Metallica Rock in Rio 2011
by Bruno Machado, Rio de Janeiro
At a certain moment, James asked the crowd. “Do you feel it ? Do you feel what I feel ?”
It was a special moment, a special night. One of those nights where instant bond between band and crowd is created since their very first song. And what a great start that was.
Nothing less than Creeping Death followed by a hole bunch of Metallica old school classics, such as for whom the bell tolls, ride the lightning, fade to black, sanitarium, orion, one, master of puppets, backened, whiplash, seek and destroy not to mention material from the black album and from the most recent work these fifty year old ‘kids’ have been delivering lately..
Metallica seems extremely comfortable on a stage and on top of their games. their last show in rio was in 1999 (they have come to sao paulo a couple times since then)so they sure wanted to prove in rio they were still delivering the goods. and oh boy they did !!!
Orion deserves a very special paragraph as today 27th SEPT , 25 years ago bass genius Cliff Burton was found dead on a bus accident during metallica’s tour in sweden. The music was beautifully executed with the band putting all their heart and soul while playing not to mention that is not a common song in their setlist so it was definitely one of the highlights of the evening and dedicated to Cliff by James. very special moment.
Having the chance to listen to a missile such as Blackened just made the night even better. James Hetfield is a master on stage, having complete control of the band and the crowd. These guys have so much experience that the band was sounding extremely tight and heavy and delivering old classics comfortably as they would deliver 20 or 30 years ago. what can i say about whiplash ?! from the their classic 1981 kill em all to prove 30 years later a relevant and great song to be passionately sang by Mr Hetfield. guess those therapy sessions during some kind of monster had a great effect on the band.
Having the chance to these legends playing 10 out of 18 songs from the Cliff era just made it an unforgettable show. One of those to remember 30 years from now on. One of those shows to proudly say “i was there”
Funny thing is. im not a big fan of festivals anymore. turning 37 soon, i’m the kind of guy who now enjoys the small gigs, nice and easy. rock in rio is a different experience. you have to plan how to go, its fuckin far, it was a cold, rainy day and sometime during that day i was wondering. am i really going to these show ?? don’t get me wrong, i wanted to see metallica so much but i just don’t like the hassles of big festivals anymore. well, metallica taught me an important lesson that sunday night. it is fuckin worth it and this is a lesson i will keep in my mind…
its never too late to shout SEEK … AND … DESTROY !!!!!
