Project Description
SCOTT IAN
One Man Riot
Metro Theatre
29 September 2018
(Live Review)
Reviewer – Benjamin Smith
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Scott Ian has spent decades making a name for himself as the face of one of the most successful metal bands in the history of the artform. Of the ‘big four’, Anthrax certainly aren’t as brutal as Slayer, they aren’t as big as Metallica and they aren’t as technically proficient as Megadeth. What they are though, is the band who’ve managed to inject humour where no one else would have dared and have managed to make a career’s worth of albums that balance the intensity required of their crossover sound with a determination never to take themselves too seriously.
Now, Scott Ian is bringing that humour to stages without the comfort of a full band and without the theatrics that have sustained Anthrax’s stage shows. Its just him with a microphone, an illustrated slide show and a lifetime of stories in music.
His stories are personal and are peppered with the names that have made the genre what it is. Lemmy, Dimebag, Sebastian Bach and Dave Williams are just a few of the characters that appear in his twisted up tales. He does a little q and a too and is generous with his time but doesn’t get too deep. He calls out a guy in the crowd for filming the show and seems generally pissed that someone would be so disrespectful. But that’s the most serious the show will get from beginning to end. He leaves the socio-politico ramblings to the others.
There is a spate of these types of tours that are starting to emerge, most likely in the wake of the successful industry Henry Rollins has built up around his spoken word programs he’s been running for decades and the ones Jello Biafra has done for almost as long. Soon enough we’ll have Bruce Dickinson doing a similar thing and not long after that Dee Snider will bring his own schtick to town.
Ian has been forging an image for himself outside of his band for a few years now, appearing in various tv roles including a gig hosting The Rock Show. He’s charming and self deprecating and most of his stories sound like a cross between a fan boy talking about his musical idols and a teenage boy telling dumb stories about doing dumb shit. He drinks a few beers and at the end pulls out the famous flying V and does a few of the “ballad of…” 10 second tracks he makes for every dead musical icon.
It’s a pretty good way to spend two and a half hours. There are some good laughs along the way and a few poignant moments. He unequivocally quells any hope of a SOD tour and is very sceptical of any sideshows happening when he brings the band back for Download festival in a few months. Scott Ian in many ways personifies what rock n roll is supposed to be about, playing fucking hard and having a damn good time doing it.
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