[kj] Metallica Tonight at The Wiltern Theater

T.B. Partyslammer at socal.rr.com
Thu May 15 04:04:06 EDT 2008


Wow. What a great show.

Just to offer a bit of background, I'm not a huge Metallica fan. I have see
them 3 times before, once at the beginning of the "And Justice For All" tour
in late '89, early in the Black album tour in '91 with Faith No More and
again the same tour with Guns n' Roses. After that, I lost interest even
though I casually kept up on their post Black album releases.

When tickets went on sale for this relatively small benefit show for a local
music conservatory in Silver Lake, I figured it would at least be cool to
see these guys in a small venue.

I got to The Wiltern Theater around 6:30 which is usually plenty of time to
get admittance in the pit as long as I'm within the first 200 - 250 in line
to get in. Tonight was completely insane though. Probably because both the
floor and the balcony was separate GA, it seemed like *everyone* going to
the show was already there and the line went completely around the block. I
have never seen so many people lined up to get in this venue that early
before the doors opened.

Still, they opened the doors around 7:15 and the line moved fast and I was
able to get a great spot just outside the pit about 25 feet back from the
stage. The place filled up really fast and the opening band was "Scars on
Broadway" which was comprised of a few old members of System of a Down.
Pretty decent band, kind of a cross between older Rush and maybe Anthrax or
something. The audience was really well behaved through their set but you
could tell everyone was just waiting to explode Once Metallica took the
stage.

And sure enough, just after 9:30, Metallica opened with "Am I Evil" and the
place went nuts. Even though there were lots of signs posted warning
against moshing and crowd surfing, there were several pockets of it going on
through most of the show although by the last third of the show, it kind of
died down especially after it appeared several people got pretty badly
injured. Also I saw paramedics come in and haul at least two really wasted
guys out from the front late in the show.

The band itself was just incredibly tight from start to finish. Everyone
seemed at the top of their game. Absolutely no weak links in the band at
all. The sounded as muscular and precise as any time in the late 80's, imo.
The sound was really fuckin' loud yet perfect sounding. From a musical
standpoint, I couldn't ask for better. James rarely sang and played center
stage, he usually stayed either on the right or left side mics while
Trujillo and Hammit traded center stage. Hetfield only briefly spoke to the
audience a few times about the reason for the benefit and the band pretty
much just slammed through the set non stop.

A cool part of the encore was when Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea joined
the band for "Fight Fire With Fire."

The only downside was no new stuff from the upcoming album was played.

Other than that, a superb show.

setlist:

Am I Evil
Fuel
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Sanitarium
And Justice For All
Sad But True
Disposable Heroes
One
Master Of Puppets
Battery
Encore 1:
Quick jam/Last Caress/Green Hell
No Remorse
Enter Sandman
Encore 2:
Fight Fire With Fire (Flea guesting on Bass)
Seek And Destroy

T.B.



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