Metallica at the O2

Paul's stag weekend was not blog material. There's some sort of rule about what goes on tour staying on tour, which I've already broken extensively, and plan to break some more, but not on the internet.

However, when the dust settled and we made it back to work on Monday, I'd got a Metallica gig lined up for the Monday night. It was a fanclub gig, and I'd had to join a mailing list to get into it. Elissa had joined up too, and picked up a couple of tickets, and was up in the top tier with an Aussie friend who liked her rock. She texted me her location and we managed to spot each other across a few hundred metres and a crowd of 17,000. Anyway, the gig.

This review sums it up nicely. The band didn't play "Nothing Else Matters" or "Enter Sandman". But it doesn't matter, because they've got a ton of other songs that benefit from 17,000 people singing (is that the right term?) the words. The band are very obviously becoming middle aged, and James is a little bit chubbier than he should be. But it doesn't matter. They're back at ease with themselves after the cringeworthy Some Kind of Monster and, to be fair, the equally cringeworthy "St Anger". That was referenced during the show, in fact. James said "This song is from our much-loved album, St Anger" and the crowd made a noise that was a third cheer, a third jeer and a third chuckle. "Say what you want, this song still fucking rocks." And Frantic, as the song turned out to be, did fucking rock. Particularly Kirk Hammett's dirty vocals. Everything fucking rocked between 8.45pm and 10.45pm.

I got very excited about Master of Puppets. Of Wolf and Man was pretty good too. I knew all the words to Until it Sleeps, which surprised me. I can still hear James saying "For whom the bell tolls - Oh, time marches on... Your turn!", then the crowd chanting "FOR WHOM THE BELL TO_OOLLS!" and a cheeky "Yer DAAMN right!" from the frontman.

Metallica aren't terribly subtle. They're not going to change the world of music. They're probably not going to have another album as successful, and certainly not as memorable, as either the Black Album or Master of Puppets. But they're still going to pump out a show that rocks, for at least another decade. A fiver well spent, I think.

Click on the Hetfield for a few snaps that are much better than any I could have taken.



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