Anthrax with Sworn Enemy

The Arcada Theater is one of my favorite venues (as I'm sure you've figured out by now) and in my opinion, the only seated venue in the Chicagoland area worth going to. That being said, you could only imagine my shock when Anthrax was booked to play there. The Arcada has hosted several hard rock and heavy metal bands over the years. A thrash metal band however? Nope. This was definitely a first. The main question was, how would people react to this?

Considering tickets nearly sold out and the theater remained in one piece, pretty well actually. Of course, if hindsight was 20/20, it's possible promoter and owner Ron Onesti would not have gone as overboard as he did with security. His entire security team was working the show, a couple on duty St. Charles police officers were patrolling, and the temporary chairs were literally chained together, leg by leg. In other words, there was no chance for a mosh pit to happen.

The night began with tough guy metalcore act, Sworn Enemy. I'm usually not a fan of this style, but I was really impressed by these guys, especially considering I was only familiar with a couple of their songs before seeing them. They reminded me of a heavier version of Hatebreed. Great band with heavy emphasis on the breakdowns which came down faster than my math grade last semester (ba dum tss). Surprisingly, they played nearly an hour and received much appreciation from the crowd which was definitely there for Anthrax.

By the time the east coast thrash legends hit the stage, the whole crowd was on their feet and remained there for the remainder of the night. While I'm not a fan of many of the new songs they included in the set, they came out at full speed, kicking the night off right with "Among the Living". The only deep tracks played were "Medusa" and "Be All, End All", as well as the beginning of "March of the S.O.D.". Overall it was a great performance, but it could have used some more deep tracks. Now I've told you what I thought of the show. How about what I thought about it being at a seated venue? Bizarre. I love the Arcada, but I'm not sure if I'd go catch a thrash show there again if there ever was one. Only time will tell.