I just got back from the show. I sweated through my shirt, my voice is just about shot, my neck hurts, my leg is scraped up... but man do I feel good!

I left my house at about 7:30, and got to the Madison at about 7:45. There was no problem finding a parking spot, to my surprise, and the parking was only $4. I walked in, and it was kind of crowded. The Madison has an upper and lower level. The lower level has some seats towards the back, and one giant open area towards the front. I was down in the lower level, in the pit area. I noticed a lot of Pantera, Slipknot, Mudvayne (They are from Peoria), and of course Slayer shirts. I wore a blue cap and a Prong shirt, in case anyone else here was there. Somebody told me that they had heard of Prong, and thought they were really good.

The first band, Diecast I think is their name, was actually pretty good. Like others have said, they were a mixture of thrash and hardcore. The drummer was pretty impressive and the songs were easy to get into, but the lead singer sucked. I couldn't understand a damn word he said the entire time. He just kind of mumbled into the mike. They played for about half an hour.

Then came Hatebreed. I was surprised that there were a lot of Hatebreed fans there. The lead singer wore a baseball cap, and he actually got the crowd going pretty well. They didn't really impress me that much. Every song pretty much sounded the same. Of course, the only differentiation between the songs would be the lyrics, which sounded like they were slapped together by some 8 year old, 25 minutes before he entered the recording studio. In between songs, the lead singer talked about how the band was giving away free 2 song CDs and about how they had a new album coming out in March, but I don't think anyone really cared. He also would explain the meaning to some of the songs, and how we can relate to it, which was more funny than anyhting. The pit was starting to get going during their set though, and that was kind of cool. The only Hatebreed song that I had heard beforehand and actually liked was "Before Dishonor", and that was the last song they played. Thats actually a pretty cool song, and I shouted the lyrics and jumped around in the pit to that song. I got knocked over a few times and my leg got scraped up pretty bad, but its all in good fun. Other than that song, I just wished they'd get off the stage. They played for about 20-25 minutes too long, IMO.

Then there was a 25-30 minute wait for Slayer. Some chicks kept us entertained by flashing us. I was pissed that I left my disposable camera in the car. There were some really nice looking chicks there too, but they were certainly the exception and not the rule. Then the lights went off, and "Darkness of Christ" played over the P.A. system, and the place erupted. Then they went straight into "Disciple". I thought it went off flawless, and it sounded great. A lot of people seemed to know the words, and it was fun screaming "God Hates Us All!". They kind of paused for a few minutes after "Disciple", as I think somebody up front got hurt. Then they went into "War Ensemble", and the pit was really starting to get nuts.

After this song it was getting really hot in the Madison, and I was running out of energy and had already sweated through my shirt. The pit was less brutal than I was expecting, but most of the people there were pretty cool and just wanted to have a good time. At this point a lot of people looked exhausted and just wanted to get out of there. One dickhead kind of shoved me against the wall when I wasn't paying attention, and I looked back at him, and he just had an ugly hateful look on his face. All I could think was, "lighten up for Christ's sake".

Then they went into "Stain of Mind" and "Threshold". Neither one was that great, but I think Dave did a pretty good job on both songs. Then came the "Postmortem" and "Raining Blood" combo. That was the highlight of the evening for me, as both sounded just as good as the album versions. Then after a few more songs they played "Bloodline" and "God Send Death". These played really well to the crowd, and a lot of people sung along to the lyrics. Then came "Dead Skin Mask", which everyone seemed to know the lyrics to. "Payback" was also played, and again, received pretty well.

For the encore, they played "South of Heaven" and "Angel of Death". The security guards kind of broke up the pit for "Angel of Death", which kind of sucked, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the song. After that, Dave came down from his drum set, and threw some drum sticks out. He was wearing a backwards ballcap and I barely recognized him, but I wasn't even close to catching a stick. Kerry threw out some guitar picks, and one dropped right at my feet. I went down to pick it up, but couldn't get a handle on it in time. Someone pushed me away, unfortunately, which pissed me off. That would definitely be the worst part of the evening. As I was leaving, I noticed that one of the chairs was on fire, and that was kind of funny. Another funny thing is that a piece of concrete fell from the top of the theater, and the place looked really old and run down, not to mention the fact that is smelled like vomit. I'm not positive, but I think the show was sold out, as I heard peolpe talking about how it sold out right before the show started, and people were paying as much as $50 to get in. Slayer finished up at about 11:45, I think. Another thing is, I'm not positive, but I think Tom said, "We'll see ya again this summer". Then I left. It was very cold outside, which was actually a relief, as it was so damn hot inside. I went to my car, but the damn lock was jammed, so I had to get in through the otherside. Anyways, here is the set list, I'm not positive about it though.