TOUR ARCHIVE

Date: 2003-05-18
Location: San Francisco, CA - United States [68 shows here]
Venue: The Fillmore [8 shows here]
Info: MetClub only show
Fan reviews: 1 - Add yours!
Author: Lana
Setlist: Yes

Such a great weekend for me, that was. So much shit happened for the first time there. I'll first point out that this was my first Metallica show, and it would be my first time going to San Francisco, and it would be my first time turning 15 (yes, my birthday is on May 19th). And I got to miss a day or two of testing. But, I liked the way I first found out that I won the tickets. I still checked my e-mail to see if I won, but when they said that they had informed everyone if they got it or not, and I checked but there was nothing. So I shrugged and went on because I didn't expect to win anyway. But then I checked the site a couple days later and said they would have a round two of winners. And sure enough I got an e-mail that said, "Congratulations! You are a round two winner. You have won two tickets to see Metallica at the Fillmore on May 18th", and holy crap I fucking shit myself. I was so happy I was running around and all hyper for weeks. All my friends were very jealous and that's always fun. And it was also cool because I didn't have to pay for the plane ticket and hotel, because my parents bought them for me (birthday present). I ended up taking my dad with me because I figured you would have to take a parent if you were a minor, but when I got there they said you only had to have someone over 18 with you, so that bummed me out because I would have taken a friend. Well, it would have been hard deciding so I guess I'm glad I took my dad so I didn't have to make a decision like that.

So, finally, the day came to fly up to S.F., we arrived a day before and checked into the hotel and rented a car and all that good stuff. The day of the concert we got there at about 12 o' clock in the afternoon, I was like the 20th person in line and so we waited there for a while and watched more and more people arrive. I talked to a lot of cool people all around me. I was sitting right next to the Chapter heads of Norcallica; they were really cool. It was really funny just watching everybody doing their thing before the show. Lots of very strange people. There was a bus stop right where we had to line up (the post office next to the Fillmore). And I guess there was some convention going on or something because every once in a while when the bus would stop to drop off people, about 10 or 15 people dressed up as Elvis Prestly or in Hawaiian clothing would get off the bus, it was really funny. And there were a lot of people trying to sell the people in line weird stuff like home made donuts and all this shit. There was also this other guy that came over to where the Chapter heads and me were sitting, and he had this really big bag of KFC, and he kept offering all of us his chicken and some candy. Well, that's downtown San Francisco for you I guess.

Things got really great when the boys started to arrive. It was really funny. Rob, I think, was the first to arrive and he rolled up in this tinted, black, expensive-looking car. Then I think Lars came next in the same kind of car with the tinted windows and everything. But Kirk drove up in a beat-up, old, white (un tinted), rickety car. And he even unpacked his own stuff. I thought that was really funny. (Right on Kirk!) So anyways, they were late letting people in, they said 5pm I think but didn't start until 6:30pm. I got second row in between James' mic and Rob's mic and I stood next to this dude that I talked to outside. He was really funny, he could do a perfect impression of James' YEAH's and he was saying them throughout the whole time waiting, it was great. And that's pretty much what went on inside before the show. Our opening band was CKY. I already knew who they were because some friends watch the movies they make, and so I sort of knew them beforehand. I thought they were really good, I don't know how their albums are, but in concert they were AWESOME. There were two singers, and the lead guitarist (one of the singers) would throw his guitar around and put it up in the air, the bassist would do it sometimes too. I thought it was really cool that they didn't care at all that everyone in the room were hardcore Metallica fans, and they just did their own thing on stage sometimes trying to fire us up by saying "Your at a fucking Metallica show, baby!" and it was just really awesome that they weren't intimidated at all by us (every person in the room was wearing some kind of Metallica shirt). At the end of their set, the bassist picked up a huge bottle of Jack Daniels and took one sip, then filled up his mouth again with it and spit it all over the crowd, including me, it got all over me and everyone in the first 4 or so rows. So their set was almost an hour long, and it took about another hour for the crew to get Metallica's shit together. But finally, at about 9pm, I saw little ol' lars come out on stage with a cup of water, and nodded at the crowd, and passed his water down to, Chris (the guy that was doing the YEAH's) and he let me have some of it. It was GOOD water. Yuuuuum, I guess I have a little of Lars in me now. So they played the fuck out of Hit the Lights, then immediately went into Horsemen. A lot of really great moments during the set. Some memorable ones were just watching them having fun and fucking around on stage. Lars kept, jokingly, messing up on Sad But True because he said he was so used to playing Frantic (the song they played right before), and after Sad But True, they started to play Phantom Lord, but then they said. "HOLD IT! We forgot to teach Rob the fucking song!" But then they played it and it was fucking awesome. The third song they played was Harvester. Chris let me get in his spot right in front on the bar. So during Harvester, I was singing every fucking word, and Kirk came around to where I was and he looked right at me and sang with me. I'll say one thing for sure, and that is: Kirk is MUCH hotter when he's smiling, looking at you straight in eyes and singing right to you when he's five feet away from you. That was one of the greatest moments of the whole day. Another cool moment was during Frantic. I knew all the words because I taped the mtvICON and I watched it over and over again and eventually memorized the words. James kept looking at me and smiling because I was the only one singing. And during one of the encore things where they go off the stage, I shook his hand. James went all the way to the left of the stage and started slapping people's hands. Then he got to me and I put my hand out as far as I could and he grabbed on really tight to my hand and he looked right at me, gave me a HUGE Het smile, then, while still holding my hand, he shook his other fist at the crowd, and looked back down at me and smiled again then walked off the stage. That was probably the best thing that ever happened to me in my whole life. And so all the other songs were incredible, I also especially enjoyed Leper Messiah and Fade to Black.

And so we left when it was over, I was fucking beside myself. I don't think it really hit me until the next morning on the plane. I would've stopped by Tommy's but our plane was an early flight so we couldn't go. My dad said he had a blast. He hadn't been to a concert since the 70's; the last one was Jimi Hendrix. So I had a great time and that was probably the all-time greatest birthday I ever had (well actually, I slept thorough the actual day of my birthday). So I can't wait until spring tour because they will hopefully have some more clubber shows.