The 14yo and I went to see Metallica in Boston on Friday night. It was his first concert, and my first time seeing Metallica live in nearly thirty years.
While they are all clearly getting on in years (aren’t we all?), Metallica still puts on a great show. They started around 8:45 and played pretty much straight through until nearly 11pm, opening with Creeping Death and Harvester Of Sorrow and closing out with Seek & Destroy and Master Of Puppets. In between, they played songs from every album except St. Anger and Death Magnetic.
The 14yo had a blast and is still going on about the show three days later. I had a great time too, although I will admit to reflecting a bit on the fact that I am now the guys I scoffed at thirty years ago who were going to see bands like the Rolling Stones and The Who. I think I can live with that, though.
Between Boston rush-hour traffic and 65,000 people trying to get to the stadium in Foxboro, we were late enough that we missed the first opener—Mammoth WVH, which neither of us really cared about.
We got to our seats two songs into Pantera’s set. The years have not been kind to that band. Only Phil Amselmo and Rex Brown remain from the classic lineup, and Anselmo is a shadow of his former stage presence. Their set was fine, but I feel a bit spoiled to have seen them in a packed 750-capacity club in 1991 when they were touring for Cowboys From Hell, which remains my favorite of their albums.
I have been listening to a lot of Metallica albums the last week and I think I can say that they are one of my favorite bands. While I don’t particularly care for the direction they went in the late 1990s and the 2000s, I never felt like they sold out, and while the Lightning/Master/Justice era is still their strongest work, I have really quite enjoyed the last three albums.
I have no idea how much longer Metallica will keep touring. As I said to my kid after the show, I wouldn’t want to be doing that at my age, and they’re all older than me. I hope they keep going for a few more years, though, and I would definitely go see them live again.