Location: Oakland, CA Date: Dec 20, 2008 Venue: Oracle Arena Review: Pat Tillman
If you are planing to go to a concert soon, please send me a review at sem@encycmet.com and I'll put it up on the site.
As the crowd filled in to the Oracle Arena in Oakland, a haze began to cloud my vision as the stage began to get harder and harder to see. At first I thought, 'Damn, there is a lot of weed here," but i soon realized that there was a huge machine pumping out clouds of smoke. Lasers? Holy shit. I have seen Metallica so many times in my 18 years of being a fan, but had taken the last few years off of shows because of high ticket prices. Death Magnetic is such a sick album, I couldn't pass up seeing the new ones live. I had been going on-line and checking out the set lists to see what I may have in store. I was so pumped that All Nightmare Long was the newest single, because I knew it would be played.
So the fog builds up, the lights come down, the crowd goes insane.
As their intro plays through, you can see the silhouettes of the four guys running from backstage. The crowd grows louder and louder.
As the heartbeat begins to "That was just your life" you can barely hear the PA over the crowd. The lights begin to come up and shows the dense fog that has built in to the arena. The PA plays the intro up until the james's unaccomplanied riff begins. The enitre stage is dark except for a spotlight on James and Lars. For the enitre song James is bouncing around in between microphones. When he is not singing, you don't see him. At the beginnign of a verse he pops up. The whole song, you can't see the stage, you can't see the crowd nothing. Right at the end of the song when he sayd "that was just your life" all the lights come up and you see what looks like a tidal wave of people surrounding the stage. Everyone is going nuts. The pit is deep, the crowd up to the top seat is screaming, it's electric.
Set List:
That Was Just Your Life - lasers!!! fricken lasers!
The End of the Line - crowd chanting "hey! hey! hey!) thoughout. It was like Metallica and the crowd were performing together
Creeping Death
For Whom The Bell Tolls
One - lots of fire (as usual)
Broken, Beat & Scarred - James stopped before this song and explained how the song was written for him and everyone who has been down and out but got through it and came back stronger. The song took on a completely different meaning for me after that. Such a rad chanting song also. "show, your, scars!"
Cyanide
Sad But True - so fuckign heavy.
The Unforgiven - teased the crowd with the Justice intro on acoustic
All Nightmare Long - PA intro like first song. this song rips live!!!! god damn.
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Blackened - first time i had seen it live. shit my pants.
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman - crowd went ape shit like it was 1991 again.
Last Caress
Whiplash
Seek and Destroy - all house lights up, Metallica beach balls everywhere. Sweet way to end the show.
I know you have read this already, but they celebrated Lars's birthday by pummeling him with cake and silly string. They also all gave heartfelt thank yous to the crowd individually. pretty cool ending.
I have seen Metallica since I was 12 years old and these fuckers continue to kill it every time I see them. You can almost see a new born passion with them also, especially James. I am not sure what happed before the last album, or kids, but you can see them all feeling it while they are up there,
On a super cool side note, I went to see the Nutcracker with my family a couple days after the show. Who do I see when I come down the stairs to leave, fucking James Hetfield!!!!
this guy is my musical idol. I think he is the perfect musician, frontman, writer, etc. What I realized when I saw him is that with this band I will always be an 11 year old kid. I could not find the right words to say. I didn't want to disrupt his time with his kids. I knew he had just gotten off the road, it was a copel days before Christmas and I wanted to respect his space.
Leaving the show I saw him, standing out front he walked by, I walk over to the parking garage and we are behind him in line, he follows us down through the side entrance to the garage. he is right behind us and i could not sack up enough balls to say shit. it's like i had 18 years of Metallica trying to force a sentence out of my mouth and it wouldn't fit.
If you get a chance to talk to James, tell him there is a pussy in San Jose that is such a huge fan and has so much respect for him and his non-metallica time that i coudln't even get out a compliment. Maybe next time.
