It's hard to find the words to describe the Metallica concert held in Johannesburg on Saturday night. When James Hetfield, pointed to his arm indicating he'd gotten goose bumps from the crowd, what a moment! I think at that point you could say the same for the entire audience. I was blown away. Any concert that starts off with "Creeping Death", and ends with "Seek and Destroy", cannot be anything but epic, insane, legendary. When Hetfield said "So South Africa, is this where all the wild animals are?", the roar was deafening. Hell yeah!
The band has such a presence and confidence that emanates when they get on stage. There's something about them, something that says, we are the real deal - and seeing Metallica live, it does seem that everything else is just a bit boring and artificial. Their intensity and pleasure, their enjoyment, crowd interaction and their lack of any pretence stood out to me. With the heavy thunderous opening chords of "Creeping Death" when both Hetfield and lead guitarist Kirk Hammet exploded on to the stage, I got a close up of Hetfield's face. He was so into the music. The anger, aggression, beauty, love and power - he literally ripped into his guitar, his face raging with the potency of their music - was something special to see.
For more than 2 hours, they never flagged in intensity and enthusiasm, coaxing a crowd (that had been waiting for over 9 hours to see them) into a Metallica frenzy, through 3 encores. "You don't know how good you look from up here" said Hetfield to the crowd, and it must have been an awesome sight, to see a crowd of 43 000 people, in a country that you've never played in before, giving you their every ounce of energy!
I can't pick the best song of the night - they were all the best. They were all beautiful and they were all pure, hard, powerful, magical and mad. "Fade to Black", "For Whom the Bell Tolls", "Master of Puppets", "St Anger", "One", "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)", "Nothing Else Matters", "Battery", "Seek and Destroy", "Enter Sandman", "King Nothing", "Fuel", "Wherever I May Roam", "Sad But True", "Creeping Death"...(for full set list, see the end of this post).
Well done Metallica - you guys rock and rule. Now you'd better make good on your promise (Lars), and come back to play in South Africa very soon.
Concert set list:
"Creeping Death", "Fuel", "Harvester of Sorrow", "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)", "For Whom the Bell Tolls", "St. Anger", "King Nothing", "I Disappear", "Wherever I May Roam", "Fade to Black", "Battery", "Sad But True", "Nothing Else Matters", "Master of Puppets", "One", "Enter Sandman", "Seek and Destroy".
The band has such a presence and confidence that emanates when they get on stage. There's something about them, something that says, we are the real deal - and seeing Metallica live, it does seem that everything else is just a bit boring and artificial. Their intensity and pleasure, their enjoyment, crowd interaction and their lack of any pretence stood out to me. With the heavy thunderous opening chords of "Creeping Death" when both Hetfield and lead guitarist Kirk Hammet exploded on to the stage, I got a close up of Hetfield's face. He was so into the music. The anger, aggression, beauty, love and power - he literally ripped into his guitar, his face raging with the potency of their music - was something special to see.
For more than 2 hours, they never flagged in intensity and enthusiasm, coaxing a crowd (that had been waiting for over 9 hours to see them) into a Metallica frenzy, through 3 encores. "You don't know how good you look from up here" said Hetfield to the crowd, and it must have been an awesome sight, to see a crowd of 43 000 people, in a country that you've never played in before, giving you their every ounce of energy!
I can't pick the best song of the night - they were all the best. They were all beautiful and they were all pure, hard, powerful, magical and mad. "Fade to Black", "For Whom the Bell Tolls", "Master of Puppets", "St Anger", "One", "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)", "Nothing Else Matters", "Battery", "Seek and Destroy", "Enter Sandman", "King Nothing", "Fuel", "Wherever I May Roam", "Sad But True", "Creeping Death"...(for full set list, see the end of this post).
Well done Metallica - you guys rock and rule. Now you'd better make good on your promise (Lars), and come back to play in South Africa very soon.
Concert set list:
"Creeping Death", "Fuel", "Harvester of Sorrow", "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)", "For Whom the Bell Tolls", "St. Anger", "King Nothing", "I Disappear", "Wherever I May Roam", "Fade to Black", "Battery", "Sad But True", "Nothing Else Matters", "Master of Puppets", "One", "Enter Sandman", "Seek and Destroy".