metallihype

in all my years of going to, working at, and introducing concerts in multiple states my recent metallica show experience came with more emails than ANY of them…

…including the ones that PAID me to be there.

the first one came after i ordered the tickets, confirming my purchase. the second a few days later to let me know my tickets were printing. a third the next day letting me know my tickets were in the mail…

…then a week being email free, during which time the tickets came in the mail and the show approached.

three days before the show i got an email asking if i had received my tickets, and letting me know who to call to have them re-printed and waiting at will call should i not have them. the day OF the show i got an email, this time from the alamodome, telling me what i could (and more specifically, COULDN’T) bring to the show. and then the day AFTER the show i was emailed a customer satisfaction survey, again by the venue.

daaaaaamn.

i don’t go down to san antonio as often as i used to, so when i do i try to make a day out of it…or at least see as many friends as i can. the earlier part of the day where i just pop up in kramer’s neighborhood on my way to go look at a car was scrapped because the car dealership dude was a bit of a douche nozzle on the phone, so i just left with enough time to hit the gym and go downtown. i had already talked to my friend leslie to see if she wanted to meet for a bite, and we decided to do so although we couldn’t nail down where. an instagram glance post work-out told me another friend was doing a remote at “smoke”, a bbq joint in downtown sa, so we met there so i could see him AND her. other friends wandered in pre-show unexpectedly, and the restaurant was walking distance from the venue (plus my parking karma kicked in) so that made for a great pre-show experience.

(i’ll have to go back and check the place out when there’s not a show and they’re not so crazy busy…prices were good, the food smelled yummy, and i love the irony of my vegan friend having to do a remote with pulled pork sliders on his table)

when i got my ticket i got one two rows off the floor, even though it was the same price as a floor seat. the floor was standing room only, but i wanted to be able to sit down. what i forgot about when choosing my corner section was the show was not at the typical at&t center, which is a basketball arena, meaning the ‘far corners’ are only a basketball court from the stage. this was the alamodome, built when san antonio THOUGHT they were gonna get an NFL franchise…so the far corners were a few hundred YARDS from the stage. for the same price as the standing room only floor. where my friends chuck & lloyd ended up being. as per usual, access perceived is access achieved, and i just walked on the floor like i was supposed to be there and nobody stopped me.

needless to say i’d done this before.

since i didn’t have a REAL camera, and the iphone does great in low light, and great up close video-wise, i still can’t get concerts to look right, even when i’m fairly close, so my pics came out like this:

but chuck had a camera that was good enough for the show, but bad enough to make it in under alamdome guidelines, so his came out more like this:

it was a great set list and a great show. i wish i had seen them last tour, ’cause i really liked that album a bit more, but they made it worth the wait. having mix master mike in between bands was cool, and what i told the ufc was right – when i heard a couple songs from opener “avenged sevenfold” i went, “oooohhh – that was THESE guys”. other opener, nineties “what, is the drummer lars’ cousin or something?” schlock bin filler “local h” was still puzzling to me just by their presence.

i would see them again when they came through, especially if the whole experience can be worth the hype like this one was!