The BIG Show

It all started in March when MetClub announced it was preselling Summer Sanitarium tickets --- so me the eternal optimist bought seats up for Seattle, LA, and San Francisco

Long story short (or common sense getting the best of me), we went to the LA show only and sold the others surprisingly easily on eBay --- thanks eBay!

Some of the unique things outside the show are:
+ Expensive Parking
+ Locals who live nearby trying to sell you everything from hot dogs to tickets to fake merch to churros, you name it
+ Security that requires an arrest style pat down

Once you get in:
+ Metallica has like 25-30 different pieces of merch
+ Frozen lemonades
+ Drunk become drunker
+ Stink become stinker

In short, here are my grades:

Mudvayne: not graded (we weren't even within sniffing distance of the stadium)
Deftones: D-
Linkin Park: A-
limpbizkit: D+
Metallica: A-

My first distinct impression of the show is that yes, there are a lot of us older ones in the crowd, but there's maybe 1/3 of the really young to younger set. That actually made me smile, some of these kids are there to see the bottom four bands and particularly LP and LB --- well I was surprised because some of these younguns actually were well versed in Metallica

So anyways, the Deftones --- umm, I just don't get them (and from the reaction of the crowd, neither did most of the crowd). Their music is alterna-cool and they play it well --- it's just not for me, and neither did Chino and the boys sell me on their music either --- so ehhhhh. It's funny because I had thought that they might bring the house down with "Change", but even that seemed FLAT

And so here was my surprise of the day, Linkin Park just popped the crowd and did one HELL of a show. I was very skeptical prior to the concert about how these guys would sound live --- well rest assured, these guys can really bring it. Chester showing no obvious ill effects bringing the clean singing to the screaming. Mike just really tight on the mic and good with the crowd, and the the players of instruments, energetic, tight --- just fantastic

They just have an excellent positive energetic vibe. I think a great deal of the crowd was looking forward to them playing too, so it was a nice mix of crowd enthusiasm and on stage performance

Here's what they played:
Slayer South of Heaven Intro
Foreword
Don't Stay
Somewhere I Belong
Lying From You
Papercut
Points Of Authority
Runaway
Faint
From The Inside
Figure .09
By Myself
Pushing Me Away [reanimated]
Numb
With You
Crawling
In The End
A Place For My Head
One Step Closer [reanimated bridge]

As you can see, its the best of their two short albums. In some ways I think it would sound even better in an arena, the sound kind of thins out in a big stadium like the Coliseum is --- if you get a chance to see LP in your town, it's a definite go to

RedCap Fred and the boys --- you know, I personally do not like Fred, as if you all did not know by now. I wasn't sure what to expect. But I think I mostly got what I expected. Fred is kind of a prick onstage. He should know that most of the other band's fans don't like him but he still eggs them on. Moments from getting on the stage, there was FIVE big cups whipped at his head from the pit. He then taunted the crowd calling them names and calling them out --- easy to be tough behind a wall of yellow jacketed security.

In either the most brave or STUPID move of the year, Fred came out to midfield to sing a song. During the whole song he was taking cups of liquid to the head, back, chest, it was a shower of crap --- the funny thing was all these security trying to deflect cups away from him but it was a steady rain of sh--

The performance was not as energetic as I had heard LB could be, I believe I read somewhere that some critics believed LB kicked Metallica's ass at Woodstock 94 --- well, whatever about that --- but not today, LB is turning into Kapena --- Fred needs his own songs, he should stop covering other people's music and if he is so damn creative, impress us with his sh--. Just today we saw The Who's Behind Blue Eyes, a large chunk of Master of Puppets, the redo of Metallica's (Welcome Home) Sanitarium, and George Michael's Faith

Yeah he got some of the crowd going with Nookie and Break Stuff, but it was a pretty lackluster performance, and pretty much I think Fred deserves the sh-- treatment he gets from the crowd because he's a sh--.

And then, the nearly one hour wait for Metallica, ha

Now that I have seen Metallica in very different venues and at various periods in their career --- I have to say something about their current performance style, it's like they have settled in to a pattern and some of the freshness is not there (for me at least) --- yes, there's the big jumbotrons, the big flames, the big fireworks, the big lighting effects ---

I've read reviews and watched some of the younger members of the crowd where they are just enjoying every bit of it as newcomers to the experience. I mean, I'm happy that they played basically a first four heavy setlist. Something just didn't click with me to make this performance totally over the top memorable. You know, I think part of it is that some of the things done have not changed since 93 --- in other words, Metallica is becoming a bit cliche and worn in its performances, maybe it's just the end of tour weardown

I really liked how Rob Trujillo performed, he really freshened things up for me. He has that really cool metal and dynamic vibe about him --- very cool addition to the band -- and his crabwalk and metalface are just way cool

The highlights of the show were a very killer rendition of Bells; a real vibey performance of Sad But True with electric audience participation; the crowd really sung its heart out to Nothing Else Matters --- and of course, another excellent rendering of Creeping Death

One of the things that bugged me. Blackened sounded tinny in a stadium. It sounds like a real monster in an arena. Oh yeah, and where's Fade to Black? Ok, that's not fair

Ye Old Setlist:
Battery
Master of Puppets
Harvester of Sorrow
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Frantic
Sad But True
St. Anger
No Remorse
Seek and Destroy
Blackened
Fuel
Nothing Else Matters
Creeping Death
One
Enter Sandman

So overall, it was a very good performance, and yes, I am damn picky. Honestly I have to say that top of the bill belonged to Metallica and Linkin Park today. Going in, I thought Metallica would just run the other four bands into the ground. Instead, it seems LP can hang, and that's very cool to me.