Anthrax is my favorite band. I’ve gone to as many Los Angeles area shows of theirs as I can for the past twenty years. There’s one thing about their shows though that really seems to be a point of contention for so many. Their setlist hardly ever changes. So much so in fact that I’d dare say there are too many GLARING OMISSIONS!!! Let’s take a look…
Now I understand and get that when it comes to playing live especially on tour, you want consistency and to be a very tight band. I could be wrong and that’s just my opinion but, when you are a band that’s been around as long as Anthrax has, the need to keep it fresh and exciting sounds more interesting. It’s not as if the songs are really technical to play or long drawn out songs like the Grateful Dead for example. Bands like Nine Inch Nails or Meshuggah kind of keep it more or less the same because of the complexity of their songs and how much of a challenge it would be to change something on the fly.
What I’ve found in my years of seeing Anthrax is that the best time to see Anthrax live is when they are touring behind a brand new album. They’ll play the new songs for that touring cycle but then sadly, for the most part retire them. My first time seeing them was on the American Carnage Tour with Slayer and Megadeth (a semi-repeat of the 1991 Clash Of The Titans tour if you will, minus Alice In Chains) and they played the classics such as “Caught In A Mosh,” “I Am The Law,” and “Madhouse” so I was thrilled to be seeing those songs live. Even playing “Fight Em Till You Can’t” from what would be Worship Music was great. But now that I’ve seen them several times after that, once an album cycle is done, they go back to the same old songs that have been played before.
Another thing about that American Carnage tour in 2010, both Slayer and Megadeth were celebrating album anniversaries, those being Seasons In The Abyss and Rust In Peace and they played those albums in full as well as a handful of other songs. Well guess what album also was celebrating an anniversary?!?! Persistence Of Time! The fact that they didn’t play it in full was such a wasted opportunity. Imagine going to that kind of show where three of the best and biggest heavy metal bands are all celebrating album anniversaries by playing seminal albums in full??? Come on, that’s a golden ticket right there!!
Don’t get me wrong, I love the songs “Caught In A Mosh,” “A.I.R.,” and “I Am The Law” but maybe instead of having two cover songs like “Got The Time” and “Anti-Social” you sub those with something off of the last album that was put out or maybe a deep cut from State Of Euphoria or Persistence Of TIme. I mean, think about it. A band takes the time to write all these songs, record them, put out an album only for the band to not even bother playing that majority of the songs on the album. Why would you do that?? If the song wasn’t good enough, don’t put it on the record.
Anthrax has only done one album play through and that was for Among The Living which was an amazing show and one of my top ten shows of all time. When I saw them at the Hollywood Palladium during the For All Kings tour, they played “Breathing Lightning” and “Evil Twin” and both sounded amazing!! That was back in 2016 and I haven’t seen them play those songs since. Fast forward to 2022 and during their 40 Year Celebration tour, they played ZERO songs off that album. ZERO!!! You’re celebrating 40 years of greatness and you don’t even play anything off of your last album???!!! Let alone the other giant omissions. Instead it was largely the same set that I got when they played Aftershock in 2024 except shorter!!!
The biggest crime of celebrating the 40 years tour was only playing ONE song from the John Bush era. Yes, Joey is a different singer with a different range than John but, the man himself is in your audience and you couldn’t bring him onstage to sing his own song?? But instead you bring out Chuck D from Public Enemy to play “Bring The Noise” for the zillionth time? Also, the ONE song you play off of State Of Euphoria is a cover song??!! Seriously??!! You couldn’t add a song like “Now It’s Dark” from the same album? What would’ve been better was having a set in which John came and did his era songs. And Joey a set of his era songs. Hell, you could’ve even had them on stage together at the end to sing a song. Now THAT’S how you truly celebrate 40 years!! Play something off of everything!!
Anthrax has SO many great songs that NEVER get played and would sound amazing live!! What I’m getting at is PLAY THOSE SONGS LIVE AND LEAVE OFF THE DAMN COVER SONGS!!! And while you’re at it too, you can forget Fistful Of Metal songs in the set! At the end of the day Anthrax is still my favorite band but their setlists need to be vastly improved. Here’s to hoping their headline tour will see a big change.
