Gigantour Just Out of Reach

Maureen Vana, NBC5 Street Team

Earlier this month Megadeth’s monster metal Gigantour came to Chicago for a visit to the Aragon Ballroom. This year’s ticket included High on Fire, Job for a Cowboy, Children of Bodom, In Flames, and was topped off by a lengthy set from Megadeth. Gigantour 2008 brought a manageable quantity of bands which gave fans more time to settle in and enjoy as opposed to previous festival style years.

The evening went by fast with little down time between sets and even less interaction from the performers. Perhaps the distant and to the schedule theme of the night was brought on by the Aragon’s giant looming stage or the spacious barricade penning fans far from the bands. The 2006 tour at the Congress Theatre proved to have a more unified feel with a low stage and smaller pit allowing some eye contact and keeping the possibility of throwing a hand in the air to be greeted by a metal hero an option.

See Photos from Gigantour 2008

Although the distance in the air was unsettling, the bands were on there A game when delivering the goods. High on Fire brought some dirty rock and roll in the vein of Motörhead to get the early birds rolling, while In Flames delivered near perfection to a crowd who expected nothing less. Aside from a string tasting Alexi Laiho, a dread whipping Anders Fridén, and a really cool winged flying v covered in blood splatter (courtesy of Dave Mustaine), there just was not much action going on. The music sounded great, but next year bring this one back to the small stage so we can feel Gigantour and not just hear it.

(Type “Maureen Vana” into the search bar at the top of this page to see my past concert photography and reviews)

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