Slideshow: Megadeth Brings a Symphony of Instruction to Berklee

Megadeth pops in on a rehearsal by Berklee's Megadeth Ensemble. 

March 25, 2016

As Berklee's Megadeth Ensemble practiced on Monday, the sound from its rehearsal space in a back room on the second floor of 1140 Boylston St. pulsated so forcefully that someone from an adjacent floor stopped by with a request not heard much at Berklee: "Could you turn it down a bit?"

But when you're rocking this hard, it's difficult to keep quiet. Even more so than the instruments, it was the students who were amped. After all, at any moment the real Megadeth, which was in town to play the House of Blues that night, was going to walk into the room. When asked how he felt about the prospect of playing Megadeth songs in front of the metal pioneers themselves, Berklee student guitarist Kristopher Wong had one word: "scared." It was an understandable feeling considering that Wong and his four bandmates—bassist David Walker, guitarist Julian Salas, frontman Yoav Ruiz-Feingold, and drummer David Crozier—along with instructor David Marvuglio, are longtime Megadeth fans who lace their conversation with stories of past concerts and lineups. The ensemble has been practicing Megadeth songs all semester. 

Minutes after the students laid down their instruments, Bass Department Chair Steve Bailey escorted his multi-platinum-record-selling friends—the band Megadeth—into the room. After brief introductions, the ensemble launched into "Holy Wars...The Punishment Due." Megadeth's David Mustaine, Dave Ellefson, Kiko Loureiro, and Chris Adler sat quietly, paying close attention. Shortly afterward, the ensemble plunged into "Rust in Peace." After each tune, band members offered the students advice, sometimes demonstrating a riff themselves. For the last song, "Tornado of Souls," Ellefson and Loureiro stood in for Walker and Salas.

"It was just surreal for me to be playing with Dave Ellefson from Megadeth. He's definitely one of the best metal bassists of all time, so to be playing with a legend like that, for me, is an honor," Crozier, the ensemble's drummer, said afterward. 

Wong, who played next to Loureiro, put it like this: "It's intimidating as hell, don't get me wrong, but it's a good feeling." He's seen Loureiro play "Tornado," seen the previous guitarist play it, and watched "the dude who wrote it" play it, all live and up close, but none of those experiences compared to this one.

His fellow guitarist, Salas, felt the same way. "I'm super stoked because when I was looking at Kiko play that 'Tornado' solo, the way he was phrasing his chords totally blew my mind—I didn't think about that at all. I had studied the solo super-hard and how [former Megadeth guitarist] Marty [Friedman] played it but I never actually thought about why he chose those notes, and so that was really cool."

Bailey said that students would carry these moments with them their whole lives, and that Megadeth's visit would become part of Berklee's lore. Indeed, the visit's importance was just starting to register for Wong. "It's kind of weird that I'm done with half my bucket list at 19," he said.