Met Bridge Boots
I suppose curiosity got the best of me last week -- but for a good cause, really ...
I downloaded the two Metallica Bridge School acoustic shows from livemetallica.com. The eternal good about buying these shows is that the proceeds go to a great charity
My curiosity was piqued because of some of the song choices, many interesting cover choices. Songs such as:
I Just Want To Celebrate - Rare Earth
It was interesting to hear Metallica go Trujillo and bring the funk -- Rob Trujillo has such a great sensibility for funk in his bass playing, quite awesome. The first night's version was pretty much a mess -- they pressed too hard on it, it seemed like a bad mix.
The second night had a good flow to it, and the energy really came across great with better control, particularly from a more swingy, loose vocal from James.
Please Don't Judas Me - Nazareth
Honestly, not one of my favorite Naz songs. I think I know why Met picked it -- and they dressed it up spaghetti western style. Overall, it was okay, the performances were spot on, just not my taste.
Only Happy When It Rains - Garbage (1st night)
A remarkably straightforward cover -- a turn the crank performance. I think the band sounded a bit bored with it, it wasn't exactly a musically scintillating or interesting performance -- and James could not find the vibe of the song, sounded like a struggle throughout.
Brothers in Arms - Dire Straits
Probably the hands down best cover done in both shows, 2nd night a bit better, 1st night had some kinks to work out -- this is one much like the Seger cover that fits James. Nice guitar solo work by Kirk. This was a nice rediscover for me, haven't listened to my DS-BinArms cd in a long time
Veteran of the Psychic Wars - Blue Oyster Cult (2nd night)
Metallica does a good job on BOC covers. Very straightforward cover, well played. Nice to rediscover deep tracks from the classic Fire of the Unknown Origin album (also 25 years old, like Wrath of Khan)
Turn the Page - Bob Seger (1st night)
Quite possibly, the best Metallica cover ever -- well, at least, of a non-metal music variety. The band nails it time after time, after time. James always hits that emotional, road weary groove in his vox
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As for the Metallica songs that were acoustified. Disposable Heroes seemed to me to be a jumbled mess of remix. Nice to hear All Within My Hands finally performed, I thought that the revision for acoustic for this song maintaining the frenetic emotion of the balls-out original. And, as always, nice execution on the Unforgiven and Nothing Else Matters -- two of the more obvious acoustic choices, but well done. I think it may be time to restore the Unforgiven to future sets, sounds fresh again as an acoustic number.