It’s rare to witness an iconic band in their formative stages, especially when the band in question pre-dates camera phones by several decades. But occasionally some farsighted – or lucky – onlooker was there to capture history being made on film.
In early 1983, Slayer played The Woodstock club in Anaheim, California, opening for some long-forgotten headliner. They had formed less than 18 months earlier, in the LA suburb of Huntington Park, apocryphally playing their first gig on Halloween 1981 and supporting the similarly unknown Metallica in October 1982.. By the time of the Woodstock show, they’d graduated from Judas Priest and Iron Maiden covers to playing their own songs.
