The two Metallica shows at Commonwealth Stadium on the Friday and Sunday were announced back in December 2022, more then a year and a half in advance. I'm not sure if I have ever had tickets for a show that far in advance, and I wasn't about to do it for this show. Nazz and I both wanted to go to these shows but weren't gonna put our money out that far in advance, and we both said we wouldn't pay more then a hundred dollars per show. Of course tickets were expensive when they went on sale. When the shows got within four months of the date, I started watching for tickets. Again, wasn't spending more then a hundred bucks. For the longest time the Friday tickets were more expensive then the Sunday show. Makes sense as Friday's line up was better and it's a Friday. I saw single day tickets for 137 dollars for a long time but wasn't gonna bite. I was keeping to my promise. Of course these cheaper tickets were in the upper bowl of the stadium which was fine by us, as we just wanted to be there. We'd find a way to get closer. Well in early June I finally found 92 dollar tickets for the Friday show, so I got Nazz and I tickets. The weird thing with buying single day tickets, it was cheaper to buy two single day tickets then buying the two day tickets. That makes absolutely no sense. Anyways, I got Friday tickets and told Nazz, he can get the Sunday tickets. Now jump to early July and my buddy Naxx text's me while I am in Vancouver for The Stones concert and asks me "what day was I supposed to get Metallica tickets for? Please say it was Sunday" luckily for him he did buy the proper days tickets, here is the fucked up thing. he got us two tickets for the Sunday an they were the exact say same seats I had got us for the Friday night show. He didn't have the Friday tickets so he had no idea where we were sitting. But out of 60,000 tickets he gets us the exact same seats, same section, row and seats, unfuckingreal! So now we are set for both nights, and, by buying single day tickets we saved ourselves fifty bucks per ticket. So weird.
On the Thursday before the shows Metallica had a pop up store open all weekend selling all kinds of merchandise including exclusive pop up store items like the limited edition poster, t-shirts and vinyl. So Ii took the day off work and went and lined up with hundreds of others. I got there two hours before the store opened and there were already a couple hundred people in front of me. It sucked having to line up that long but it beat the hell out of lining up at the show for that long and missing good part of the show. So I sucked it up and lined up, it was good company though as I had a few interesting conversations with other Metallica fans. The time actually went pretty quick.
I picked up a couple t-shirts for myself and one for Nazz, and I got Nazz a copy of the limited edition splatter 72 Seasons vinyl.
The exclusive pop up store Edmonton t-shirt.
Front.
Back.
And I also picked up just the regular tour shirt as well.
Front.
Back.
Now having the merchandise already purchased we had nothing to worry about for the day of the show.
So on Friday my buddy Nazz picked me for the show, we were sure to be at Commonwealth Stadium early as we didn't want to miss either of the opening acts, them being Mammoth and Pantera. Doors opened at 4 pm and we were inside by 4:30. Plenty of time to get some beers and walk around a bit, couple of smokes and find our seats, which were in the upper deck of the stadium. But because of the set up for this show, with the stage in the middle of the stadium, and the speakers and screens way u above the stage, there really wasn't a bad seat in the place.
At 6 pm the first band of the weekend hit the stage, and that would be Mammoth WVH, whom is lead by Wolfgang Van Halen, the son of Eddie Van Halen. I was looking forward to seeing Mammoth in concert and hearing songs from his two albums released so far. And he and his band did not disappoint. Their sound is very rock n' roll along the lines of say Foo Fighters. I thought they were great and there seemed to be a pretty good crowd to catch the first band of the weekend.
Mammoth WVH.
Next up was Pantera, a band I had never had the chance to see before. While it's not the original lineup obviously with Dimebag Darrel and his brother Vinnie Paul having passed away. Dimebag getting shot and killed on stage while performing in December 2004 and Vinnie passing of heart failure in June of 2018. So this version of Pantera is a tribute to the fallen members. Taking Dimebag's and Vinnie's place are Zakk Wylde (Ozzy, Black Label Society) on guitar and Charlie Benante (Anthrax) on drums. So the only original members are Phil Anselmo on vocals and Rex Brown on bass. Regardless, they still put on a kick ass show.
With nighttime setting in, it was time for Metallica. This would be my 10th time seeing Metallica in concert. So ya, I've been a big fan of the band since my early teens, with the first three albums being my favourite and Master Of Puppets being one of my all time favourite albums. That album still sounds as good as the day it came out in 1986. I did lose interest in the band in the mid 90's up until they released what I think is one of their better albums, 2008's Death Magnetic. The band is currently touring for their latest release 72 Seasons, which is alright but not as good as I was hoping. Nonetheless, the band has a great catalog of music to pick from. And hey the few clunkers they do have, at least I won't hear them both nights as the two night stand is billed as the No Repeat weekend. And of course, out of two nights I'm still not going to hear all the songs I want.
So before Metallica came on it was time to get some beer. Well, holy fuck, trying to get a beer was going to be a challenge as the line ups at the concessions were fucking stupid and the staff that were selling beers on the concourse had disappeared. I was starting to panic as I'm not sitting through a Metallica concert with no beers. So after some fancy maneuvering, Nazz and I managed to get four beers before Metallica hit the stage. Now I was ready!
By now the stadium is full, my guess would be 55-60,000 heavy metal fans. Metallica came out super strong opening with "Creeping Death" which really surprised me in a great way. Nothing like hearing 60 thousand people singing Die, Die, Die on the opening number, after that it was into "Harvester of Sorrow" another surprise and then "Through The Never" a great three song opening. Then a couple of meh songs "King Nothing" and two from their new album "72 Seasons" and "If Darkness Had A Son", I get why they play these new songs as the band has to keep things interesting for themselves too, and I respect that. The new songs sound better live at least. Another surprise was hearing them do "Orion" from the Masters album, with James dedicating the song to the late great Cliff Burton. That was super cool! Then it was "Nothing Else Matters", time to go for a quick smoke. I can't stand that song. One song I really wanted to hear was "Battery" and fuck ya they played it, that got me excited, and for the last two songs of the night were "Seek And Destroy" followed by "Master Of Puppets". Great way to end the show. Metallica are super tight and certainly know how to work that huge circle stage they are performing on for this tour. And the set up was great with the stage in the middle of the field, so playing in the round, and with the speakers and video screens high above the stage there wasn't a bad seat in the place. This band knows what they are doing and do it really well. Ya, i didn't hear all the songs I wanted but hey we still had another night to see them and with a whole different set of songs. So Sunday was going to be another fun night of Metallica. Good times!!!
Metallica.
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