Location: Calgary, AB
Date: December 4, 2008
Venue: Pengrowth Saddledome
Review: Jon Aylward
I'll admit, straightaway, that I cheated.
Even before my friend and I soldiered off to the Saddledome to see the Tallica boys perform, I knew we'd be in for a thrillride beyond the capacity for mere words. Well, I tried anyway - yes, I pounded out a review of the show 'before' the show proper. Well, now having come back out of the -20 weather, rattled to the core by an experience that can only be described as religious, I find that I have to write the review all over again. This show blew the doors off of all my expectations and then some. The fact that thousands of metal fans have testimony galore with which to describe their own shows means zip until you've been there yourself, headbanged to the classics, surfed and scrummed amidst the mosh pits, gaze in awe at the lightshows, and basically feeling more alive than you ever have in your life.
Some absolutely stunning showman energy from James, Kirk, Lars, and Rob - energy which I've neither seen nor believed possible to revisit since the Binge and Purge days of the eighties and early nineties. All the fan favorites, such as Creeping Death, Master of Puppets, and Enter Sandman, were intact for the setlist, as well as a few very pleasant surprises in the form of Fight Fire with Fire (undoubtably their little nod to the Home of the Flames) and Breadfan. I was floored by just how flawlessly the old became new again, not to mention how the new material off of Death Magnetic (five tracks in total) 'banged the head which didn't bang' like the days of old. Even after an encore and everyone's energy had been spent, we just kept wanting more.
So, they decided to give it to us, in the form of black Metallica beach balls raining from the rafters and one final all-or-nothing singalong to Seek and Destroy.
Props must also go out, however, to the brave body of men who constructed the stage pieces for the tour. Four giant metal coffins overhead the stage were perhaps one of the biggest highlights of the evening, especially in the way they all gyrated in sync with the lightshows and pyrotechnics as the band played on. This was my very first Metallica-going experience, and I'll be damned if it becomes my last. Thanks for one truly whimsical night, boys!
Setlist
That Was Just Your Life
The End Of The Line
Creeping Death
Harvester Of Sorrow
One
Broken, Beat And Scarred
Cyanide
Sad But True
...And Justice For All
Wherever I May Roam
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Fight Fire With Fire
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
