Metallica, Bangalore – A Bihari's Review

If you have been born and brought up in Bihar, Metal just does not make it to the list of the stuff you get to listen to. Perhaps, in this post I should talk more about what happened there at the Metallica show and I’ll be doing the same in the paragraphs that’ll follow, but lemme just tell you this funny thing that happened after the show. I come out of the concert with Alok (you all know him) and Tapan, a college friend of mine,we walk to the nearest bus stop to rest our asses and my sister calls from Patna. While I was telling her all about the show, I could hear in the background Chhath songs being played. Being immersed in a crowd all painted in black, dudes sporting goaties, ladies showing off their outrageous devilish tattoos, I must say there was this culturally shocked Bihari sitting right there on the bus stand. Okay! Enough! I’ll not make this post go all about the above shit, 'coz there are million other things to talk about from the show. Just know one thing about the NRBs (Non Resident Biharis), they tend to get nostalgic at the worst of the times.
Enough Shit!! I talk Metallica now. And before I start talking, lemme show you the exact place I was headbanging around.


Hell to the Yeah, world!! Freaking first row.
              

I was there right under their feet, when the Gods of Metal finally showed up in India. I don't know if in my senses I would have ever thought of watching a Metallica show live, and I just couldn't believe my eyes seeing James, Kirk and Rob coming running on the stage while Lars threw a half finished drink over us. Shit man, Metallica 10 feet away. Fuck! I just can’t word the feeling.There I was, mesmerized watching them play, headbanging like a mad man with my brother before James stopped and said,
“You have waited so long, for this to happen!"
I swear I roared the loudest I can. The roaring crowd behind proved I was not the only one who was yelling at the top of his voice.
James smiled and said, “So have we!" and went on to kill us all with his riffs once again. Watching them on youtube or TV is one thing man. I can do that all day. I have done that all day. Live is like shit. Like the holiest of all kinds of shits, ever. What I mean to say is, there were just too many moments. There was a time when James went on running over the ramp, paused at his acoustic, and then started the "Fade to Black" intro. Then happened "One" and before I could have let my head think of resting for a second, they started "Master of Puppets". Fuck! No choice man.
 
The masters played, we the puppets obeyed and roared each and every word of the song with James and headbanged. Then again, "Nothing Else Matters" happened in the classic Hetfield way of playing the end solo of the song, then going down on his knees and showing the plectrum to the crowd through camera to make it crave for the Sandman. These two tracks back to back and I must day, all my prayers were listened to on this night, 30th of October.
One other thing, I am not sure if it was the sound problem only for the front crowd, Mr. Hammett's ending solo of "Fade to Black" was totally overpowered by Rob's bass and Hetfield's guitar. I had noticed the same happening in the Gothenburg show video earlier this year too. I am just too little of a music guy to question, Hammett's guitaring skills, so I blame it on the sound managers. I head banged anyways throughout.Though he compensated by playing a kind of melodious extra intro to Nothing else matters. That sounded new to me.
For the full set list,the official link is here.
Among other things, I noticed there was a crew staff who was more or less a body double of James. Also there was a bald guy with a Delhi Show T-shirt on who was trying to manage the crowd and made us yell boring shit slogans as such "Safety First!!". Sincere thanks to Delhi for this and I bet watching the Bangalore show on TV will make the people who actually caused trouble there regret like hell for what they have missed.Though Bangalore too was not all that of a clean show.There were ticket management issues with some people while many others found their baggage thrown here and there after the show.

DNA people were not up to the mark for sure for something as big as this. Lars said in the end that Metallica will be back soon. Honestly, I don't see that happening and guess what, that makes me feels like shit lucky to be the guy who was at the fuckin’ right place at the fuckin’ right time.
While walking back Tapan told me he would update his fb status as "If you haven't watched Metallica Live.You haven't watched Metallica Live." So fucking true.
P.S. Before the Metal Gods, Biffy Clyro played and I must say they were one hell of a super fuckin’ tight band.They played their best, and it rained when they played and it was beautiful. It was just me being such a whore for Metallica, I didn't listen much.