Joey Belladonna Review 3/26/11

Joey Belladonna: Live @ The Cube 3/26/11

I have never seen a national act in a smaller venue than The Cube in Newark, Delaware. This place probably couldn't hold more than 150 people without breaking a fire code.

I've definitely seen bigger acts in larger venues give less of a show that what Joey Belladonna delivered to an audience of about 100 or so. The intimate setting really added to the fun of the evening for the crowd and seemingly even for Joey as well.

Belladonna had a lot of interaction with the audience from commenting on the many random things the inebriated fans were blurting out in between songs to the things that he was observing them do. Joey even grabbed several people's cameras who were filming him in the front and began to film the audience and the band with them.

Musically, the show kicked off with an energetic rendition of the Anthrax classic, "Among The Living" which then lead into a groovy version of "Medusa". One lone jackass attempted to form his own mosh pit 30-seconds into the show by throwing himself into surrounding fans and knocking them over like bowling pins. This ultimately lead to an immediate ejection as the tiny venue could not support a mosh pit of any size.

Over the duration of the two-plus hour show, Joey Belladonna kept the non-Anthrax material to a minimum only playing three solo songs, two Dio covers and a Hendrix track. The rest of the set was devoted to Anthrax tunes which kept the crowd frothed up for the entire show.

Some of the other memorable songs performed during the evening included: "Antisocial", "Caught in a Mosh", "In My World", "Madhouse", "Indians" and "Got The Time".

The show concluded with a trio of popular Anthrax oldies: "Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)", "I Am The Law" and "Metal Thrashing Mad".

I really give big props to Joey Belladonna for putting on a great show for a such a small audience at The Cube. He didn't probably have to play more than 70 to 80 minutes to meet the crowd's expectations, but Joey kicked our asses for over 120 minutes and kept us entertained the entire time.