Hmmmm ... ok ... well - last night was THE BIG FOUR in Sofia (ermm.... Bulgaria, I think??
) and it was also transmitted to movie theatres around the world, so we could all 'join in'
I went to see this at the Cambridge Arts PictureHouse - gotta say the staff appeared distinctly bemused by a bunch of rowdy metalheads taking over what is normally a rather serene and formal venue for "arthouse" films ...
Anyway ...
The Big Four ...Anthrax up first - they were good, and it was truly great to see Joey Belladonna up there. I liked the t-shirts they all wore - looked like Darth Vader design, only not ...
Megadeth next - Dave Mustaine looking cool in his black jeans and white shirt, and that glorious mane of hair!! Nice ... BUT - rather like when I saw them last year, Mustaine's voice is really not lasting well, and where normally at a gig it's ok coz the vocals are kept low in the mix and the superb riffage drowns out everything anyway ... well --- on the big screen, the mix was a bit off, and the voice was too 'clear' in the mix, so you could hear how flawed his vocals sound these days ... Ahh well .... Chris - the 'new' guitarist is utterly brilliant ... good set by them, got everyone howling along ...
Slayer ... ok, I'm biased, I loves me some Slayer
and they were consistent as always, delivering what they needed to ... Tom Araya looked bemused by the tv cameras at times, and he could easily double for Billy Connelly in the looks department nowadays. Jeff H looked OLD and very overweight, and his leather trousers were hanging low - not good ... Kerry King was exactly the same as I've always seen him ... and the friggin gigantic chain hanging off his belt-hooks
Good Gawd!
Metallica .... were good, they only played one 'new' track, and relied heavily on their much stronger back catalogue. Lars is (and will always be) a complete GIT - he's also getting much worse at keeping time for the band - they were getting faster and faster in some songs, Kirk - same as always - good solo-ing from him, but sometimes the timing was slightly off. Rob Trujillo was brilliant - always is - I miss Jason Newstead still, and obviously Cliff Burton is always in ones thoughts, but Rob is a unique and truly gifted bassist - I LOVE watching that guy play .... James Hetfield .... well, he's not the guy I fell in luff wiv all those years ago, and basically I think it is the changes in HIM as a person that have slightly put me off Metallica these days (ironic, since I was published as Letter Of The Week in Kerrang! once many many years ago, when I criticised people saying they didn't like Metallica because Hetfield was into hunting and shooting animals and all ... funny that - but I do think the way that James has grown over the years now very much colours everything the band does, and it's just not my thing any more - I used to worship the guy, now I cringe at his vocals and mannerisms ... he's taken to pushing his voice too hard - he used to have a natural rough growl, now he puts in too many "Oh yeah" and "Mmm Baby" ends to his singing phrases - don't like it)
Mostly - as long as they don't play too much of St TeenAngst or Death Magnetic - then Metallica sound like a fairly well-polished "Metallica covers band" these days - nothing new, nothing risky, just same ole same ole - and surely they do churn out a mass of the old classics. Set list:
Creeping Death
For Whom the Bell Tolls (too fast for the final 3rd)
Harvester of Sorrow
Unforgiven
Cyanide (meh ...)
One
Master of Puppets
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
the intro to Frayed Ends ....
Am I Evil (with * everyone-ish - see note below*)
Hit The Lights
Seek and Destroy
Yeah - everyone from Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer was meant to come on stage and join in with Metallica for AM I EVIL? - on the most part they did, and it sounded utterly awesome ... but s'cuse me - I did NOT see anyone from Slayer joining in - they walked on the stage when the song finished and 'joined in' the cameraderie with all other band persons - grinning, shaking hands, hugs, waving to audience ... disappointing that they didn't actually participate during the song.
In between the bands, and earlier before the gig footage started there was bits of recorded interviews with Lars Ulrich, Scott Ian and Dave Mustaine, sat together, supposedly 'shooting the breeze' and chatting like best buddies, stroking eachothers' egos saying how these four bands were the pioneers of Bay Area Thrash movement some 20-25 years ago, and talking about their influences ... they also interviewed Kerry King, only on his own - sad to see that the Slayer guys did not join the others for the interview segments. Gave me the thoughts that there was some tension or animosity betwixt bands. Anthrax were most friendly and affable - clearly deferring to the might of huge rival bands like Metallica, who were clearly considered to be the top dogs, top billing, and 'most important' band appearing ... though I got the impression that Slayer were more superior. It was an odd combination - I personally think that if they had truly intended on make such a big big thing of these four band being together like this for the first time, and 'making history' then the bands should have appeared less like four bands with separate sets and found a way to integrate their music and styles together - hell, mebbe each band coulda thrown in a cover of one of the other bands that were playing (though I'da insisted that Megadeth NOT choose to play 'Tallica's Four Horsemen - since Mustaine co-wrote that one ...) ... just seems like it was a woefully missed opportunity for these four bands to rise above status of billing, and who's-had-the-most-record-sales and actually give the audience something unique and special ...
The whole shebang is coming out on dvd soon, so the 'amazing uniqueness' of broadcasting it to cinemas globally is undermined by the purely financial slant inferred by their 'cashing in' on this event. ... and so
Maybe I'm getting jaded in my old age, but in the end, it was just like watching any other bit of concert footage on a big screen ... nothing particularly special after all ....
Anyone else go see this?? what did you think??