February 15, 1997:
We went to the VanAndel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan - spazzing like no one has ever spazzed before. My friend and I had shitty nosebleed seats, but it's a well-constructed place, so there really aren't any "bad" seats. Corrosion Of Conformity was pretty good - probably because they were so loud. It was dark and there was loud music - that was quite enough to get the crowd going, despite the occasional "Get off the stage!" and "We want METALLICA!!!!"
Enter Metallica. The band ran around the stage (actually a double stage because the "Poor Touring Me" tour was extremely theatrical in comparison to the "Poor Re-touring Me" tour) slapping hands with the lucky mosh-pitters. Then they ripped into "So What?" and the lights went down (as adrenalin levels went up) after the song finished, and the riffs of "Creeping Death" were unrecognizable except to the most avid Metallifreak due to the speakers' unearthly volume level. But ears became accustomed to the pounding bass and Lars' kickdrum, and James yelled, "Do you want heavy?...I said, DO YOU WANT HEAVY?" and "Sad But True" almost knocked the ceiling down. Damn, that song kicks ass live. Then they only played a few songs off Load. But that was probably a good thing, because there were mostly old Metalli-diehards there, and as loud as "King Nothing" was, I think the pyrotechnics on "One" were really what got everybody going, despite the drab review of the song in The Grand Rapids Press. A medley of "Last Caress", "Master Of Puppets", and my personal favorite (and guaranteed crowd-pleaser), "Enter Sandman", was played, and the next thing I knew, there was a dude on stage running around on fire. My first thought was, Shit - if that's James.... but then I was like, Get real. This is a stunt... and it turned out to be one, but I only found that out the next day from the newspapers. Anyway, the sound system let out a huge BOOM and then made a sort of buzzing noise and went dead. My friend and I looked at each other like, This is NOT happening. This shit does NOT happen to Metallica. But Metallica's roadies quickly equipped them with small amps (which put out a LOT of noise for their size) and the four horsemen pulled strings above their heads and CLICK - four light bulbs came on. This was, I guess, supposed to be reminiscent of the "garage days" of the band, and they played a few songs from Garage Days. And so went my first concert ever:
Jam
So What!
Creeping Death
Sad But True
Ain't My Bitch
Hero of the Day
King Nothing
One
Wasting My Hate
My Friend of Misery / Sanitarium Interlude
Nothing Else Matters
Until it Sleeps
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Wherever I May Roam
Fade to Black
Stranglehold
Seek & Destroy / Fight Fire With Fire
Last Caress
Master of Puppets
Enter Sandman
Am I Evil?
Whiplash
And here are some pictures from that concert...
June 11, 1998:
The second concert I went to was the second of 2 concerts at the Pine Knob Music Theatre in Clarkston, Michigan (near Detroit). The first one, I heard, was quite interesting - they had to stop selling beer after like 9:00 because everyone was getting so fuckin' drunk. But the second one was even more interesting. It went something like this:
My friend’s dad drove my 2 friends and me to Pine Knob Music Theatre. We got there and as we walked through the parking lot, we noticed it had turned into a 'Metalli-palooza' of sorts. Everyone was clustered in groups of 2 or 3 cars in the parking lot and every group had a different Metallica song blasting from their car's stereo. The line was extremely efficient - it didn't take us as long to get in as I first thought when we got there. (I was so pissed - I had my Metallica Club membership card but I had just gotten my driver's license and only had my temporary one - so I didn't have the required photo I.D. to get a chance to go backstage.) But anyway, they made me give up my wallet chain. Sucked, but I'd have given much more than that to see Metallica. (Goddamned metal detectors - we're at a heavy metal concert, for cripe's sake...) When we got up to the top of the hill and looked at the place (it's an outdoor amphitheater) we were in awe. Nothing like I had imagined - way cooler. We sat and waited, watching people from our extremely good seats on the grass. There were people from 8 years old to about 40 - heavy metal knows no age limit. My favorite part was when I noticed all the Metallica Club members (easily recognizable by their Club t-shirts with the mock-Harley logo on the back that says, "STUBBORN METALLICA-CLUB MEMBER") down in the mosh pit. I am in the Club and I felt like I was being excluded from a family reunion - but it didn't bother me for long. Finally, after the beach ball throwing and weirdo-watching, Days Of The New came onstage. I liked 'em when I first heard 'em on the radio - and they were even better live. After that, a short downtime for the roadies for Jerry Cantrell to set the stage...and Jerry was okay - I'm not too much into his solo project music, but my friends loved it. They played 1 or 2 Alice In Chains songs - can't remember which - and then an eternity passed. (Probably almost an hour - I didn't keep track.) People were getting pretty fuckin' antsy - but when Mighty Het and the boys stepped on stage, the screaming that followed could've woken the dead. During "One" the pyro was fuckin' awesome. "Last Caress" and "Horsemen" were amazing when done acoustically, proving once again Metallica's versatility and restating their "go-for-it-'cuz-we-don't-give-a-fuck" attitude. And