Bucket List #5: Attend a Metallica Concert
Metallica in Singapore
(August 24, 2013)
The Four Horsemen
This was one of those things that I’ve always dreamed of, watching Metallica live has always been up there in my bucket list. To be completely honest, the day before LAMC productions officially announced Metallica in SG my wife and I were looking at buying tickets for the upcoming Fall Out Boy concert in SG (Fort Canning) and also for the UpDharmaDown gig here in SG. But without hesitation, those plans were thrown out the window the next day—after it was announced that the organizers started selling Box A tickets for the Metallica concert. I told myself long ago that if ever I was going to be in the same country during a Metallica concert; I will drop everything and be in that show.
On our way…
Hit the Lights
It was my wife’s first time attending a big ass Metal/Rock show, and there’s no way in hell I’m going to shortchange her of her first ever ‘Metallica experience’. So we’ve gone through the whole authentic ordeal of heading to the venue hours ahead of the call time, queuing up early at the gates and running up to the front of the stage once they were opened, and the most memorable part of it all — my wife and I joined the moshpit for the first two songs.
We were in a very good spot (right in front of the stage, smack in the middle of it) and the crowd wasn’t too rowdy during front acts’ performance. But all hell broke loose almost immediately once Metallica started playing ‘Hit the Lights’. My wife was really scared when the moshpit started, we were in the midst of it until the third of the second song ‘Master of Puppets’. It was really fun for me though I really couldn’t concentrate on watching my metal-gods perform with all the bouncing around and I was too pre-occupied ‘protecting’ my wife (which involved unintentionally elbowing two ladies –who both clearly wasn’t expecting a moshpit to break out– in the face… if either of you are reading this: Gomenasai). It took us about five minutes just to get out of the moshpit. We moved further back to a less crammed spot so we could catch our breath and enjoy the rest of the show. Even though she seemed entirely pissed from getting caught in the moshpit, I can see in her eyes that she was having a blast. We were having so much fun that by the 6th song ‘The Memory Remains’ she was already fist-pumping along with the rest of us metalheads. God, I love my awesome wife.
Hero of the Day
Despite their age they still sound so good, even better than how I remember the band from their live recordings when they were younger. There was no more the foul-mouthed James Hetfield, in place was the reborn ‘straight-edge‘ metal-god that he has become – it was clearly evident how much he matured as an artist and as a person, specially after going through rehab for alcoholism. If I remember it correctly, he actually didn’t spit out any expletive the whole night—really quite different from the James Hetfield I know from the band’s live concerts prior St.Anger. Much respect to the man, as he’s able to overcome addiction and managed to age gracefully without losing much of his Metal-god persona. If I had panties on, I would’ve hurled it at him.
The Memory Remains
The whole experience was everything and more than how I imagined it would be like when I was younger. It brought back a plethora of vivid memories of playing Metallica songs with my band, listening to their tracks all-day long, getting my first tattoo with “…And Justice for All” playing in the background (which by the way was my first ever Metallica album, a cassette tape hand-me-down from my friend @boomdizon). I practically grew up listening to their songs, having quite a few of their tracks deeply associated to certain milestones in my life; thus becoming a perennial part of me. I will never ever forget the night I watched Metallica perform live.
Queuing up for the show…
Yup, we were early as f*ck in the queue.
Open the gates… pleeeaaassee…
Anvil performing on stage
We survived the chaos!
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