Friends, how goes it! I don’t want to brag, but I’m blogging from vacation right now because that’s how much I care about all 4 of you. Not to mention I’ll have another in the chamber coming shortly with the premiere of Hard Knocks staring (one of) the home team from the stadium I saw Metallica in this last weekend.

That last sentence says it all, this past weekend I was able to cross off one of my biggest bucket list concerts with only Green Day and Led Zeppelin remaining. If you’ve been following for a bit now, you might remember the blog I wrote back in April, and if you don’t, here it is.

https://sunnydaysinflushing.com/2023/04/14/40-years-later-and-metallica-will-still-kick-your-teeth-in/

The boys are coming off a new album and are currently on a 3ish year world tour supporting it. While that’s usually not out of the norm for them, this time around they’re adopting the Grateful Dead method and are doing 2 nights in each city never playing the same song twice. Now if you’re even slightly familiar with the band, you know that’s a huge deal. 40 years, 12 albums and counting, hundreds of songs now all up in the air to be played live it was as magical as you’d imagine. Though the setlist was played safe both nights with only a few deep cuts (which is fine, I just wanted to hear and Justice For all and the four horsemen which are apparently pipe dreams) these shows knocked my socks off and after years of waiting and watching YouTube videos I’m glad to say it was everything I wanted and then some

Before I start diving into things, I just got make some quick shoutouts. First and foremost, my big cousin Tim. Without him I never would’ve gotten to experience things the way I did and it’s something I’ll forever remember. Going off of that, another huge shoutout to the Tim’s employer and the Blackened Whiskey family. All the guys and gals I had the pleasure of spending the weekend with were extremely accommodating and a great hang. It’s crazy because the “Metallica Family” thing has been something the band always touted and I just felt like it was just BS and a way to look at the fans. No, the Metallica family is a very real thing and it’s actually really cool to see up close and personal while becoming a second cousin twice removed. Long in short, if you’re drinking whiskey, make it blackened. The juice is smooth and each bottle comes with a custom playlist that the barrel is serenaded with before the pour it’s sick.

Friday night kicked off the weekend and I’d be lying if I said I got the full experience of things but that’s ok. Give and take here for sure, the crew I rolled with was here for Metallica and Metallica only. Eddie Van Halen’s sons band opened the show and I didn’t see any of that followed by what’s left of Pantera before the big guns got on at 8. I did get to see a decent amount of Pantera and can now say I moshed to “Walk” which is also something to check off the bucket list. Pantera didn’t sound the greatest in the world, they were very loud but not in a good way, in a way where the mix on the speakers and the acoustics just weren’t doing it.

8pm rolled around and ACDC’s “long way to the top” hit the speakers signaling Metallica was ready to go. A sick montage with a great classic song to get the crowd moving and shaking. Followed by the classic “Ecstasy of Gold” which was just as bad ass as I imagined. The only downside was that due to like the stage configuration there was no walk up that I always felt made things heavier with that song as the back drop. Again, give and take, small things missing made up by massive things in the end so it didn’t matter.

Creeping Death got the party started and I cannot overstate how great they sounded. Kirk, Rob, and James were running all around the stage making sure everyone was able to see them fairly which I appreciated. Night one saw the likes of Harvester of Sorrow, Hollier than thou, seek and destroy battery and fuel to name a few. They also tastefully mixed in a fair amount of new songs in there for their north American debut and they absolutely ripped. I guess it’s fair to say that when you’re new album is the best full album you’ve released in probably 15 years they’re totally welcomed. I was able to work my way into the snake pit for the second half of this show and when I saw I was 15 feet from the band I am not exaggerating.

My favorite moment of the weekend happened on Night 1. They separate the set by I’d say every four songs for a set change and a new drum kit in a new area and for this segment Lars was right in front of me. Which by the way speaking of Lars, watching him hammer it out live that close was insane. I knew he was fast and energetic, but wow just wow. Anyways, after things get set up you hear the intro to Orion and naturally we all lost our shit. James lit up a Blackened cigar (that’s right they have smokes too) Kirk and rob walked over and into the heaviness we went. It was surreal watching James Hetfield casually smoke a stog while just hammering that song out, think this guys been doing it for a while or what? I’m gonna try to put in a video below of this but I have no idea how it’ll work

Night 1 (shockingly to no one) ended with what many hail as the greatest heavy metal song of all time, Master of Puppets. Now this stays in the trust tree, but I wasn’t blown away. Was it incredible to finally hear it live in the flesh? Absolutely, that first power chord hits and you know exactly what time it is. But with MOP perfection was just captured on tape and in my opinion which could be wrong I don’t think you’ll ever hear a better rendition of that song other than off MOP itself. I think mainly cause it’s just such a hard, long song to play and I can’t fault them for that at all.

