Perception

I am back to write about my experience at Metallica's first show in China ever.

Having first heard Metallica when I was about 10 or 11, (my first song was Master of Puppets) I had built up this image of this band compromising of men cooler and better than normal men. I had thought of them as these amazing badass, hardcore individuals that were too cool for anyone.

However seeing them live sort of changed that perception, and not in a bad way at all. James was constantly asking the audience if they liked what they were seeing, and saying things like "what matters the most is if you feel good". They were really all out of pleasing all their fans, and it made everyone feel included in something much bigger than themselves. They weren't just there to play a show and make money, they wanted to see all the fans, they asked for the lights to be turned on in the whole arena so they could look round and see everyone. That just made me feel like this band was a group of people that really loved everyone who loved them and really all they were looking for was the make sure everyone felt great being here. Right before they played Nothing Else Matters, James said to everyone to remember that they were never alone and there was always someone to support them, and he stressed "always" quite a  bit and also repeated himself a few times to make sure his message got across, he genuinely wanted everyone to feel like they were never alone, he genuinely wanted to help and that made me respect the whole band so much more.

They were also a whole lot of fun to watch, James teased the audience for a good 3 or 4 minutes on whether the set was actually over. (They played a little more in the end) Every single one of them took the mic to say something to the audience, and the went all over the stage throughout the show (except for Lars, because you can't really cart a drum kit around can you?) to make sure everyone in every part of the theatre could see all of them. As expected if was a hell of a show and they played Fuel which was great and closed the show with Seek and Destroy where the entire arena was singing/shouting along and that is a whole other feeling. It was pretty amazing to see both old and young fans, (literally people of all ages) singing the same songs and feeling the same excitement. (Everybody stood up because fuck you and your stay seated rules, its a goddamn metal concert!)

Metallica is a band definitely worth seeing live, even though they didn't play my first and favourite song, Master of Puppets (but that is probably because of some chinese government thing), and this experience is another reason why I love going to concerts, you get to see a side of the artist that usually isn't conveyed just through their music and it may make you respect and love them a whole lot more.