Have I been ever that excited? I don’t think so. A concert that started by Hit the Lights and ended with Seek and Destroy, you can only imagine the rest.
Thousands of people were wearing Metallica t-shirts and waiting at the gate. Again, Flash Entertainment impresses me with their organization and disciplines. EYE, a progressive rock band, was the opening act for Metallica. Although I’d expected an awesome show from them, since I saw them two years ago opening for Anathema, they failed me. Their music wasn’t as good as I expected. The only attention-grabber was when the vocalist sang through a megaphone, which was interesting. The vocalist tried to tease the audience with jokes but all the people around me were poker-faced.
About an hour after EYE left the stage Metallica showed up with Hit the lights. I don’t really need to elaborate how crazy people went. I was smashed between 30,000 people head banging and mosh pitting. I wasn’t a huge fan of James Hetfield but he was incredibly funny on stage, saying how they liked being in Abu Dhabi once more! Without saying what their next track was, they started Master of Puppets, it doesn’t need a genius to say what the track was! Metallica performed 18 different tracks from various albums. You can find the complete set list here.
When people used to tell me how Kirk Hammett abuses the wah-wah pedal, I didn’t pay attention to them. But now that I was there, I got the point. He barely moved from his place, while Hetfield and Trujillo were jumping all over the stage.
People were mosh-pitting like crazy on Harvester of Sorrow, then The Unforgiven started and somehow – we don’t know how that happened – the whole general admission turned into couples that were hugging, and lighters in the air. But over 30,000 people singing definitely gave me the chills.
Metallica played some of their heaviest tracks in between, the atmosphere was rocking and the weather was humid! James said a few jokes every now and then, and Lars Ulrich was such an ass! I was a huge fan, but he had a bad attitude on stage. Why Lars? Why?!
Fade to Black was beautifully played and beautifully displayed. The screens showed them in black and white and shifted smoothly between them. Orion came after and Kirk and James exchanged solos. One literally made the whole crowd lose control. Everyone was having a blast and enjoying singing and head banging until that one moment. Nothing Else Matters beautifully started and everyone was cheering, when Kirk slipped. Everyone was shocked, but James saved the moment with his sense of humor “Kirk is too old to play his song, let’s cheer him up everyone!” And fortunately regained grip!
It was only 11:30 when James announced it’s almost over – Are you kidding me? – It didn’t even feel close to midnight! However, they entertained us with their final encore tracks that included Creeping Death, Fight Fire With Fire and finally Seek and Destroy.
Before they left, James, Lars and Robert threw lots of picks on their audience and Lars threw drumsticks. Obviously, only the people who were standing in the front got them. No, I’m not upset or anything.
It was an amazing concert. It might not have been the most perfect concert that I attend professionally, but hey! I saw Metallica live!
