Saturday 27th April 2013 had been looming large on my Calendar for many months. That was the day that Metallica would be in Johannesburg.
I had seen them before when they came to Centurion (between Johannesburg and Pretoria) for the Cokefest. That show was incredible, but marred by incredibly poor event management. This, coupled with the fact that being on a festival bill possibly restricted their stage set was enough motivation to want to see them again. This time as head-liners of their own show, I expected it to be quite different.
My experiences from the Centurion show helped me to better prepare for this show, and make some crucial decisions up-front. Particularly, deciding whether I would be head-banging or watching (I found the two actions mutually exclusive in Centurion when I head-banged my glasses two rows of seats below me).
The event this time was staged in the Soccer City stadium on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Getting there and back was a breeze, and the Stadium handles these types of events very well. I have been to a few now and have no complaints other than that of the in-stadium vendors charging absolutely crazy prices for everything.
Metallica started promptly at 21:30 - true professionals. We had the western clip of James living out his cowboy fantasies (I can totally relate) and then they ripped straight into an evening filled with monumental guitar shredding.
What was different from the last show I saw was that they had some new songs from their last album to choose from (Cyanide), they had some amazing fireworks displays throughout the later songs, and then most startling, the fact that James has become such a pleasant, engaging entertainer. Throughout, his between song conversation was genuine and engaging, this did not impact the ferociousness of their songs, so he has achieved a great balance. Everyone was inducted into the 'Metallica family', and, I was at least, convinced that the band was enjoying the show as much as the incredible crowd (apart from the idiot in front of me, wearing a t-shirt of one of those bands with an illegible name and screaming f-bombs each time Metallica invited crowd participation - I thought he might have been happier back in his bedroom in his Moms house with his head-phones turned on loud).
There was great atmosphere, the band played really well, Kirk had his iconic guitars there (Boris etc) and the weather was perfect. Two encores later, people started filing out - James, however, was still on the stage, chatting to anyone who would listen.
PS - You can purchase live Metallica concerts for download over here: http://www.livemetallica.com/
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