It was a very hot day in Bologna; actually, it was hot as Hell. But, as usual, the hardest part of the crowd is already placed at the opening gates, since the early morning, maybe the evening before, to conquer a place in front of the stage. The gates open at 4 p.m., the Arena is really full as never before, and everything is on time: the band "The Sword" begins its show at half past six p.m. and plays half an hour. Their music is something which mixes doom metal and stoner rock, and "classic" metal sounds, and the result is something very modern and entertaining. The crowd is already active and moshing! Not usual for a support-of-the-support-band!
At half past seven, Down go on stage: everyone in the audience screams "Anselmo, Anselmo", the band gives us a hour of powerful sludge metal, and the crowd goes really crazy! Probably, we are already pre-figuring what will be next...
5-10 minutes before nine o'clock (yes people, for once in history, we have no delays in Italy!) "It's a long way to the top" starts, then "The ecstasy of gold"...then... "Creeping death"! Metallica opened their show with 3 songs from the same album: Creeping Death, For Whom the Bell Tolls and "Ride the Lightning" itself! Then we had Harvester of Sorrow, and incredibly, Bleeding Me, from Load! Everything is cool, the crowd goes extra crazy and James thanks us for knowing every word of the songs. Next they played The Four Horsemen and the whole Justice For All song, another one that we hadn't heard played live for a long time. No Remorse follows, then a moment of breath with Fade to Black. The heaviest part of the gig was about to come: with Master of Puppets and Whiplash there has been an earthquake in the crowd! Fortunately, we could pick up our pieces with the following songs, Nothing Else Matters and Sad but True. Explosions and fireworks tell us that it's the moment for "One", and then Enter Sandman was also played. It's almost the end, the guys return on stage with three more songs: two are very short and powerful (So What and Motorbreath) and one is the classic, impossible to miss, Seek and Destroy!
I'm very satisfied that Metallica, despite the age going on, continue playing for us with such power and energy, for TWO HOURS full (nowadays, there are really few metal bands that play two hours of concert, even if they are headliners...); unfortunately they didn't play "Blackened" or "Battery" (nor Unforgiven, Sanitarium, Roam...), but they played HALF of their first two albums! 5 songs from Kill'em All and 4 from Ride the Lightning! Maybe because it's Kill em All's 25th birthday? The stage was also great: the structure was similar to the one in Padova four years ago, on two levels, with two ramps and six microphones to sing at (3+3) and freely move on the stage. The best thing was the background: it consisted in a giant, huge maxi-screen with all the images of the concert going on: a very active filming crew has worked all gig long to give us great images and shots of the show on this mega screen.
At the end of the concert, the guys threw as usual guitar picks and drumsticks to the lucky crowd, and thanked everyone trying to say something in Italian... no problem guys, we also understand English! James and Kirk picked up some Italian flags from the crowd with some messages written on them: the most appreciated was "God Bless Cliff Burton", Metallica started clapping their hands, and from the crowd started a choir: "Clif, Cliff, Cliff...". Finally, Lars told us to wait until September for the brand new album, and for the next year for an indoor world tour. I hope this will be very soon!
Setlist:
Creeping Death
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ride The Lightning
Harvester Of Sorrow
Bleeding Me
The Four Horsemen
...And Justice For All
No Remorse
Fade To Black
Master Of Puppets
Whiplash
Nothing Else Matters
Sad But True
One
Enter Sandman
- - - - -
So What
Motorbreath
Seek And Destroy
