Some things translate to Japanese extremely well. Marty Friedman is one of them. Longtime shred guitarist, who joined Megadeth for a decade and their most popular albums, he then moved to Japan where he not only was able to play, but became a hugely popular TV show host. He’s basically a megacelebrity over there, where as here he’s only a pretty big celebrity. The point of this is that supergroup Mutoid Man was in Japan for a weeklong tour and Friedman joined them for a pair of songs. If you’re not super familiar with the band, first of all, you should be. And the band’s title track to War Moans is pretty Megadeth-y, and was helped out by Friedman’s shredding. However, we saw the three headed monster of Mutoid Man play Prince’s “Purple Rain” with Baroness’ John Baizley before, and reprising it in Japan with Friedman was arguably even more impressive. Not only is Friedman a true legend (which isn’t to take anything away from Baizley), the reaction from the crowd speaks to the fact that music defies language barriers and is truly a universal language.
