MARTY FRIEDMAN And KIKO LOUREIRO Reflect On MEGADETH's 'Wonderful' 2023 Performance At Tokyo's Budokan: 'It Was A Thrill'

In a recent interview with Japan's Young Guitar magazine, ex-MEGADETH guitarists Marty Friedman and Kiko Loureiro reflected on Marty's February 2023 guest appearance during the Dave Mustaine-fronted outfit's first-ever gig at Tokyo, Japan's famed Budokan. Friedman came up on stage for three songs toward the end of the main set on February 27, 2023: "Countdown To Extinction", "Tornado Of Souls" and "Symphony Of Destruction". Marty said: "Oh, for me, when I played with MEGADETH at Budokan, it was wonderful. When I heard them playing, I thought, 'This sounds better than when I was in MEGADETH originally.' [Laughs] It just sounded better. The whole thing just sounded better. And I'm, like, 'Wow, I'm gonna play in this-sounding MEGADETH now.' It was so fun. And watching the Japanese audience, it was a thrill. People were crying, people were smiling, people were screaming. It was great. I enjoyed it a lot."

Kiko, who was MEGADETH's lead guitarist at the time of the Budokan show, added: "Yeah, I think what Marty is saying, I cannot compare. And actually, I remember watching the videos from the '90s, and then I always thought that there was some sort of attitude or freshness or excitement that was very hard to reproduce. But, of course, you have the technology, and the sound of Dirk [Verbeuren, MEGADETH drummer], the drummer, is really solid. So when you play with him, you feel like how solid the band is because of the drums.

"Yeah, I think it was a very important concert for the band and for Dave Mustaine," Kiko continued. "And I felt that tension there, probably because of the respect for the place. But also it was a weird feeling, because I'm playing [Marty's] solos [in some of the other songs from Friedman's MEGADETH era] and he's right here. He doesn't go and play [those songs himself at the show]. So that's this weird, mixed feeling. Because we were opening with 'Hangar 18', and that's, for me, one of the best guitar works in MEGADETH, the solo [and] the whole [thing]. And then [I was], like, 'Marty should play this,' because I knew he was right there. So there was this extra pressure — 'I'm playing his solo, and he's right here checking me out.'"

Marty chimed in: "You totally nailed it, man. You totally nailed everything."

Marty rejoined MEGADETH twice on stage over the course of a six-month period in 2023 — first in February 2023 at the aforementioned Budokan gig and then in early August 2023 at the Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany.

At the 2023 Wacken Open Air, Marty performed four songs with MEGADETH: "Trust", "Tornado Of Souls", "Symphony Of Destruction" and "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due".

In December 2024, Marty was asked by France's Metal Obs' what it was like to rejoin his former band on stage after more than two decades: "It was good fun — nothing but pure fun. And [it was] wonderful to watch the audience react to it, because it was just a wonderful experience for everybody, especially those of us on stage because the audience was… We did it because we knew that the audience would get something that they can remember, something they can go home with and have a memory. And we just enjoyed it. I enjoyed it a lot."

Regarding what it was like meeting up with MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine again, Marty said: "It was great. We never really lost touch. But there's never much that we have to talk to each other about, so we don't talk to each other every month or anything. But it's always been friendly, so when the chance came for us to play together, it was just natural."

Friedman and his solo band performed as the support act for MEGADETH on September 22, 2025 at Maçka Küçükçiftlik Park in Istanbul, Turkey. Marty did not take the stage with his former band at the show, but he took to his social media right after the gig and wrote: "My band and I had an incredible time playing in Istanbul! … After our show Naoki [Morioka, a member of Marty's Japanese touring band] and I watched as [current MEGADETH guitarist] Teemu [Mäntysaari] absolutely NAILED my solos with ease and MEGADETH tore up the place! We can't wait to come back."