I’m sure that comment will probably attract comment from others. My evening has been bloody ace though. And I’m wired on caffiene, it’s 01:16 and no chance of sleeping for a while, so I’m emptying my head.
I had a manic day at work, after a manic day yesterday. Today was sorting an viralled machine which turned into sorting out anti-virus for a whole school, then over to a secondary school where we’d spotted the anti-virus hadn’t been working for ages (quite a complex install on that one) … then over to a school I’ve been working at quite a bit recently to rescue their ‘spannered’ network. Lots of rushing about, lots fixed, then back to work at 4pm for a meeting.
All of that happening whilst I’d forgotten about the Metallica gig tonight. Me and Gary tried to get tickets when they came out about 5 months ago, and they sold out in minuites. I’d been looking on and off for months but the prices were stupid on Ebay – all bought up by self-riteous bedroom dwelling ticket touts.
Whilst waiting for the meeting tonight I thought … “I’m going to this gig tonight. I wonder where my ticket is?” . I went to Manchester’s Gumtree, stuck in Metallica ticket, and a hit came up, standing ticket (as if I’d accept a seated one?!?), £60. Not cheap, but face value was £45, plus booking fee of £7 … the guy was probably making £4 ish, and it was his mates ticket that had come up. There was a mobile number – I txt’d it, he rang back in seconds, as he was driving up from Southampton for the gig. Deal was struck, I headed into the meeting whilst he (Pete) headed North.
Following the meeting, I rushed home, chucked some instant food into the microwave, got changed, downed a couple of pints of water then shot off via the bank to Manchester. Really slow going due to lorry shedding load at M58./M6 junction and general rush hour – took me an hour to do a 20 min journey. Apologising profusely to Pete via txt, I eventalluy parked in the easiest place around – the NCP by the MEN. Top floor. I should have realised the mistake.
Legged it down and met Pete on the Station. We headed in, got inside then split as I headed down to the venue. The stage was circularish – Metallica do like their being in the middle of the crowd and constantly moving round – around 20 mic’s studded round the stage and a revolving drumkit!
Grabbed a beer and got a spot close to the stage as the warmup band – Machine Head – came onstage. Not bad, didn’t know any of the tunes, but they did a good set. At the end it was filling up so stood my ground right in front of a couple of close mic’s on one of the sides of the venue. As roadies shifted MH’s kit off stage and Metallica’s ones came on, I realised that I was in front of a key spot – there was a stack of foot pedals for the guitars just in front of me (like, 8′ away).
Pete appeared out of nowhere, looking for a friendly face I think. We chatted for 30 mins until the lights went down and the track “Ecstasy of Gold” from the Good, the Bad and the Ugly started up. This is the entry track for Metallica – at volume its an amazing tune and really gets you excited!
And BANG – there they were. Excellent sound, and after the first couple of riffs from the first track of the new album, James Hetfield came and stood right in front of us to sing the first verse. Behind him, Lars on the Drums was also facing us, with the other two generally charging around. Next up was For Whom the Bell Tolls, and the new(ish) bass player Robert was getting down and bassy right in front of us playing away like a fiend. Robert took a shine to that mic, and was at it probably most of the gig. James also spent a lot of time singing directly to us.
There was a bit of a pit right next to me for most of the gig which was cool, and I was able to dive in and out of it several times – more as the night went on. The crowd was excellent, and the whole gig felt really friendly and welcoming. And BIG. Every seat full, every bit of ground with someone standing in it!
The set was really vcaried. Loads from the new album. Nothing from St Anger, 1 from Load, 4 from the Black Album, Master of Puppets, Blackened, Blitzkrieg?!?, and a few oldies. Oh, One of course as well. The new material worked really well.
Mind you I would say that, as last time I saw them was about 13 years ago in Manchester (the last time they were up this way on the Black Album tour). Certainly not waiting THAT long again! It rocked.
A couple of notable moments – one being when James spotted an 8 year old lad on the first tier of seating just behind me. So much so that they stopped the gig, brought the house lights up and the lad got a huge cheer from the entire stadium and was being applauded by the band. He was utterly terrified and VERY self concious, but seemed to smile a bit when Lars lobbed him one of the drumsticks. One to tell his Grandkids 🙂
The other one was when (for no apparent reason) About 100 differently sized black rubberized balls fell from the roof. Mostly about 5′ across, these got fired round the whole stadium, people bouncing them over each other, the band, lighting rigs, Sound desks – the lot. Utter carnage! Nearly got one back here, ended up with two handfulls of it though – the lass on the other end of it was pretty insistant that she got it 🙂 Managed to get away without looseing any fingers which rocked.
And then, after 2 hours of awesome set, it was over. Staggered out of the venue – meeting Stu the ex Techie from Glenburn School – paid for ticket and staggered upstairs to total gridlock. Realised it’d take a while, so got changed out of wringing wet vest shirt thing, and got my head down. About 50 mins after getting up there, the car park had nearly emptied so tagged on and followed everyone out. Over to the petrol station to get LPG, petrol, much chocolate and Caffeine to get me home.
And then back.
So, for £60 you can do a lot. You could do Alton towers, get a plane ride somewhere, get a new posh bit of clothing, new set of hexcentrics or a half rope. Hell, Nige could probably evan get about 6000 egg cups. But I had an awesome evening, watching a band that I idolised for many years when at school and college, and (used to) know nearly every riff and solo (badly) from the first 6 albums that they did. These guys are my heroes. And I’ve just watched them. I’m a happy man.
And I don’t care that tomorrow will hurt. Life is good.