the mainstay in Metallica's repertoire - "Enter Sandman" - was done with just enough flamboyance so as not to detract from the band (like on the "Load" tour) and yet still drive the crowd into utter pandemonium. Fireworks off the top of the stage at the end of that song was definitely the highlight of my evening. The only thing I remember from "King Nothing" was that I was singing along (of course) and I screamed, "Where's your crown, King Nothing?!?" right into some guy's face and he kinda looked at me funny. I was acting more spastic than most of the people there who were drunk. During "The Thing That Should Not Be" some people started throwing chunks of sod. Funny at first, but then the whole crowd started doing it and it turned into, well, basically a dirt shower. During the song I was praying, Please James, make them stop!, and I got my wish when the song ended. I knew that if he didn't stop them, no one would, and my brand-new, sacred, white Metallica shirt would be covered in dirt. "What the hell are you guys thinkin'?" James screamed to the morons throwing sod. "I'm gonna have all these people up here in the seats come over to your mom's house and tear up her lawn!" The crowd became extremely quiet. The sod throwing ceased. An act of God? No, but I'd say The Mighty Het has about as much power. "Memory" is one of the best songs live - because the crowd is more in tune than Marianne Faithfull ever was. We all sang the 'la da da da' part. "Here's a song you prob'ly ain't heard live fer awhile..." and out came "Of Wolf And Man". I have never heard a crowd so in tune and in synch with each other and the band than when Metallica ripped out "Master Of Puppets." "MASTER! MASTER!" (Although Garth Brooks' audiences are pretty good at singing too...) They left the stage and almost started a riot (I can't remember after which song they did this) - but then upon returning, James commented, "Sorry. Had to take a piss." Everyone applauded. (Yay, he took a piss. Whoopee.) Here's the setlist:
Ecstasy of Gold
Breadfan
Master of Puppets
Of Wolf and Man
The Thing That Should Not Be
Kirk solo
Fuel
The Memory Remains
Jason solo
Nothing Else Matters
Devil's Dance
King Nothing
Wherever I May Roam
One
Fight Fire With Fire
Low Man's Lyric (acoustic)
The Four Horsemen (acoustic)
Last Caress (acoustic)
Sad But True
Enter Sandman
Creeping Death
Whiplash
December 31, 1999:
We arrived at the Silverdome at around noon. The doors opened at 4, but any true Metallica fan does NOT wait 'til then, especially if they hope to have any remote chance of getting backstage. My friend Chris drove, and I, my roommate April, my friend Rachel, and my friend Cary all rode in his car to Pontiac with ants in our pants for this, the next Greatest Show on Earth. My friend Chris and I are Club members, so we went to find the Metallica Club booth to attempt to get backstage passes. We didn't find it, and returned to our spot in line where our other three comrades waited. When 4 o'clock rolled around (and believe me, it was quite cold so this seemed like a very much longer time than it was), the security guards came out and told us to form lines. We did so, and by about 5 o'clock we were actually let in. (The Silverdome is notorious for not knowing what the hell they're doing.) We found the Club booth to be near our seats, but Chris and I ended up not getting backstage (big surprise - I didn't really expect it 'cuz all the others were like 6-year members as opposed to my measly two years at the time). Finally Sevendust, replacements (thank God) for Tommy Lee's band Methods of Mayhem who pulled out at the last minute, took the stage. They were extremely good, but unless you really knew their music, you couldn't really get into it because the sound system (I felt) didn't do them justice. Kid Rock, whose music I didn't like at the time but have since been enlightened to, put on a very exorbitant stage show as usual, and my friend Rachel thoroughly enjoyed it as he is one of her favorite artists. Then the man known to some as The Nuge, to others as Uncle Ted(ley), to still others as The Motor City Madman, and to the world as Ted Nugent, rode out onstage on a buffalo. His usual routine of flawless guitar target practice was carried out with exceptional accuracy, and he was even louder than when I saw him open up for KISS.
About an hour (but an eternity to 75,000 screaming Metallifreaks) passed between Ted Nugent and Metallica. When our Boys hit the stage, well, the dead didn't just wake up. They got up and ran away with their hands over their ears screaming. The lights went down and Metallica's trademark "Ecstasy Of Gold" played. Here's the setlist from then on:
Die, Die, My Darling (I don't think many expected to hear this one!)
Fuel
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Whiskey In The Jar
Sad But True
2x4
No Leaf Clover
Four Horsemen
Master Of Puppets (first half)
Sanitarium
Master Of Puppets (second half) (Yeah...Mastertarium...huh huh, that was cool, Beavis.)
Bleeding Me
Blackened
Creeping Death
Nothing Else Matters
Turn The Page
King Nothing
One
Enter Sandman (My favorite - played just before the ball dropped on 2000! Beee-yootiful.)
Phantom Lord (I didn't expect them to play this one - by the time it started, half the crowd had left because they were afraid of Y2K!)
Detroit Rock City (All four bands joined in on this one!)
All in all, an unforgettable night. To those of you who were there, you witnessed a never-before seen event (no, not James forgetting the lyrics to "Detroit Rock City" - I'm sure that's happened before, ha ha).
