Metallica

One word ... incredible.

Let's start with the light show. The first song was such a crazy laser show I almost had a seizure. Which is kind of ironic because I laughed to myself as I stood in line outside the Pengrowth thinking ... " I can't believe they have sings up warning about the lights!" They really did ... it said something along the lines of the light show being so intense it could cause seizures.

The play list was pretty good. The only reason I say pretty good is because they played a lot of new stuff and that's never really that fun at a concert with a band like Metallica. They have way to many good songs in their archives. Plus I heard the first night they played a bunch of stuff off of "and Justice for all" which is my favorite album. They did play "One" but that's about it. They re-visited the oldies with "Master of Puppets," "Ride the Lightning," and "Seek and Destroy," and they hit up the Black Album playing "Sad But True," Enter Sandman," and "Nothing Else Matters!" All in all ... it was a solid set.

How long has Metallica been around for? The answer is a couple years shy of 3 decades ... and the old boys still rock!! They took the stage at around 9:15ish and played almost till midnight! Can't complain about the length of the show!!

The stage set up was cool. Basically ... it was a 360 degree stage which meant it was in the middle of the stadium and every side was used for seating ... very cool ... I have never seen anything like that before. It looked like the score clock got in the way of the stage being right in the middle of the stadium which sucked cause they had to put it on the other side of it which was farther from where we were!!

The best part of the show was "One." All the lights went out ... the guns starting firing ... and as the bombs blew up ... fire came out of the stage ... so awesome!! Then James walks out and starts the song as flames fly from the stage. Kirk joined him and started his soloing magic ... Lars waited till the last possible moment to run on the stage and start drumming ... Rob was on the other side of the stage so I couldn't really see what he was doing. Best part of the night for me.

The funny story of the night came with our winners. We got to the Pengrowth Saddledome in the Cruiser. The place was a zoo!! There were people everywhere!!! I really wanted to get a picture of Daylyn (winner of live like a rock star: Metallica) and her man Kerry in front of the Saddledome sign standing in front of the Cruiser. I basically had to run people over to get that close but we did it. The funny part was all the people yelling at us. If you haven't seen the cruiser ... one side has the Eagle logo on it .. the other ... Magic ... which was the one facing the crowd of METALLICA FANS!! You can imagine the comments and invective being hurled our way. "Get the @*#% out of here with your MAGIC #*%#&%#*%!!!" one guy yelled. I had a good chuckle. We got some good pictures, that's all I cared about.

Metallica was worth the 5 and a half hour drive ... and to be honest ... I fulfilled a dream of mine this weekend .. and that was to see the greatest metal band of the last 30 years. I can now check that off my bucket list.