Anthrax & Oddman

Who said that there are no good music shows in Chico during the summer? Following in step with what is fast becoming a long line of stellar summer shows at The Brick (U.S. Bombs, Dick Dale, and Sevendust, among others), Chico’s best venue managed to reel in yet another huge act, East Coast metal-heads Anthrax. Getting the opening nod was Chico hard core five-piece Oddman.

Fans said that Oddman’s sonically-layered grinds were a perfect warm-up for Anthrax even though their set was only about a half-hour long. Currently working on their debut CD, Oddman is steadily winning over local hardcore patrons. (Did you see drummer Mando of San Jose’s Insolence wearing an Oddman t-shirt on Jimmy and Doug’s Farmclub.com June 21? Cool.) Make sure you make time to see Oddman, these guys are really cool.

Speaking of national exposure, New York thrashers Anthrax have been absent from the national scene for a couple of years now after the folding of Ignition Records and the ‘98 release of Volume 8: The Threat Is Real on that same label. So while these five rockers — singer John Bush, bassist Frank Bello, drummer Charlie Benante and guitarists Paul Crook and Scott Ian — are waiting to get the rights to Vol. 8 back for a possible re-release, they decided to go back on tour and reacquaint themselves with the masses.

"If you don’t know, we’re on tour with Mötley Crüe and Megadeth," said Bush on stage. "But we only get to play about a 40-minute set as the openers. So tonight, on an off night, we’re going to give you a full set."

What amounts to a mini-medley of their greatest hits (‘99’s Attack Of The Killer A’s is an awesome best-of compilation), these 40-minute sets don’t even come close to doing this band justice and giving them proper time to spread their metal wings; wings that first spread in ‘83 and are still flapping strong today, almost eighteen years later. So what us Chico metal mavens got was a an extended selection of greatest hits and a few old-school gems that got really rousing ovations.

What makes this band really cool is the fact that they are able to embrace their past with Bush’s willingness to cover the older, more adolescent material. Songs made famous with Belladonna at the helm — like "Among The Living," "Got The Time," and the crowd pleaser "Antisocial" — were given adequate readings with Bush’s own personal, true-crooners stamp on them.

The highlight of the night was an old-school classic from their ‘83 debut Fistful Of Metal called "Metal Thrash." A bit surprisingly, people seemed to know the words and sang along to the old school anthem from the band that laid the foundation for today’s popular rap-core movement as propounded by acts like Kid Rock and all those Rage-Against-The-Limp-Korn-Incu-Biscuit bands. Pioneering tunes like ‘87’s "I’m The Man" and ‘91’s "Bring The Noise" (with Public Enemy) paved the way for this cross-over, hip hop-meets-metal melange of music.

And nobody does it better than Anthrax.

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