Saw Metallica and Machine Head last night...

dan weapon

Planet Smasher
Nov 14, 2005
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Wow.

First off, I get there as early as I could to see MH - was really looking forward to them but it was horrible muddy sound (like someone had put a LPF at 400Hz) as arenas often are, especially for support bands. Just as disappointingly, their set choice was pretty average in my opinion. They played a few of the less good songs from the Blackening (eg Halo, but no Wolves or Aesthetics), and a terrible acoustic-based drawn out song from '...Ashes...'. On the plus side the best songs were Imperium and Davidian which are completely expected. But just that ONE song from BME.


Metallica were outstanding. As tight as they've ever been. James voice was incredible - hit ALL the high stuff and didn't wimp out of anything. Kirk's lead tone was actually really good, and he's obviously been practising - he pretty much nailed his old solos as well as he has ever managed live. The sound was 20 times better than MH (as expected I guess), and the light and stage show was immense. Only disappointing thing was that they only played for about 2 hours. I expected/hoped for about 3 more songs (especially due to the absence of Harvester, Battery and Creeping Death which are all live classics). I would have loved a bit more from Justice... but that's personal preference.

Extremely proud to see them being utterly brilliant and still highly relevant into their mid 40s, they even looked fucking great where recently they've looked a little old and haggard (a bit of hair-dye and a decent haircut does them wonders as gay as that sounds).

Here's the set (broken up into albums rather than the order they played them in:

The End of the Line (7:52)
That Was Just Your Life (7:08)
Broke, Beat And Scarred (6:25)
All Nightmare Long (7:58)
The Day That Never Comes (7:56)
My Apocalypse (5:01)

Of Wolf And Man (4:17)
Enter Sandman (5:31)
Sad But True (5:23)
Nothing Else Matters (6:29)

Die, Die My Darling (2:29)
Turn The Page (6:06)

One (7:24)

Master Of Puppets (8:36)

Fight Fire With Fire (4:45)
For Whom The Bell Tolls (5:10)
Trapped Under Ice (4:04)

Seek And Destroy (6:55)


The black album material, 2 cover songs, One and (surprisingly) the first 3 songs from Death Magnetic were highlights of the set - Metallica definitely seemed the most comfortable playing those. A couple of the thrashier ones were a little sloppy in places, Fight Fire With Fire especially and some of Puppets and My Apocalypse, but other than that their set was very tight.

Undisputed Kings of Metal.

:worship:
 
a terrible acoustic-based drawn out song from '...Ashes...'.

"Descend The Shades Of Night"?

I think this is an awesome song (one of their best actually) but it tends to suck so much energy out of their live shows, especially if it's a support gig with limited time.

Same goes for "The Burning Red"...

I think Metallica are better live now, than in the late nineties, when they used to play totally butchered versions of Puppets and these medleys of the old stuff. Seriously, cutting a song like MOP in half is a no-go! :erk:
 
Sounds great, hope you had a sweet time!

The only thing I dislike is the amount of new songs. From the recent gigs I've looked at, just about half of the setlists were DM songs. Now, I personally don't like Broken, and The End Of The Line which of course gives me a bias, but damnit half the setlist being new songs is a no-go for any band. Unless the album in question is Justice or Puppets, of course.
 
Oh man..it´s good to read that :) The last time I saw em on the Blindman´s Ball in the 90s...as they played too much load/reload stuff..but it was great though.

I have no doubt, they are still the Kings of Metal..haha sorry Joey de Maio :D
 
Good to hear, that they still rock live. I saw them live often enough, so I won't pay that much for another concert. way too expensive.
 
I think Metallica is a beast when it comes to a concert. They're far from being perfect and tight (as in the "Justice" era) but even their mistakes and sloppiness no much of a problem for the audience. They're one of a few bands that actually play more than the "last years fashion" of 90-minute sets and that makes it great and honest for their fans.
Unfortunately,I've only seen them live once two years ago in Athens,but I've listened to tons of bootlegs. It's nice to listen that they're still a great live band!!!
 
I saw Metallica a few years back at the Bowery Ballroom (which only holds about 300 people) and seeing them in a club is a life changing experience. If I remember correctly they played 1 song off St. Anger, 1 song off TBA and the rest were from Kill em All, Lightning, Puppets and Justice. A two hour set of basically nothing but their best songs. It was ridiculous.
 
cool. thanks for your impression of the show,
i´m looking forward to see them in may here in europe!!
its good to hear that the boys are in shape!!!
 
In 1992 I saw Metallica twice in Buenos Aires in the Black album tour, the best Metallica shows i could ever saw!
 
I saw them on wednesday in Birmingham and i agree completely with what Dan said.

Metallica were on absolutely top form, it was really great to see them nailing it and really enjoying themselves. Was the best gig i've ever been to.

I could not hear anything but a super clicky kick drum for Machine Head haha but Robb Flynn put on a brilliant show.

The setlist for Metallica was:

*
1. That Was Just Your Life
2. The End Of The Line
3. Creeping Death
4. Ride The Lightning
5. One
6. Broken, Beat And Scarred
7. My Apocalypse
8. Sad But True
9. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
10. The Judas Kiss
11. The Day That Never Comes
12. Master Of Puppets
13. Blackened
14. Nothing Else Matters
15. Enter Sandman

Encore:

16. Hole In The Sky
17. The Prince
18. Seek & Destroy

And for the record, James DID have cool hair.
 
wow the tallica boyz in the flesh. . .

i saw them play when they headlined "tattoo the earth" at the meadowlands in new jersey (aka giants stadium)

i was only 12 years old i got to see all of the biggest bands at that time, it was an all day action packed event and the main bands were SLAYYYYERRRRRRR, slipknot and metallica. :OMG: it was amazing and metallica played for almost 3 hours! looking back on it, that was one of the most memorable days of my life!
 
"Descend The Shades Of Night"?

I think this is an awesome song (one of their best actually) but it tends to suck so much energy out of their live shows, especially if it's a support gig with limited time.

This could be... usually though, when ive seen them, they close with it and really pull it together.

Fucking killer song... ridiculously good.