Maybe the last concerts of 2022 for me....
Last Friday I was fortunate enough to scoop up a late release face value ticket to the sold out All Within My Hands benefit concert by Metallica with Greta Van Fleet opening and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.
What an epic show this was. I've never been to the Microsoft Theater in LA. Reminded me of Radio City in NYC. Pretty nice and big theater, but not designed for a metal concert in terms of concessions. Just terribly long lines if you wanted a beer. But that may be my only complaint.... OK and the crowd was LAME, but this concert was awesome.
It started early, at 6pm with a Jimmy Kimmel intro. It was fairly clear at this moment that whenever Jimmy had the mic it was going to be bad jokes and trying to get donations. Understood, it's a benefit concert, but man, I thought Jimmy Kimmel was not funny at all. Metallica toured with Jim Breuer before who was light years funnier with the Metallica jokes. I still thought it was cool for him to be there though. He introduced Greta Van Fleet as they had been Metallica's chosen opener for most of their headline shows the last year or so (I even saw them together in November 2021 in Atlanta).
Greta were awesome as usual. I had just seen them 6 days earlier in NJ so going coast to coast with the band was pretty cool. They started with a "Cold Wind" intro tease which confused the heck out of me because they hadn't done that at the last show. Cool new twist to starting their set. They ended up only doing 6 songs which was unfortunate. It looks like they got cut short too. The timeline I had said they had 5 more minutes when their set ended and being that they ended with Broken Bells, it seemed they probably wanted to do Highway Tune next. Sucks, but they also did Caravel which they didn't do the previous week so I got to see a pretty different, albeit short, show. Crowd was not into them at all though, the guy next to me was making fun of them, people were still just filling into the seats, and no surprise, it was 6:55 when they ended. Sucks it was so early and short, but man, I love this band!
After more Jimmy Kimmel, Metallica came out for their acoustic set opening with an acoustic version of Blackened! So cool! Then The Unforgiven which is a song I really enjoy so seeing it acoustic really was incredible. They then did two cover songs that they've never performed before and ended the acoustic set with Whiskey in the Jar which FINALLY got the crowd waking up.
After another break with Jimmy and Tony Hawk, Metallica came back out for their electric set. Starting with Call of Ktulu which was an amazing way to start the set! People were finally standing. I wasn't crazy about the next two choices, Harvester of Sorrow which was pretty awesome live and Holier Than Thou which somehow happens to be the one random song they play everytime I see them
Then they did a brand new version of the song All Within My Hands (the name of the benefit). They took their acoustic version of the St. Anger song and then electrified it a bit. You can see the full song here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr4PYGWV-pA as lots of people commented thinking it was a load/reload era sounding version of a St. Anger song. For me, the next song was the highlihgt of the night. Creeping Death. For whatever reason, for me, that song just felt amazing in the moment. People were reacting strongly to it (unlike the indifference in the room to the previous song). After Enter Sandman, they live debuted their new single! Of course Lars has a little mishap with his cymbal causing a false start
so fucking funny if you ask me. The night still had one more special moment, they did Nothing Else Matters with singer/guitaris St. Vincent. I'm not familiar with her at all, so it didn't really WOW me per say, but it was still really cool to see someone else sing and perform with Metallica live. They ended wtih Seek and Destroy as the concert ended exactly at 9pm on the dot. I thought it was kind of lame to be such a short show, but like my first two complaints, it's hard to complain when this concert was really incredible.
Also, they gave out these programs! On the way out, the ushers were handing more out, so I grabbed a few of them figuring they were cool memorabilia and maybe worth something one day, who knows.
Here's my full video of the night, lots of footage covering everything I talked about!
Metallica & Greta Van Fleet All Within My Hands @ SOLD OUT Microsoft Theater Los Angeles 12/16/2022then the following day....
I went to the Kia Forum for the final show of the Great Heathen Army Tour! With Amon Amarth, Carcass, Obituary (and Cattle Decapitation who I missed)
This is my second time at the Forum, which I consider a fairly iconic music venue.
Big venue for this show, so the seating area was pretty empty and I scooped up a cheap ticket in the back center, literally the last row they were selling (full arena seating was blocked off). I was not familiar with Obituary or Carcass before as generally, this is not my style of metal I listen to. I thought both bands were pretty decent. Crowd on the floor was pretty wild for both bands.
Amon Amarth put on one hell of a show. I don't think I realized how big of a stage show they were going to put on until right before they came on and I walked around the venue to the side of the stage and saw the massive statues and stage they had prepped for the show. They played Run to the Hills on the PA before coming out. Perfect. I'd compare their stage shows to Iron Maiden in some ways, and Rammstein in others. Lots and lots of pyro which I love. A sword fighting battle during on song. A huge ship set. Oh and let's not forget what the singer said was likely the biggest row pit of the entire tour! This show from a visual standpoint was just incredible from start to finish, also, with the crowd being pretty wild on the floor. I really enjoyed my view. As for the music, I really enjoyed it as well. These songs are very catchy and I very much enjoyed the guitar playing. Great headlining set. If this is the last show for 2022 for me, I will be happy. (there's a show on Wednesday that is sold out, but if I can get a fair value ticket I'd go)
Amon Amarth, Carcass & Obituary LIVE @ The Kia Forum CA 12/17/2022
Topic: Concerts for 2022 (Read 37411 times)
