Megadeth – too hot for Beijing? That might have been the case, as the first show the band played in support of their forthcoming Dystopia, in Beijing, China, was allegedly cut short after about an hour. Although there’s some conjecture in the piece, The Beijinger seems to think that censorship might have played a part in the shortened set:
Signs indicate that the performance at the MasterCard Center’s Huiyuan Space may have been shortened or stopped by officials. For example, one well-known Megadeth track, “Skin of My Teeth,” was played instrumental instead of with its usual lyrics.
For a band with a 30-year career, there seemed to be an inordinate number of instrumentals and extended guitar solos. The group also did not play several of their best-known songs, including “Holy Wars/The Punishment Due” and “Angry Again.” Megadeth founder and lead singer Dave Mustaine’s comments at the end of the show may have indicated some kind of official action to stop. “Thank you for leaving so that we can come back and play again,” he said from the stage as the band waved to the crowd after performing “Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?”
A look at the band’s set list from setlist.fm doesn’t suggest that they cut the show short. It looks to have spanned 15 songs, which is their normal setlist. What isn’t normal, though, is that in addition to “Skin O’My Teeth,” they also played instrumental versions of “Dawn Patrol,” Poison Was the Cure” and their cover of Thin Lizzy’s “Cold Sweat.” Those are pretty arbitrary choices to cut. Dave has said in interviews that MTV thought “Skin” was about suicide. Poison Was the Cure” is about heroin, but not overtly. “Dawn Patrol” is about global warming, and “Cold Sweat” isn’t really about anything that controversial. The band are scheduled to play Shanghai on Thursday, so we’ll see if they play the same set or if they were indeed cut short. Here’s their set list, per setlist.fm:
Hangar 18
Wake Up Dead
In My Darkest Hour
Skin O’My Teeth (instrumental)
Sweating Bullets
Tornado of Souls
Dawn Patrol (instrumental)
Poison was the Cure (instrumental)
Kingmaker
Trust
A Tout Le Monde
She-Wolf
Symphony of Destruction
Cold Sweat (insturmental)
Peace Sells
[via Metal Injection]
