TOUR ARCHIVE

Date: 2003-05-22
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: Phil
Setlist: Yes

I flew from Los Angeles to San Francisco at noon and met Chris Lyttle (who actually won the tickets and invited me) in the airport (he flew in from Burbank at around the same time), and we made our way to the hotel, dropped off our stuff and then headed over to Tommy's Joint for a quick bite to eat. We then headed over to The Fillmore and noticed there was no line. We thought that was quite odd... but quickly realized there was a line, it just didn't start at the door. And we followed that line. And followed it. Down the block, around the corner, and half way down that block. We waited there for 2 hours and then finally they started letting us in. While waiting we watched a handful of people get more and more drunk. Once inside we immediately bought shirts and then headed for the stage to get a good spot.

Then we waited another 2 hours at which poing Rob came out and introduced his pick for opening band, Death Angel. These guys were really good. The PA system was really loud. Possibly louder than any other concert I've ever been to. Borderline too loud if there is such a thing. It stayed this loud the entire night. My ears are still ringing. They also let us know they understood we were there for Metallica but appreciated us listening to them. They had a lot of energy and some really great riffs. During their set the crowd got pretty ruff. Some asshole (who would come to be known as "the asshole with the red cap" by the end of the night) went around shoving his way from one side of the audience to the next and back until finally a mosh put started.

After death angel, we waited another hour or so for Metallica. They hit the stage and blew everyone away with Battery. As soon as the boys hit the stage the entire audience crushed in with the force of a stadium-sized crowd. Everyone was being shoved left and right, front and back. It appeared to be just a few drunken assholes who were pissing the rest of us off... red hat asshole was one of them. And the mentality spread until there was atleast 20 or so assholes who managed to continue to piss everyone off most of the might. There were calm parts, but more often then not I spent more of my energy fighting to stay where I was and stay standing than I did enjoying the show, and that kinda sucks.

But that aside, the show rocked. Harvester was a lot of fun, and of course we were all extremely thrilled when they played St. Anger! Both St. Anger and Frantic are just fucking awesome songs and they completely kicked our asses. Blackened and Breadfan where the other two hightlights for me being some of my favorite live songs... but of course with Damage Inc., Ride The Lightning, Bellz, No Remorse, Motorbreath, etc... the setlist rocked so hard that is difficult to narrow it down to highlights.

It was so cool to see the boys so happy, smiling and having fun. After the first break, everyone was chanting the oh-ee-oh from Frayed Ends of Sanity and they boys actually played 30 seconds of it before noting Rob didn't know it - and they all laughed about it. Then after the second break, they started Breadfan 4 times... the first three times James said Kirk's guitar wasn't tuned right and he tried 3 different guitars. The whole time they were laughing about it and having fun. I should point out that James did note at the beginning of the show that this was rehearsal for them. It was great to see them in such high spirits and so at ease with each other. At the end they all put their arms on each others shoulders and stood together and said goodbye.

Special thanks to Chris Lyttle for inviting me!