Sefany Jones Reviews Metallica in LA
By
Sefany Jones,
Contributing Editor
Sunday, August 10, 2003 @ 1:07 PM
| Metallica Live at the LA Colis
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Metallica performed a blistering set last night under the open skies of downtown Los Angeles. I’ve been to a million concerts in my life, but somehow I had never caught a Metallica gig, so I figured it was about time to check ‘em out…
First, let me tell ya a little something about this venue: the parking was a fucking joke. $50 to park! Yes, that’s what I said. As you got a mile away from the venue, it went down to $40. I parked in some scary little crack neighborhood for free. Between walking for what seemed like at least half an hour, and then stood in line forever to get in, I had to walk around the entire venue to get to my seat. Grr! So I missed Mudvayne AND Deftones, both of which I was really looking forward to seeing. So, sorry, no info there!
I did sit through most of Linkin Park. I have to say, I was shocked at the huge audience response! I don’t care for the band, but I seemed to be the only one. Even outdoors underneath the scorching sun, three mosh pits ensued, and people were stacked up against the barricades, pumping their fists like maniacs. It was a little strange – right as Linkin Park was about to take the stage, they cranked Slayer through the PA, which was abruptly interrupted when they burst onstage and began rapping. Slayer is not the right intro music for Linkin Park – that was an evil tease…
Limp Bizkit came out next. Well, you may have heard they were booed offstage in Chicago after six songs, and Fred Durst & Co. didn’t fare much better here. First, they killed Metallica's "Sanitarium." People were throwing shit up at him the whole time. At one point, he walked all the way to the back of the floor, and sang from there. Shit was still flying! Even as he made his way back up front, people were tossing cups of beer at him, while a group of security and bodyguards tried desperately to deflect the objects aimed at his head. At first I thought it was pretty damn funny, then I started to feel bad after it became relentless. Sorry, I got bored and got up to walk around. I think they did their full set.
Finally, the sunshine gave way to clear dark blue skies and Metallica ripped into “Battery.” The crowds were going crazy! You couldn’t even hear Hetfield singing the chorus of “Master of Puppets” as the audience drowned him out. “Harvester of Sorrow” came next, followed by a blink of a guitar solo by Hammett. “Sanitarium” and “For Whom The Bell Tolls” sounded incredible, again with the audience singing their nuts off! Then, it was bound to happen. They played “Frantic” from their newest album, St. Anger. Uh… is this the same band that just sang “Master of Puppets”?! This song BLOWS – I’m sorry. “Tick, tick, tick TOCK!” Ugh! Yeah, I was watching my watch tick, tick, tick tock the whole song. Thankfully, they bust out “Sad But True,” but then followed it with another tune off St. Anger, the title track, “St. Anger.” This was no better. When Hetfield yelled out to the crowd, “Who has a copy of St. Anger?” I think I was the only person who didn’t own it.
Anyway, they got back to business cranking out more goodies, like one of my favorites, “Seek and Destroy.” Let me tell you something about bassist Robert Trujillo, who recently swapped bands with Jason Newsted, who played with Ozzy this summer…. This dude is a MONSTER. He stomped around on stage with these creature-like movements, just shredding every note to perfection. He walked around with his legs spread apart, knees bent, almost like he was crouching down, and would take a huge step with one leg, and the another giant step with the other, walking back and forth across the massive stage like a Tyrannosaurus Rex -- holding his bass like a guerrilla warrior with a machine gun. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him – he was so animated and larger than life. Although the rest of the band was very active, Trujillo just owned the entire stage.
After “Blackened,” Metallica stepped off stage for a minute, and returned to do their first encore, kicking it off with “Fuel.” Pyros and fireworks were shooting off everywhere! Then, Ulrich got up from behind his kit, and Hammett went over, gave him his guitar, and sat down behind the drums. Lars began to play the opening riff for “Nothing Else Matters,” and Kirk began drumming along. Now that was pretty cool! They switched back after some laughs and hammered out the real thing, and followed that up with “Creeping Death.”
Off the stage, and back on again, the chopper intro to “One” echoed through the darkness with a spine-tingling creepiness. They nailed that one out with a fury, and closed down the show with a full crowd participation of “Enter Sandman.” Fireworks blazed overhead like the Fourth of July. “Thank you – goodnight!” and people began streaming out of the venue. But Metallica wasn’t ready to leave. They walked back and forth across the stage, handing out drumsticks, picks and a variety of items to the “trick or treaters.” Even though most everyone was piling out in droves, Metallica wouldn’t leave the stage. They were talking to the audiences, high-fiving the fan club people that were in a little pit onstage… they were loving every minute of it! After about 10 minutes of that… fade to black.
Metallica set list:
Battery
Master of Puppets
Harvester of Sorrow
Sanitarium
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Frantic
Sad But True
St. Anger
No Remorse
Seek & Destroy
Blackened
Encore #1:
Fuel
Nothing Else Matters
Creeping Death
Encore #2:
One
Enter Sandman
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