Satan's Luau

Today I want to talk about the Metallica in tour in support of the album kiddingly once referred to (None More) Black or for you TAP fans out there (the REAL smell the glove)

The tour itself ran from late October 1991 through July 1993, the concert that I watched from the Binge and Purge Boxset was the from the San Diego shows held January 13-14, 1992. BnP also includes a compilation of the FIVE shows Metallica played in March 1993

Shall I gripe now? Well, my only gripe about the scheduling of the San Diego Show was that I was still at home in these islands on Christmas break, and Metallica did not schedule another show in LA during the remainder of my senior year in college

The unique thing about the Mexico City shows on 3 CDs were that they were the shows played immediately before they came and played Honolulu in March 12-13, 1993 --- two of the more memorable shows of my life ... three words, two nights .... METALLICA FRONT ROW (... F@#K!!!)

Ok, so what's going on with Metallica at the time ... well, first off, the SNAKE PIT ... Metallica wanted the touring stage to be configured such that there would be maximum contact with the fans

Great idea ... but how did they implement it? Basically with a diamond shaped stage with these metal runways going into the crowd ... and yes, the SNAKE PIT, which was a hole in the middle of the platform where a few hundred fans (yes, you read that right, no record co. geeks in this hole) could stand ... IN THE MIDDLE OF IT ALL (ed. note: sound reputedly sucked, but wouldn't you have wanted to slap sweaty metal hands with James or Jason, yeah I thought so)

(VH1 style voice: SOO Where are they now?)
And where is the Snake Pit now? “Some of it got scrapped, and some of it got remolded into other staging for Judas Priest or somebody,” Ulrich says. “It’s not like you sit there and think, ‘OK, we can use this for the tenth anniversary of the Snake Pit (ed. note: umm, 2003!!! hahaha).’” In other words, you sold it for parts? “Pretty much. Scrap metal.”

What you see in the video is a concert FILM ... not really so much footage driven as edits driven ... so you get Wayne Isham (Using his "Enter Sandman" video style to cover the show) cutting, editing, and with effects fusing and kaleidoscoping images, going grayed out ... pretty nuts, actually kinda distracting from the music until you notice it matches song moods, then its actually kind of interesting

Some observation from the front row:

1. Everyone all black, Everyone long hair --- now last time I said it probably mattered, this time its really for the archives (... because they really look different in the year 03)

2. Performance wise, you get the new approach that Metallica was taking ... getting away from the 8-9-10 minute long intricate songs on Justice and getting out a big muscular compact sound. In other words, short songs BIG riffs sound GOOD too

3. You get to see some of the dynamics of the new stage ... getting out to the crowd ... and the Lars sprint from drumkit to drumkit (yes, two drumkits) during the chugging bridge of Four Horsemen --- its pretty hilarious

4. A very confident Metallica (Grammys, MTV awards, Plat records, #1 hits worldwide) --- it is from here that Metallica becomes the most enormous metal act of all time, now you have the old timers like me mixing with the peeps who liked Sandman on the radio. In other words, the "you know you've made it when there's 50 ... oops I mean 50,000 chicks out there" effect

5. Again, the remaster sounds totally GREAT, nice job making it sound live, and it is visually very interesting

6. Not so much stage theatrics this time, Pink Floyd can sleep easier --- more straightforward performance

SETLIST (DVD):
Metallimovie (No Support Act: where was this in HAWAII, duders?!?!?!?)
Ecstasy
Sandman� �
Creep � �
Harvester � �
Sanitarium � �
Sad �
Roam �
Never� �
Unforgiven � �
Justice Medley: Beholder/Blackened/Frayed/Justice � �
Horsey �
Bellz�
Fade� �
Whip � �
Master ("Shorter Straw" version, aka ABRIDGED) � �
Seek� �
Caress� �
Evil?� �
Battery �
Crazy

(and of course some Larz, Jasyn, KRK solos in between there somewheres)

And for more information about this particular era of Metallica, I highly recommend A Year and A Half in the life of Metallica, the documentary film ...

And one more thing: Thanks, Jump In The Studio!!!

(Yesterday was the last studio day for recording Metallica's new album ... and if you all have been on their site there was access all along the process from about July last year til now, great content, funny videos, more information than anyone of us could handle)

(Image (c) 2003 Metallica)
(Snake Pit Interview blurb (c) 1999 Rolling Stone)