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OK, so I'm not what you'd consider a metal chick, but I thought it was time I checked
out this Metallica phenomenon. Arriving at the Summit in time to catch some of the loud
guitar vibe of Corrosion of Conformity, I took a few minutes to check out the crowd. If
you were wondering, Beavis and Butthead are alive and well and living in Houston with all
of their friends. The crowd was mostly male, mostly black T-shirt wearing, and ready to
rock. Looking for our seats, we entered the Summit to be greeted with the largest
monstrocity of a stage set up that I have ever seen. About 3/4 of the Summit floor was
covered with two cirular stages with a break in the middle that allowed you to see the
activities going on underneath, computers, equipment, roadies, etc. which sort of reminded
me of a twisted version of Disney's underpark.
Anyway, the brave floor folks are gathered all around the figure 8 that is now the
stage with a track running around the entire thing, keeping the onlookers out by a fence
and approx. 400 yellow-shirted security guards. After Corrosion of Conformity, which was
very loud, but not exactly memorable, and a short intermission, the Metallica guys slowly
appear from backstage. The bass player, Jason Newsted, enters running the length of the
track around the stage (security goon in tow), high fiving and screaming at the fans that
are returning his enthusiasm. Lead singer and guitarist, James Hetfield and lead guitarist
Kirk Hammett, follow in similar fashion and meet in the center floor area. The guys are
just hanging out and getting ready to play. Finally, tiny, yet mighty, drummer Lars Ulrich
takes his place on the drum set and the show begins. First the noise level: LOUD. I have
never used earplugs before but with the combination of music and crowd noise, I was forced
to after about the 5th song. Not being the huge Metallica fan, I relied on my friend to
supply song names and information throughout. The first song, "So What" really
was indicative of the type of message in Metallica's music and show, as they proceeded to
play "Nothing Else Matters", "One", "Anywhere I Roam",
"Ain't My Bitch", "King Nothing", and "Until It Sleeps". One
gets the feeling that their music is about despair and hopelessness, however the crowd is
energized as they display synchronized head banging and rhythmic fist thrusting that
reminded me a lot of a Hitler youth rally. James Hetfield's demonic voice and the rapid
fire guitar licks had each side of the crowd by the stage ripping into a frenzied mosh
(although crowd surfing was forbidden at this venue). Hetfield taunted the crowd
throughout by asking if they could "handle more of the old shit". After about
six songs, the stage at the opposite side opened up and another drum kit appeared that
allowed Lars to get closer to the people on the South side of the Summit. Throughout the
show, the band ran the two stages, stopping to sing at the various microphones that were
set up and occasionally running around the track which Jason seemed to enjoy more than the
others. All this was occurring during various displays of fire and explosions, a spectacle
that would have made Beavis go into convulsions.
The first encore ended with a performance of "Enter Sandman" that concluded
with what appeared to be several accidents of people falling off scaffolds and equipment
and a man that was running on fire. Even though the show appeared to be over, the crowd
stayed on its feet , while the stage was cleaned up, the band came on for one more number,
but tried to make it appear that they were having difficulty with sound due to all the
explosions. They left a completely riled up crowd to descend upon the streets of Houston.
My basic impression of this performance was that even though it was loud, fairly
obnoxious, and not my usual fare, it was very entertaining in several respects. These guys
are obviously professionals and talented musicians that know how to give a crowd what they
want. The band's style of heavy guitar was a nice contrast to the couple of ballads that
they eeked out (I always say that metal bands have the best ballads). These guys were a
lot more clean cut than I thought, not one sporting hair longer than their earlobes. The
crowd itself was entertaining enough and the stage show rivaled that of a Grucci Bros.
Fireworks display. I don't think there's much chance of my becoming a metal chick, but I
certainly had an interesting evening and will never look at a Metallica t-shirt the same
way again.
On That Note, I'm outta here......
C
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