Dave Mustaine’s “Cool Building” tweet about the Wisconsin Capitol turns 10

Whaddya mean, it’s been a whole decade?

It’s a very special Cool Building Day. Today—November 24, 2023, at precisely 5:07 p.m.—marks exactly 10 years since Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine tweeted a photo of the Wisconsin Capitol with this description: “Cool building in Madison, #Wisconsin out my hotel window. This is a fun college town! Can’t wait for tonight!” He was here to play a Megadeth show at the Orpheum. The historical record suggests the thrash-metal veterans acquitted themselves admirably that night, but the “cool building” tweet is forever. Be you a musician, a vintner, a Some Kind Of Monster co-star, a guy prone to all manner of unhinged political remarks, or some combination of all those things, you only have so much control over your legacy.

Cool building in Madison, #Wisconsin out my hotel window. This is a fun college town! Can't wait for tonight! pic.twitter.com/08fcIpUJCc

— Dave Mustaine (@DaveMustaine) November 24, 2013

We at Tone Madison love to beat a bit to death, but by even our standards this one is getting long in the tooth. Dave, you never write, you never call! Instead of catching up with you via a personal annual Christmas card-type letter, we have to trawl through assorted metal news sites that generate a simply astonishing amount of Content about you every year to find out you’ve moved to Italy and become a grandfather. Never a dull moment with this one!

Even if you are too busy to acknowledge little old Madison, some things never change. There’s something indelibly funny, almost innocently charming, in this reaction to the most Madison 101 sight imaginable. If Dave is crashing with you in Madison for a few days and you need to entertain him until he’s out of your hair, don’t bother running through the usual list of out-of-towner time-killers. Save the Arboretum and the zoo and the spicy cheesy bread for a less cultured sort of folk—the Capitol is all Dave needs to be thoroughly captivated. In all fairness, the locals are partial to it as well. And upon this day, we pause to reflect that it just might be pretty cool.