David Ellefson described what it was like to watch Megadeth’s set at Louder Than Life from the crowd, saying the sound reminded him of «Dave Mustaine with three other guys playing the songs».
“`The band’s former bassist spoke about the experience as a spectator, several years after his departure. His wording quickly became a talking point, because it touches on the question of how closely live performances still follow the original material.
He has spoken several times about his relationship with the band since 2021, without ever closing the door for good. On «Rust In Peace» he had written some of the most recognisable bass lines in the genre — the 1990 album.
The festival gathered a large part of the classic scene: from Geezer Butler and Geoff Tate to Slayer’s «Reign In Blood», played in full in Mexico four decades later.
Louder Than Life closed the season of the big American festivals, with Megadeth among the most constant presences on the line-ups of the region.
Ellefson appeared in Louisville on 17 September with Metal Church, on the same day as Megadeth, roughly five hours apart on the main stage. Before the festival he had said he did not mind whether he saw them or not, since «they are not my band anymore».
Speaking on his own show, «The David Ellefson Show», he described meeting members of the current line-up backstage. He said he greeted Teemu Mäntysaari and told him how much he likes his playing, while he has known Dirk Verbeuren and James LoMenzo for years — after all, he had helped Verbeuren get into the band. He and Mustaine did not meet face to face.
