Metallica In Edmonton!

A few month ago Metallica announce that they would be filming a 3D movie in Vancouver Canada on August 24, however the excited part of the announcement was that they would be playing a single warm-up date a week before in Edmonton; where Inverted Magazine is based! Things got even better, when a week later a second show was added; can anyone really complain about seeing Metallica on both a friday and saturday night? The answer is no.

Metallica can definitely still bring it, sure they had that period of time during the 90′s where things weren’t all that great and they put out some less than questionable albums. However, once Robert Trujillo was added to the band things have come round circle, they even brought out a custom built stage with two small snake-pits, a homage to their ’92-’93 tours which features they sections of the stage. This was by far the biggest stage I have even seen at an indoor festival, it spanned the entire length of the floor and took up almost 80% of an NHL sized  ice surface which ment there were very limited amount of floor tickets available to the public. Being a fan-club ember of a band has its benefits, some are better than other but I have to say being a MetClub member not only allowed me to purchase these sought after floor tickets, but also gives you an immense amount of custom content.

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Both back-to-back Friday and Saturday night shows featured the same set list, the only difference was that the band started filming their 3D move on the saturday night which seemed to energize the band even more. It was either that, or the band knew what to expect from a great Canadian audience, because Kirk, James, and Rob were all running around the stage, trying to engage the entire audience in the arena for the entire two hour set. The best part about Metallica is that they know people don’t want to here that Lulu album, or anything from St Anger. The set included Creeping Death, One, Ride the Lightning, Battery, Master of Muppets, and Seek & Destroy, the only questionable songs I thought they played was Fuel, and Wherever I May Roam, but we won’t get into that.
Overall things were great, not only did Metallica play a solid set but the stage show was ridiculous; I heard afterwards that stage and lighting took up 34 semi trucks, while the entire Metallica crew tour in 14 tour buses. There are only a handful of bands in the world right now that can get away with this type of stage and live performance, yet Metallica are the only ones that actually do it. The concert ended in quite an unconventional way; lighting caught on fire, a crew member was lit on fire with a stray pyro effect, and the part of the stage fell apart; yet it was all part of the show. Take a look at this spectacle from the barrier below!

Make sure to see the entire gallery of images in the Concert Gallery section of the site!