I return after a lengthy cyber-absence not to discuss important but dull matters such as the Victorian State election (more on that shortly if I find time in the Christmas rush and can be bothered), but instead something of much greater personal import - the recent Metallica concert at Rod Laver Arena.
Sorry to gush, but quite simply - it was fantastic. Which is something I would have been highly unlikely to say 20 years ago.
This is because like a lot of people, my musical tastes were heavily influenced by the time I spent at university, where whole days devoid of lectures were spent in a vegetative torpor just listening to music. Unfortunately for any head banging bands looking to establish a toehold in my record collection, in the mid to late 1980s anything to do with metal was very much on the nose. The charts were dominated by gender-bending new romantics with flowing mullets, while synthesisers and electric drum kits were the instruments of choice as opposed to heavily distorted electric guitars. Bands such as Culture Club, Tears for Fears and Human League ruled the airwaves and Midnight Oil were about the heaviest thing played on Brisbane radio. It's hard to imagine given their enormous stature today, but after a run of ordinary albums in the mid-1980s even AC/DC were regularly sneered at by most people and dismissed as aging bogans who were well past their prime.
Yet in spite of the prevailing mood, Metallica went from strength to strength. 1986's sprawling "Master of Puppets" was followed in 1988 by the solid "... and Justice for All" , which contained the brilliant single "One". A couple of years later when, thanks to bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, rock fans around the world ditched their fetish for synthesisers and once again demanded music with a bit more noise, they released the mega-smash "Metallica". Somewhat predictably after such enormous success, the band then descended into drug-addled chaos for a few years. After releasing only two mediocre albums for the rest of the decade, they regrouped in 2002 for the "St. Anger" sessions which also spawned the bizarre but compelling Rockumentary film "Some Kind of Monster". Which is round about the same time I started to stop regarding them as solely the the preserve of bogans and started taking a bit more interest.
Unless you've seen the film it is a little difficult to sum it up for you in a pithy one-liner, but a couple of fairly apt descriptions might be "Spinal Tap without the satire" or "Let it Be for headbangers". To this day I can't fully understand what would possess such a successful and popular band to air all their dirty laundry in public like that. It's not like they would need the money after selling over 100 million records worldwide, so why do it? The film contained many cringeworthy moments, mostly involving Lars Ulrich either hurling abuse at another band member or the "high performance" psychologist they hired at prodigious cost to help the band resolve its issues. However in spite of these moments, by the end of the film you can't help but feel some admiration for the band for being honest with their fans and giving them a warts and all insight into the trials and tribulations of a high-profile rock act. It's difficult to see other mega-selling bands like U2 or Coldplay doing the same; they would be far too "brand conscious".
Regardless of the merits of doing the film, by the time the "Death Magnetic" world tour came around, it seemed to have a cathartic effect on the band. The new album represented a genuine return to form with killer guitar licks, James Hetfield's trademark growling vocals and Ulrich's machine-gun delivery on drums. So when a friend asked me if I wanted a ticket to one of their Melbourne shows, I was only too happy to accept. Even at a cost of $185.
I can now genuinely say it was worth every penny. The opening tracks from "Death Magnetic" were accompanied by a stunning laser display reminiscent of Pink Floyd at their best. Known for mixing up the set from night to night, there was a liberal and quite surprising sprinkling of very old tracks, as well as a cover of Bob Seger's "Turn the Page". The band clearly knew however that some tracks were non-negotiable with the fans and the performance built to its crescendo with "Master of Puppets", "One", "Nothing Else Matters"and "Enter Sandman". My ears were ringing for 2 days after that little lot.
What was perhaps most pleasing though was the largely "no frills" approach to the whole concert. Instead of surrounding themselves with a host of tour musicians like many other big acts have done in the past, it was just the 4 of them up on stage making a heap of noise and registering on average about 250 beats per minute. The perfomance lost none of its effect by not having say a string quartet for "Nothing Else Matters"or a keyboard player. It's a great lesson I think for any up and coming bands of the virtues of Keep It Simple, Stupid.
I was also greatly encouraged by the fact that four 50 year old men can take enough drugs and alcohol to make Keith Richards blush, spend 5 years nearly killing each other and still turn up a couple of years later with a cracking new album and a live show that would smack the likes of Lady Gaga out of the park. Maybe Neil Young was right when he sang "Rock and Roll will never die". Let's hope they come back and visit soon. We need dinosaurs like Metallica roaming the world to remind us of the time when they ruled over everything.
Oh, and one final point - there is a rumour circulating on the internet that Kirk Hammett is gay; after seeing his wife when she came on stage, I am pretty sure that's not the case, but as for the new bass player ...
