metallica filmore week!

home. unpacked. laundry done. *head drops...* work tomorrow.

i cant believe how incredibly fast the week went. seriously flew by. and other than alcatraz with debbie on saturday - i didnt sight-see a single thing! slept and stood and roooooocked! truely was one of the best weeks of my life. knowing how they are - im sure they'll either do a 'best of' dvd or a four-pack or something. BUY it. YouTube it... something. there were some amazing things that happened.

most people headed down to start a line between 4 and 5pm - some 4am - others right at 6:30 when the doors opened. standing in line you met sooo many people - from all over the globe. it was crazy where everyone was from and how far they had traveled - some without tickets hoping to score a chance to be someones +1 for the evening. there was a lot of ".... where have we me before??" going on - and lord knows you had the time to stand there and figure it out. Once that line started moving - *WHAM-O!* you were searched, ticketed, stamped and claiming your spot for the evenings festivities. Apart from wednesday night, the crowd was pretty calm. a pit here and there, but thats to be expected trying to squeeze your way up front. The crowd was overall cool - they'd expand to save your spot if you had to go to the restroom, grab a beverage, catch a smoke or just find a spot to relieve your feet for two seconds.

I had never been to the filmore, but from what i could tell - and i stood just about everywhere in the venue - not a bad spot in the house. balcony uptop for the VIPs, sound and lights in the back. Upstairs across from the VIP section, they had the metallica museum. total craziness. lars' kit from the black album tour, james' burnt guitar, doris' head, pushead art, cliffs bass was something that was added later in the week - amazing! hopefully theres a full set of pictures somewhere because it was really neat. sound was great!

Each night started out with the soul rebel brass band. always good to rock out with. then the boys came out and said a quick hello - introduced jim breuer and the night was rollin' from there. Trivia contests - jeopardy style, Name-That-Rif game... quite amusing. Both were hosted by jim - who got funnier by the night. Each night there were cliff stories. funny - emotional - crazy - great! Ray Burton, cliffs dad came out on monday night, scott ian and kirk one night, James and jim martin told some, and rob talked about the inspiration. After all the heartfelt yammering - opening band. Apocalyptica (monday), Armored Saint (wednesday), Laaz Rockit (friday), Death Angel (saturday). Monday was by far the best. the apocalyptica guys - holy hell.... AMAZING! I've always liked armored saint, so that was great to see as well. Death Angel I had never listened to - but enjoyed their show. Laaz Rockit - never heard of, never want to hear again. only once have i ever seen a metallica crowd so unwelcoming and uninterested in an opening band of my 70+ shows.

Once the opening bands were done, the metallica guys strolled out, sometimes still half dressed for the evening, finishing their banana, adjusting a belt, etc. There was no 'lights fade down' or ecstasy of gold.... they talked a second, cracked a joke, did a quick jab and then they went to work. First song each night was an instrumental. really enjoyed that. Ktulu (mon), to live is to die (wed), suicide & redemption (fri) and orion (sat). suicide was a little rough for the first few minutes - which they joked about on saturday and played the first minute or so again, which received a chuckle from the crowd.

The setlist was completely different each night except for the last song (seek and destroy). That was a treat for us fans who were there for each night - but i can't imagin how much preparation it had to have been for them. Thats a lot of songs - some which haven't been played for years - if ever. Kirk had some notes on a music stand, and james some lyrics via the vox box - and can't say i'd not have to do the same thing! There was one new song that was overstock from death magnetic played each night which was very cool to hear. Metallica played a good chunk of songs each night on their own and then it was 'special guest time'. One lucky clubber (saturday it was a newly married couple) got picked to come up and jam with the band. was quite cool. There were always rumors, predictions, and that one guy who 'knows for sure!' whos going to be there - but i tried not to hear/read anything. I wanted to be surprised like a kid on christmas morning... and i was. I did the predicting myself - to which i have to say did alright on... but was truly a lot of fun standing there among all the fans awaiting the announcement on who was joining them next - and how they were related to metallica's history.

special guests:

monday:apocalptica, jason newsted, biff byford (saxon), sean harris * brian tatler (diamond head)

wednesday: marianne faithful, ray haller, kid rock, john bush, lou reed, jason newsted, king diamond

friday: jerry cantrell, animal (anti-nowhere-league), gary rossington, pepper keenan, jim martin, jason newsted, glenn danzing, rob halford

saturday: bob rock, geezer butler, ozzy osbourne, jason newsted, hugh tanner, dave mustaine, lloyd grant, ave mustaine, ron mcgoveny

Friday night they gave a big shout out and thank you to the metclub staff. some of those cats have been around a long time and work their pah-toots off so it was awesome to see. Saturday they thanked some of their long-time crew members like Bean, Zach and Mick. nothing but devil horns, applauds and hollars from the crowd. credit where credit was due.

I cannot begin to tell you how amazing the week was and how lucky i feel to be a part of one night - let alone all four. If i had to pick a favourite night - i'm not sure i could. some had strengths and some had weaknesses - but overall - it just kicked total ass. I met some great people, heard and shared so many stories, learned a lot and flat out rocked til every muscle in my body ached. I've been a metclubber since '94 and have several times thought about not renewing because of financial issues or life goings-on - but when you look back on all that i've experienced through the club and the friends i've made and the places i've been - all in relation to the club, no way i'm not sending that couple of bucks in each July.

Ive attached links to photos of all 4 filmore shows and some of my time spent at HQ. They're bare bones - and even a mislabeling on a few (am-i-evil was never the closing song - always seek & destroy). blurry, washed out, cut off... but maybe you'll get a taste of how the week went. I've also attached the setlist (thank you metontour.com) for each night.

filmore shows

HQ