Wimps and Posers, Leave the Delmar Hall! Testament's Latest Performance In the Show Me State Was Loaded With Ballads, Moshers, Instrumentals, and More

The last time Testament performed in St. Louis in September 2022, they were performing with Exodus and Death Angel on the second leg of the Bay Area Strikes Back tour. With such a legendary, attention-grabbing line-up, you knew this was a show that you couldn’t miss! How could they possibly top that? To make their next show in St. Louis as memorable, they knew they had to do something special, which is exactly what they advertised and promised to their fans after starting off with their first couple of songs.

Guitar virtuoso Alex Skolnick insisted that while they love playing with and showing their support for other bands on tour, this tour was strictly about Testament and Testament alone. In addition to playing their 1989 release “Practice What You Preach” from start to finish, they dug deep to add variety and unexpected tunes to their set, some of which vocalist Chuck Billy insisted they would never play again upon completing this tour. I liked the fact that they rearranged the order of some of the songs on “Practice” for the performance to give it a somewhat different flow. Usually when bands perform an entire live, they just perform it in the same order that’s on record that everybody already knows.

Performing by themselves not only allowed them more time to play extra songs, but gave them a chance to talk in more detail about the inspiration behind many of those songs. For example, Chuck introduced “Envy Life” by talking about how when he was younger and dreamed of living the rock n’ roll life, he anticipated he would not live past age 38. When he was diagnosed with cancer around the time he actually became that age, he defied and overcame the disease and the self-fulfilling prophecy.

Guitarist Eric Peterson talked about how Chuck suggested naming their third releases’s ballad “The Ballad” because he was confident that it was the only ballad they’d ever write, but it wasn’t even the only ballad they performed that night! Eric did an impression of Chuck while sharing the story. Although Chuck insisted, “I don’t sound like that!”, he also later had to acknowledge Eric’s knack for proving him wrong when discussing the songwriting process of “City of Angels”.

I felt that four or five ballads in a show was a lot more than most of their audience, myself included, would have liked. Nevertheless, “Return to Serenity” was my favorite of the ballads they played that night and it seemed to be the one that got the strongest reaction from rest of the crowd, too. Somebody even held up a cigarette lighter during one of those numbers, a refreshing nostalgic moment given that you will usually see a lot more cell phones being held high nowadays. Aside from songwriting stories, Chuck was not the first thrasher to discuss his fondness for St. Louis’s long-shuttered riverfront venue, Mississippi Nights. He also wasn’t the first to express being less than impressed with nearby venue Pop’s after MN closed down. Rather than getting their food at the venue where they were performing like they were accustomed to, they instead received vouchers to get their food from a nearby strip club, leading Chuck to wonder, “How good could the food be? Who’s cooking the food?”.

Bands of all genres should take note, your fans want and deserve performances like this! We want these stories. When I knew stories about inspiration behind a song or what was going on in the songwriting process from reading liner notes or interviews, I would share them when introducing the song on my metal radio show in college. The bands and artists we love need to showcase their humorous sides as well. More than anything, we want longer sets! Go the extra mile and make the show complete.

For my final thoughts on this concert, I’d like to note that the turnout for this show was very strong! Although they played at a slightly smaller venue than they did when they were here on the Bay Area Strikes Back tour, it’s possible that they may have had more to do with scheduling/availability than it did with ticket sales. It was so crowded that I stayed in the same general area during the whole performance. I feared that if I went off in another direction I’d get stuck somewhere where I wouldn’t have as good of a view. I was also very happy that they closed with one of my very favorite Testament songs, “Into the Pit”! “First Strike is Deadly” was a big highlight as well. As far as the material from their third album, “Perilous Nation”, “Blessed in Contempt”, and “Time is Coming” sounded particularly strong that evening, as they do on record.

The setlist (in this order):

Practice What You Preach
Sins of Omission
Perilous Nation
Greenhouse Effect
Time is Coming
Blessed in Contempt
The Ballad
Envy Life
Nightmare (Coming Back to You)
Confusion Fusion
Musical Death (A Dirge)
The Legacy
Rise Up
Native Blood
Trail of Tears
Low
Drum solo from Chris Dovas
First Strike Is Deadly
City of Angels
Into the Pit

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Tags:  Testament, St. Louis, Delmar Hall, Metal, Thrash metal

Nick Statuto    May 13, 2025