Metallica
Cox Arena – San Diego, CA
12/15/2008

James Hetfield – Vocals, Guitar
Lars Ulrich – Drums
Kirk Hammett- Guitar
Rob Trujillo – Bad Ass Bass

Metallica hit the road to promote their latest album Death Magnetic. This is the follow-up to the not-so-hot St. Anger from 2003. Granted I hated the album but I still had to go out and buy it when it came out because it’s Metallica. The new album came out with mostly positive reviews. The guys, along with assistance from Rick Rubin, recreated the good old Metallica sound without being the old Metallica.  The people that had something negative to say reiterated each other by saying the album was “too loud.”  Ummm…this is Metallica we are talking about and who isn’t compressing the hell out of their albums nowadays?

Show review & pictures after the jump…

To the show..

I didn’t actually get to attend the Metallica show on Monday night due to the fact they ran out of review tickets by the time I asked for them.  It would have made a great birthday present to myself, but I did send Sparky out with camera in hand for her first Metallica experience.  I am going to write about my first Metallica concert because I really didn’t feel like just throwing all the pictures up and not being accompanied by some kind of babble.

Every Metallica fan has a story and this one is mine. I’m elated that I can tell a Metallica story accompanied by some fabulous pictures too. Did I mention I love my job and these guys are part of the reason I started my own company? Moving on..

For all the newbies to the site, I was raised on Metallica. My older brother owned everything they had released. It was the first thing we could bond over even though I wasn’t allowed to actually touch or borrow the albums. I was only allowed to listen to them from afar. Is this sounding reminiscent to anyone else out there?

I remember the first Metallica concert I went to was January 4th 2000 at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, IL. I begged and pleaded with my parents to go. It wasn’t my first concert but it was my first METAL concert and of course mom and dad were worried. They said the only way I could go was if my older brother, John, took me. I think they were expecting him to say no and frankly so was I. I mean, what 20-something guy wants to take his teenage sister to a metal concert? After talking with John and making a deal with him, he decided he would take my friend and me, plus we brought my guitar playing cousin along for the ride. The concert was awesome and I remember singing along to every song and I remember watching the family that was sitting in front of us dressed in their Sunday best. Of course, we were laughing at them because they stood out like a sore thumb. That night I also learned a little bit more about my brother….and we’ll stop right there.

For anybody who actually went to the concert that night you might remember the after math of the concert; it was scarier than being tossed like a rag doll in the moss pit. Making the exit out of the arena was death defying, I am not joking. Everybody tried piling out all at once and the hallways of Allstate were so packed that we were getting crushed. People were screaming and being picked out of the mob. Let me refresh, this was AFTER the concert. Once we were all sitting safely in the car we sat and sat and sat waiting to get out of the parking lot. That night people were walking around giving free Metallica stickers away. The entire night was something to remember and even have bootlegs from that show and their stop before in Milwaukee.

Ok, so this wasn’t the San Diego show review but come on I haven’t been to a Metallica show that stunk!

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