DAVID ELLEFSON – “BASSTORY” – LIVE AT THE CELLAR

By Kat Gullage

DAVID ELLEFSON brings his “BASSTORY” to the Cellar on Treadwell with a host of special guests.

Yes, the venue is a literal cellar. It’s also a very cool intimate space that delivers a lot of live music and events. The gig we caught was David Ellefson’s “Basstory”: Performance, Stories & Legacy. Ellefson is the co-founder and former bass player of the band Megadeth. He has several side projects and ventures and recently performed at the “Back to the Beginning” Black Sabbath reunion / OZZY tribute concert.

David was also appearing at Terrificon later in the week and I loved that he attended a bunch of local events. He stopped into Sonny’s Place and caught Beyond Purple, we saw him at Pantera, he and Chris Poland signed autographs and collectibles at CH2 Collectibles, and I heard someone mention go-carting? I can’t confirm that last one but I wouldn’t be surprised.

The first opener was local heavy rockers Diabolis. The foursome was made up of: vocalist Tim “Voxx” Hayden, drummer John J-SINZ LeVasseur, guitarist Gary Joseph and bassist David Alusik, known as, “D”. I was parked in the middle of the room but “D”’s look reminded me of Geddy Lee. Also, I liked their sound but personally preferred the more melodic parts over the growling parts. I get it though, growls seem to be on trend.The singer’s shirt read “In my defense I was left unsupervised”.

Photos Holly Roy Photography

Voxx announces that they’re from Watertown. “Thank you to The Cellar and thanks to you for coming out. This has been awesome!” Their best song in the set was “Screaming At The Sun”. I dug it, all the pieces fit together well. Someone once said “Local bands are the soundtrack of your town”, so maybe give Diabolis a listen.

Second opener was Vengeance. Another four member group, but thankfully this one was fronted by a girl, as we need more doses of female bad assery in this genre. London born, and 2005 winner of Hartford Advocate’s Bass Player of the Year, Debbie Seymour was on vocals, Duncan MacIntyre on lead axe, Kevin Schock on bass and Mark Stephen Boutot on drums.

They did a quick sound check and Duncan jokingly announced “Thank you, goodnight!” The band was huddled offstage and literally took forever to start. Even I yelled “Let’s fucking go!” and that ain’t like me. It was worth the wait. I loved Debbie’s voice, it was reminiscent of one of my all time favorite vocal queens, Sass Jordan. They served up a couple originals like “The Devil’s In The Details” and a few covers that fit nicely into the night’s classic metal vibes.

Duncan’s great guitar playing and the band’s enthusiastic performance made for a full bodied powerful sound. The house lights came on three quarters of the way through one of their songs. Duncan acknowledged the cue and remarked “Even though our first song was seventeen minutes long?” He then asked permission to perform another song or two and it was granted. The group has a stack of local music awards and has opened for many well known acts. I will definitely go see them again and hope to see you there!

Photos Holly Roy Photography

I have always been a big Megadeth fan. Mustaine’s demeanor can be offputting, but the guy is an iconic guitar player and although his vocals are an acquired taste, he delivers them with conviction. We associate Megadeth with Mustaine, as drummers and guitarists rotated in and out of the band, but David Ellefson was a co-founder and bass player of the group for three decades. A quiet yet integral part of the collective that formed the thrash metal of our youth.

I did not want to miss this show, even though some of the videos I watched of previous performances left me underwhelmed. I had to get me some Megadeth, even if it was just a morsel. Thankfully we were assigned to cover the gig, because it quickly sold out the one hundred capacity room. Ellefson used an eclectic yet talented mix of local musicians for this gig: Dave Sharpe and Kai Stone on guitars, Andre Vanchot on vocals and beloved drummer Christian Lawrence, aka “Opus”.

They started with a bang and only slowed down when David would add some commentary now and again. We got pummeled with “Dawn Patrol” (Rust In Peace) right into “Symphony Of Destruction” (Countdown To Extinction), “The Conjuring” (Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?) and “Hook In Mouth” (So Far, So Good…So What?). The bass player absolutely picked the right crew to back him. Andre’s vocals were amazing, Ellefson should work with him more.

Andre flexed his cords again on another track from Peace Sells with “Devil’s Island”. We got two songs off of an Ellefson solo LP, Sleeping Giants, with “If You Were God” and “Vultures”. The bass player himself sang a bit and his voice wasn’t terrible. During one of the story telling moments, David spoke about the music he listened to that hooked him on the genre and inspired him to be a musician.

Delivered with his Minnesotan accent. This was the segue to a bunch of classic covers: Motorhead’s “Eat The Rich”, Van Halen’s “Runnin’ With The Devil” and Judas Priest’s “The Green Manalishi”. Vanchot was swapped out for singer Ray Sylvestre, who kicked off his portion with Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper”. Ray almost fell on guitarist Dave Sharpe during the song. I missed Andre already.

Ellefson had a silver bass with the Black Sabbath logo in black on the body next to the strings and the flying demon, also in black, placed right where his hand sits when he’s playing it, which he
does with a pick. Ray redeemed himself as they churned out three Sabbath covers with “Never Say Die”, “Sweet Leaf”, and “Paranoid”. Chris Poland, Megadeth guitarist from 1984-1987, was introduced, took the stage, and started to jam.

I was surprised that he choose to belt out a jazz riff versus a thrash riff, but what was not surprising was Opus not missing a fucking beat. He played those drums righteously no matter what groove he was matching. The man was a stand out. And we got Andre back! Chris stayed to wrap the set with “These Boots” (Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good!) and two more from Peace Sells with “Wake Up Dead” and the title track, with its signature bass lead in.

All one hundred of us in attendance were bouncing and cheering and head banging all night long, and the group basked in it as they took a bow. They bestowed upon us a well deserved encore of Metallica’s “Seek And Destroy” and capped it with a pretty flawless rendition of Megadeth’s “Anarchy In The UK”.

Just WOW! The show exceeded my expectations with a solid setlist and excellent performances. Are you a Megadeth fan? Ellefson is touring with his “Kings Of Thrash” project through the end of October. Might wanna grab you a Peace.