It’s Wednesday and I’m going over in my head what sort of set list Metallica are going to do and if Tenacious D are actually going to be any good. My first problem was that the weather was crap, with their being frequent heavy showers and it was just generally a shitty day. But the weather stayed fine so all was right with the world.
Sweet Savage were first on and to be honest I was in the line for most of their set, but they weren’t bad one thing that was cool was that Hetfield came out and sang with them. It was pretty cool and the gave Sweet Savage the biggest cheer. One thing that did really annoy me about Sweet Savage was that they kept asking the crowd were they looking forward to seeing Metallica. I was just left thinking no i came here to see you bunch of wannabe’s.
Tenacious D were on about 7. They were very very good, in fact I’d say that they verged on near brilliance. In terms of it being a great concert it was very entertaining. Completely different then what was to come from Metallica. It was a great stage show and very comedic with Jack Black being in overdrive in terms of his character. There were dozens and dozens of classic comedic moments including an appearance by Satan and The Metal. But my favourite part was when they performed Master Exploder. It was completely obvious that they were miming but it didn’t matter. It was just a great performance and really charged the atmosphere and got the crowd in the mood for the Mighty Metallica.
Metallica had their usual blend of energy and showmanship. They were fantastic and played a great selection from their previous albums. I did notice however and mention of the disaster that was St.Anger was thankfully absent. It even included a sample from their forth coming album Death Magnetic. The song Cyanide is very good and has some very heavy bass and drums if it is the exact same on the album as it was live.
One gripe I have is people with cameras at concerts. I paid the money to see the band live on stage, not through the viewfinder of your camera.
Anyway back to the gig Metallica are one of the best live bands around and Hetfield is one of the greatest front men of all time. All great rock bands have a great rapport with the audience. It’s the mark of a band that has worked hard to get where they are that they talk to and engage the audience. How well n audience engages with the audience is a sign of them completing their apprenticeship in the back of a transit setting up their own gear and playing to half filled clubs that aren’t bothered about them. It’s things like acknowledging the crowd singing along or just the fact that they paid to see them.
Currently there are four bands that I’ve seen that do this to a great extent and really make the crowd feel appreciated (Metallica, The Rolling Stones, Iron Maiden and Ozzy Osbourne). Of these it’s honestly a coin toss between Metallica and Iron Maiden for who has the best crowd interaction.

The Ecstasy Of Gold
Creeping Death
For whom the bell tolls
Ride the Lightning
The memory remains
Sanitarium
Cyanide
…And justice for all
The four horsemen
Fade to black
Master of puppets
Whiskey in the jar
Nothing else matters
Sad but true
One
Enter sandman
————-
Last caress
So what
Seek and destroy

For those interested the gig is available for download at livemetallica.com for $10