday. (All photos by Kyle Gustafson/FTWP)

By Dave McKenna

Dave Mustaine could have been the Pete Best of heavy metal. He was kicked out of Metallica and sent home on a bus just when that future stadium-filling band was recording its debut. But instead of giving up, Mustaine took his bad attitude and pointy guitars and formed a new act, Megadeth. And at the 930 Club on Monday, Mustaine celebrated the 20th anniversary of his signature metal disc, "Rust in Peace," by playing it through to the roars of a packed house.

(Plenty of licks, plenty of attitude, plus more pictures after the jump.)

Thrash rock, much like bluegrass, is a right-hand dependent music, where the picking hand usually moves at least as fast as the fretting hand. And, good golly, is Mustaine's right hand quick. On "Holy Wars . . . the Punishment Due," the featured LP's opener and most-ambitious track, Mustaine and Chris Roderick picked and strummed so fleetly that they sounded as if a 33 rpm record were being played at 78. (Yes, "Rust" was originally released on vinyl.)

The lyrics from "Holy Wars" and the rest of "Rust," - sample: "Now I must scream of the overdose/And the lack of mercy killings" - make no more sense now than they did when Mustaine and original bassist David Ellefson wrote them, and melody remains inaudible. Yet the mosh pit on the club floor remained fabulously kinetic throughout the album's reprise, as upper-thirtysomethings dusted off "Rust"-y slam dance moves from back in the day. In the balcony, fans flashed devil horns and those that still had hair flipped it while headbanging.

After finishing off "Rust," Mustaine, 48, returned to the stage with some other golden speed metal oldies, and showed he's still got the 'tude that got him in trouble as a young man. He went overboard railing at a fan up front for waving a t-shirt, and before "Peace Sells," Mustaine bragged about the sexual and violent acts he'd perform on "a terrorist" if he'd ever come face to face with one. Great as the guy had played all night, Metallica's tossing him to the curb all those years ago suddenly made perfect sense.