Upcoming Book ‘No Big Deal’ Reveals Story Of Groundbreaking 1984 METALLICA And ANTHRAX Concert

On July 27, 1984, indie record label Megaforce Records released METALLICA‘s “Ride the Lightning” in the U.S. Days later, on August 3, a show at New York City’s Roseland Ballroom, billed as “A Midsummer’s Night Scream”, took place. It featured three underground bands: RAVEN, METALLICA and ANTHRAX. It was a coming out party for independent metal in America, and a legendary event in METALLICA‘s and ANTHRAX‘s histories and metal music lore.

It is commonly known among the bands’ fans and music industry insiders that a young guy named Michael Alago, an A&R man for Elektra Records, was in the audience. Soon after seeing this show, Alago signed METALLICA to Elektra. The group was on its journey to something unprecedented. Roseland also marked ANTHRAX‘s final performance with frontman Neil Turbin, who sang on the band’s debut album, “Fistful Of Metal”.

A new book, “No Big Deal: Chasing The Indie Music Dream In The Last Days Of The Record Business”, by former music industry executive Dean Brownrout, offers a deeper look into the story. It was Brownrout who, along with Steve Martin, now a leading music business agent, convinced well-known promoter John Scher that a RAVEN/METALLICA/ANTHRAX bill could work at Roseland Ballroom, a 3,500-capacity venue in the heart of Manhattan.

Said Brownrout: “In 1983, at 21, I’d recently moved to NYC, and found work as a talent agent, signing and booking music acts. I became aware of an underground heavy metal scene that was ready to explode, and started working with Megaforce Records, a small independent record label deeply involved in this community. Their artists included a little-known group called ‘METALLICA.'”

Brownrout continued: “Steve Martin (an agent, not the comedian) and I talked John Scher into booking the concert, but Scher and his staff remained skeptical that these three obscure bands meant anything in ticket sales. The show sold out.”

2024 marks the 40th anniversary of this groundbreaking concert.

In his memoir, “No Big Deal”, due out October 1 on Guernica Editions, Brownrout gives little-known details of how this event came to pass, as well as offering the reader a bird’s-eye view into this transformational era in the music business.

Back in 2015, ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian told Louder Noise about the Roseland concert: “It was kind of the culmination of all the hard work we had done since 1981, from the formation of the band. Three years later, we’re playing Roseland, sold out, and just like looking out at this sea of people going, ‘Holy crap. This is amazing. We’re obviously doing something right.'”

Ian continued: “I just remember… Obviously, it was a big deal because we sold out Roseland. And it was kind of unheard of for bands that didn’t have major label record deals at the time to be able to sell that many tickets. But, 3,500 people bought tickets to that show and it was really exciting, obviously us being the only New York band on the bill. It was certainly gonna be the biggest show we had ever played in New York City. And I remember coming on stage and we opened with ‘Deathrider’ and I remember just a sea of hands. Every fist was in the air and every kid was headbanging. It was everything we could have hoped for. I also remember they trashed all the bathrooms at Roseland that night. They were ripping concrete, urinals out of the walls and all those lamps that were all over that. It was the wrong venue for that show. I felt bad because it was such a beautiful venue and kids kind of destroyed it. And that’s also the night — we were so happy because it was the last show we ever did with Neil Turbin. [Laughs]”

Brownrout was born in the early ’60s and raised in the Buffalo, New York area. By the time he was a teenager, he was promoting rock concerts and managing local bands. From 1980 to around 2000, he had an uncanny habit of finding himself at the forefront of cultural shifts ― from the emergence of new wave and thrash metal music to the dawn of the commercial internet. Brownrout would go on to work with other up-and-coming talent as an agent before starting his own record labels (he signed the GOO GOO DOLLS to their first recording contract).

“No Big Deal” is a humorous and nostalgic journey through a seminal time in the music industry.