Megadeth Plays Stage AE; Idina Menzel in Concert at Heinz Hall (Tues., 7/11/17)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWecwsP_THw

1) Dave Mustaine was Metallica’s original lead guitarist. Shortly before the band recorded its debut album, 1983’s Kill ’Em All, the other members fired him for his excessive substance abuse. In Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir, the singer/songwriter details taking a Greyhound bus from New York City to Los Angeles and finding a pamphlet on the dangers of nuclear proliferation. It  warned of megadeath—one million human lives lost because of a nuclear explosion. Mustaine dropped the second “a” in the word, and a new band was born. Despite substance-abuse problems and in-fighting, Megadeth became one of the great thrash metal groups alongside rival Metallica. Megadeth has released 15 LPs, most recently 2016’s Dystopia. The title track won the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance, the group’s first Grammy win. Megadeth plays Stage AE. Meshuggah, TesseracT, Lillake open. Doors open 5:30 p.m. 400 North Shore Dr., North Shore. (CM)

2) In the past several years, Broadway star Idina Menzel‘s career (which was doing quite nicely already, thank you) was  unexpectedly hijacked by a song from a Disney movie. As the voice of Queen Elsa, who sings “Let It Go” from the movie Frozen, Menzel has reached a whole new level of fame. The Tony award-winning actress and singer had already been branching out to a new audience with a recurring guest role as Rachel Berry’s mother on the television musical “Glee.” This year she starred in a Lifetime Network remake of the film Beaches. But it’s the success of “Let It Go” that garnered her international fame. Her set list draws from her most successful stage roles in Wicked and Rent; her 2008 studio album, I Stand; and other releases, including 2016’s Idina. You can bet a certain popular Disney movie song will be featured, too. 8 p.m. Heinz Hall, 600 Penn Ave., Cultural District. (EC, RH)

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