MEGADETH's DIRK VERBEUREN On 'Destroy All Enemies' U.S. Tour: 'Every Night Is A Different Setlist'

In a new interview with Chicago Tribune, MEGADETH drummer Dirk Verbeuren spoke about the setlist for the band's ongoing "Destroy All Enemies" U.S. tour, which features support from MUDVAYNE and ALL THAT REMAINS. MEGADETH is performing classics from 1990's "Rust In Peace" and 1992's "Countdown To Extinction" albums, along with material from 2022's "The Sick, The Dying … And The Dead!" and rarely played songs such as "Liar" from 1988's "So Far, So Good … So What!"

"We've been putting a lot of work in spicing it up with less-known songs or songs that haven't been performed [much] or at all," Dirk said. "Every night is a different setlist so there will be some surprises for the fans.

"When it comes to 'Countdown' and 'Rust In Peace', those were defining albums for MEGADETH," he added. "They were both very popular at the time when they came out. It was the peak of that style of music coming out to the scene. That was the time when that music took over the world so those are albums that our fans have close to their hearts, and they have become staples in a way. There's usually a lot of songs from those records. Those records raised the bar with metal and thrash metal."

Earlier this month, MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine told The Big Takeover that his current bandmates — bassist James LoMenzo, guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari and Verbeuren — are a large part of the reason MEGADETH has been able to vary up its setlists on the last couple of tours.

"All the players that I have right now are really, really good players and we feel like a band," he said. "It's just great — the energy we have onstage, the songs selections that we've been able to choose now. You know, trying to encourage people that you're playing with to go and learn new songs should be fun, and we were stuck with the same setlist for years and years due to one or more of us just not wanting to learn new songs. The other thing that goes with us being stuck in a certain setlist is, we were playing along to certain production onstage — we had decided a few years ago to try and use video — and [it's also] picking songs that I can sing because my voice had been ruined, and that's a big thing, too. [Mustaine successfully underwent treatment for throat cancer that had been diagnosed in 2019.] I would never want to blame any of the MEGADETH alumni for anything that I couldn't do, but the video part, too, added an additional problem to everything being flexible with the setlist. So we chucked that idea and went back to being just a thrash band and playing our songs from all throughout our catalog, not just the hits. We must play certain songs, like 'Holy Wars', like 'Peace Sells', like 'Symphony [Of Destruction]', and we should play songs like 'Trust' and 'Tornado [Of Souls]', but there's been something really liberating, too, with going back and adding songs people haven't heard in forever because their eyes get big and you see them grabbing their friends next to them or high fiving their buddy or hugging their girlfriends. They just get super excited because they're hearing a song that they have never heard [performed live]. A lot of our fans are teenagers, and a lot of these records were made before these new fans were even born. So this is all a righteous experience for them."

MEGADETH kicked off the "Destroy All Enemies" summer 2024 U.S. tour on August 2 at Walmart AMP in Rogers, Arkansas. Produced by Live Nation, the trek is hitting 33 cities, including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Boston and St. Louis, before wrapping up on September 28 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Mäntysaari stepped in last September for Kiko Loureiro, who announced earlier that month that he would sit out the next leg of MEGADETH's "Crush The World" tour in order to stay home with his children back in Finland. It was later revealed that the 37-year-old Finnish musician would continue to play guitar for MEGADETH for the foreseeable future, with Loureiro seemingly having no plans to return.

Mäntysaari was born in Tampere, Finland and began playing guitar at the age of 12. In 2004, he joined the band WINTERSUN. He has also been a member of SMACKBOUND since 2015.

Photo credit: Ryan Chang