The Slayer "Last Campaign Tour" rolled into Columbus on Tuesday, Nov 12th. Having seen them nearly every time they have played Columbus since 1986, but having missed their last stop here, as well as this tour being advertised as their final trek, I had to catch this show. When the opening acts were announced for the tour, there was one act that sold me on going. In the opening slot was Phil Anselmo, the former lead singer of Pantera, and his band The Illegals, performing for the first time in decades a full set of that band's songs. I was a huge Pantera fan in their heyday, seeing them 17 times in the course of 7 years, from 1991-98. I was unfortunately also present at The Alrosa Villa in December of 2004 when Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell Abbott was murdered onstage along with 3 others during a concert by his follow-up band Damageplan. My Pantera bonafides run deep. I don't listen to the band that much anymore but they still loom large in my concert history. So there was no way I was going to miss this show.
I had received word from friends who saw tour stops in other cities that Phil was hitting the stage at 5 minutes to 6:00, so I made sure I was inside Nationwide Arena by 5:45. I went straight to my purchased seat location, towards the back of the lower level and took my seat in a largely empty section. The cavernous Nationwide Arena had been scaled down to half-size for this show, and the upper level had been darkened and curtained off. The result was a smaller arena feel, while still providing a venue 3 times the size of Slayer's usual spot in town, the Express Live Indoor pavilion. The only other time I had seen Slayer in an arena over the years was in 1991, on the Clash Of The Titans tour with Megadeth, Anthrax, and Alice In Chains...a show where they turned the reserved seating Battelle Hall, in what is now the Columbus Convention Center, into a raging general admission mosh pit where security couldn't remove the rows of seating fast enough. The show tonight was far from sold out, but it was a respectable draw for a record-cold November weeknight, and still over twice the audience size that Slayer normally plays to in this market. In fact the only larger audience they have played to in Central Ohio was when they played the main stage at Rock On The Range in front of a full soccer stadium.
At 5:55 PM, the houselights fell and The Amboy Dukes' 1967 album track "Down On Phillip's Escalator (D.O.P.E.)" played over the PA, as The Illegals took the stage. When the song ended, Phil walked onstage with arms raised. Taking the mic he said, "This is for Dime and Vince [Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul Abott, also deceased]", and the band launched into Pantera's "Mouth For War". The still-filling general admission floor became an instant swirl of moshing, and the audience took over backing vocal duties flawlessly. The band was tight as could be with the lead guitarist in particular channeling his inner-Dimebag. As for the man of the hour himself, Phil has seen better days. His voice and stage presence are a mere shell of their former glory. At one time in the 1990's no one could touch Phillip Anselmo on the stage. While it was somewhat disheartening to watch him slowly walk back and forth, throwing his arms in the air as if trying to start a Metal wave in the cavernous hall, it was also a testament to his status as an elite frontman that even in his diminished capacity he could command the attention of every eye in the house. For pure nostalgia it was great. The audience continued to sing along with every song, to the point where Phil would just let them sing the chorus of many songs. After a far too short 7-song set, he bid us all a good night and asked us to help him "end this the right way" as we all sang together "And she's buying a Stairway to Heaven." Should Phil eventually decide to do a full Pantera revival tour with the other surviving member, bassist Rex Brown, I would be first in line for tickets.
Ministry was next. They too have a unique connection to Pantera history in Columbus. They played here on the same night Dimebag was murdered. I had to choose between going to The Newport that night for their show, or the cheaper priced Damageplan show. As they hit the stage this evening, I once again was lost in the throes of nostalgia, as at least half of their set was literally made up of the dance songs of my college years. Industrial bangers like "Burning Inside", "Thieves And Liars", and set closer "Jesus Built My Hot Rod" had me time-traveling to the late 80's and early 90's Ohio State south campus bar scene. They even found time to squeeze in the 1,000 Homo DJ's cover of Black Sabbath's "Supernaut", which went over great with the metalhead crowd. Newly sober frontman Al Jorgensen, author of one of the most absurd autobiographies in music history, actually appeared to be having fun on stage. Amazing.
Primus took the stage next. On paper, the band sticks out like a sore thumb on this lineup. But in execution, the audience loved them. It didn't hurt that the house had filled up considerably during the course of the two previous acts. They played a set of career highlights, but the funnest part of their set for me was when they covered "Cygnus X-1" by Rush. I had last seen Les Claypool and company all the way back in 1994 when they opened for Rush on the Counterparts tour, and I had witnessed my final Rush show in this very arena, so the moment was a bit surreal. They finished their set with their mid 90's MTV hit "Jerry Was A Racecar Driver", sending the masses on the floor into another whirlpool of moshing.
A large curtain was dropped to cover the stage, and after listening to most of AC/DC's "Back In Black" album over the PA, the moment had finally arrived...Slayer were about to begin their final set ever in Columbus. If I told you I didn't go total fanboy when their intro tape started, and began screaming "SLAAAAAYER" at the top of my lungs, acting like a 15-year old girl in the throes of Beatlemania, I would be lying.
Slayer, being the extraordinarily consistent band they have always been on the live stage, played a set of songs covering all eras of their career. The big chestnuts of their catalog, the material from their first 5 albums, were mostly saved for the second half of the set, resulting in a crowd that stayed hot throughout the entire night. Speaking of hot, the pyro budget for this tour must be outrageous, as blasts of fire and large banks of flames burned behind them for a significant part of the show. I could feel the heat all the way at the top of the scaled-down arena. It was quite kind of the guys to keep us all so warm on a freezing autumn evening.
When the last notes of "Angel Of Death" had faded, the guys remained onstage with the houselights up, interacting with fans, handing out guitar picks, drumsticks, setlists, etc. They stayed out there for an extraordinarily long time, even as many people filed out of the building. For most of this time, frontman Tom Araya stood motionless at the edge of the stage just staring at the audience and the arena, soaking it all in. He finally walked around onstage a bit with the other guys until they all eventually left him by himself to speak to us one last time. His voice cracked as he said, "Thank you for being a part of my life." The mood was very somber, and you could feel Tom's sincerity that this really was the end.
As I type this, rumors of a Mötley Crüe reunion tour are swirling for 2020, and The Black Crowes are already comfirmed for a reunion next summer as well, illustrating that no one ever stays retired in Rock. But if this was indeed Slayer's final show ever in the Buckeye State, then it was a fitting end to the decades of destruction they have wrought on the concert scene. Long live FUUUUUCKING SLAAAAAYER
