The boyhood dream III, the phantom semicolon

October 18, 2009 arrived. Kevin, Tyler and I were on our way to the Bobcats arena to see Metallica.

We made it to the venue early. We walked around the arena a couple of times and observed an interesting cast of characters along the way. Metallica brings out all kinds. It was quite a diverse crowd. In the end, the crowd wound up being a good crowd. Sitting in a crowd of over 20,000 people can have its ups and downs.

The first opening act played, and were mediocre. The interesting part of the show is that we were sitting right above where the bands come from the dressing room to the stage. We could also look in the one foot gaps between the rows of seats and see a glimpse of backstage. James Hetfield (Guitar, Vocals) of Metallica went out to watch the opening band. The whole "WOW, MY HERO IS ABOUT 20 FEET AWAY FROM ME" feeling didn't get past me. However, when I saw people crowding by yelling for him, I felt kind of bad for him. He wasn't bothered though. He had them tuned out (can you blame him?). He was enjoying himself. He was playing air-guitar, and air-drums. Sometimes both at the same time. To quote Tyler, "It's ironic that he's the guy you wouldn't want to sit next to at a Metallica concert."

The second band was awful, and I will say no more than that.

I can't remember a longer intermission.

The lights go down, and Metallica hit the stage. It seems like two hours between the two. Once they hit the stage, I went back to being 12 years old. New stuff, old stuff, pyros, a light show, the light rigs were set up to look like the album cover of their new album, and they raise and lower, Lars has ADD it seems. He finishes a song, runs around the stage, the stage is in the center with microphones placed around the edges so the band can play straight to different sections while the drum set slowly rotates to do a 360 during the course of the show. An encore of songs from their very first albums. THE FOUR HORSEMEN, 18 songs from 7 albums.

Metallica has really gotten it together. As loud and aggressive of a show, the stage banter was in such a positive manner. James was talking how great it is to be alive, got a show of hands of the first timers at a Metallica show and welcomed them to the family, thanked the fans for getting them through. I couldn't believe how much positive energy was flowing off the stage. Especially for a Metallica concert. AND IT WASN'T A BAD THING!

I had made the mistake of thinking that I had missed Metallica at their prime. I couldn't be farther from the truth. They sounded better than any live show I've ever heard on CD or seen on video. If they haven't yet hit their prime, I'm going to have to strap myself to the seat with a seat belt the next time I go.

A boyhood dream come true.

(This final installment was a bit rushed because it's almost time for House, and then the Chargers game. That, and I probably spent too long on the last 2. Oh well.)