We had a great Saturday off in between and we hit the links, shot a 104, not important don’t want to talk about it. Sunday came and it was time for night 2.

Now I had a better idea of things and how the blackened family operated so I was ready to go on their terms like a professional. We again missed the openers, but the openers on Sunday to me at least were much less of a draw compared to Fridays. Don’t remember who the first band was but the second was five finger death punch. I like ‘em heavy but that’s a bit too much for your pal Jerry. We also missed the openers this time around with good reason as there was a whiskey tasting event staring the master distiller in the underbelly of the stadium. I believe I said it before, but seriously try blackened whiskey. Celebrities license products all the time that stink, Blackened isn’t one of them.

We got into our area with about 10 minutes to spare before the same pomp and circumstance from Friday began. The same AC/DC song as well as ecstasy of gold played and it was equally as bad ass as the first time I saw it. Once the boys took the stage we were off to the races opening with the famed Tony Hawks Underground 2 song whiplash, heavy and fast out of the gate.

Right into “For Whom The Bell Tolls”. If you’ve heard that song before you know it’s arguably one of the heaviest intros in the world. I know I said that about MOP, but I mean it this time. Hearing that song live in the flesh for the first time as close as I was was an outer body experience, I thought my chest was going to cave in with how heavy it was. Sanatorium and ride the lighting were both thrown into the mix and knocked my socks off. There was also a heavy mix of new in this show as well, like I said they really know how to balance out the old and the new while not taking anything away from either side of things which I greatly appreciate. A lot of the times you get one extreme or the other but when you’ve been doing it for this long this well I guess you know what you’re doing.

We got a wherever I may roam which is currently at the top of my list for favorite Metallica song and it was incredible. Followed by an absolutely face melting “Moth Into A Flame” during which Kirk stood right in front of us the whole time with a serious of pyro effects.

It’s insane how good of a guitar player Kirk Hammet truly is. Minus one flub during night one on Nothing Else Matters, he was clean and perfect the entire weekend. I also never realized how much heavy lifting James does as a guitar player. There are many riffs I could’ve sworn were played by Kirk but James was actually the one that hammered them out, just as clean and perfect as Kirk too.

As the night wound down we got a hell of a finisher. Things started with Whiskey in a Jar which I personally don’t care too much for, probably because I’m Italian. But I finally got to see One played live and while I thought that would be the cream of the crop I was proven dead wrong with the next song. They finished with Mariano Riverias walkout song that you may have a heard a few times before, a little diddy called Enter Sandman.

Now Sandman to me is in that category of over played songs that are overplayed for a reason if you know what I’m trying to say. The song kicks ass, but you’ve heard it so many times you’re sick of it, but the reason you’ve heard it so many times is because it kicks ass. It’s a tongue twister but I makes sense, I put it in the same file as like under the bridge by RHCP. But man, I don’t think everyone else felt this way cause met life stadium was literally shaking. I’ve never heard an audience that loud sing along, it was absolutely incredible. An absolutely perfect way to wrap up the weekend I have no notes.

My first time seeing Metallica very well may be my last one, hopefully not but if it is I can die happy. I did a little Spotify recap below if you wanna listen through to both nights, highly recommend this playlist for any activities in the gym.

If you didn’t have the chance to catch them this past weekend, you’re in luck! The band will be doing a 2 night PPV-ish concert in movie theaters that honestly I think I’ll be going to as well. Look it up on the google but I believe it’ll be playing in Cinemark theaters #NotAnAd

Folks if you’ve made it this far thanks for letting me rant and brag, that was truly one of the best weekends of my life. We’ll chat more soon once Gang Green activity begins to take hold. I know I promised a hard knocks blog and it’s coming, but doing this from vacation is a lot harder than I thought. Take it ease.