I dug Wolfie's band. They were Alice in Changes but with a Van Halen playing the solos. Pantera did absolutely nothing for me, and we quite sensibly skipped the night two openers.
I concur, Mammoth WVH were the only opener worth a fuck. I'm actually listening to some of their stuff on youtube now and contemplating buying the new album.
What the fuck kind of band brings so few event shirts that they sell out 2 hours before the show even starts? Seriously uncool. When you're turning a 1000% profit on the things it kind of makes sense to aim high.
Still pretty bummed about that. There were two different t-shirts for each of the shows and they were both cool designs but we couldn't score either.
The shows were as damn near perfect as it gets. I lost most of my vocal capacity on night 1 (Friday) then the rest of it on the Metallica takeover events (Saturday) and was running on fumes come night 2 (Sunday) but still gave it all I got and now my throat hurts like crazy and my neck is stiff as fuck. I'm on a Ibuprofen/Tylenol rotation every 4 hours; I kid you not.
I went in premierly wanting Harvester and Bellz, with some wishful thinking for Thingy that I knew was unlikely.
Not only did I get both tracks, but I even got that terrific line-up of Ecstacy of Gold -- Creeping Death -- Harvester, which was my favorite setlist-flow from back when I was collecting their live audio bootlegs, it was how they opened a lot of shows from late 1992 and 1993.
From 72 Seasons, I wanted Lux Æterna, Darkness and the title track. Got all of these plus Shadows Follow which was incredible live.
If I gotta whine about something, and that would truly be whining cause I had an amazing time, it would be the chosen representatives of Death Magnetic and St. Anger. I'd have prefered All Nightmare Long or Cyanide for the first and Frantic or St. Anger for the latter.
As to Hardwired; I'm happy we got the title track, but I wish the 2nd choice was Halo of Fire, I deeply dislike Moth Into Flame.
I'm also not a fan of Ride The Lightning's title track.
Saturday was a blast as well. The tribute bands Metallica brought out to tour with them ranged from terrific to really good, they were also pretty cool to hang out with after the show and share stories about how their participation in this M72 thing came about.
Then I left that venue to the bar where Bastardane and Otto were playing, they're Castor Hetfield and Tye Trujillo's bands respectively, but otherwise they've got nothing at all to do with Metallica, yet advertised as part of "Metallica Takeover" weekend. They turned out to be pretty good bands anyway.
Seeing Castor Hetfield in person was pretty fascinating; it's like looking at James Hetfield from any 1985/86 videos.
I watched Otto's set, Tye Trujillo's band,
with his dad. A fellow fan club chapter member snapped some cool shots of that.
I'm sure I left out a shit ton of details but that's all that came to mind right now.
Last, but not least, the weekend was made significantly easier and a hell lot more fun because I was fortunate enough to have the company of
the chief concert strategist and his chick-magnet beard!
* I remain a conscientious objector of the DTF middle finger tradition heh