TOUR ARCHIVE

Date: 2009-05-14
Location: Vienna - Austria [11 shows here]
Venue: Wiener Stadthalle [5 shows here]
Fan reviews: 1 - Add yours!
Author: Phil
Setlist: Yes

Note that this concert was part of a larger trip whose details and pictures you can find here.

I was working tonight but Kyle wasn't, so I left Kyle to head to the concert and he continued on with more sightseeing. When I arrived at the metro stop, there was no sign of a venue. The directions on the website for the venue had only mentioned going to this stop, which usually implies there is either a massive building when you exit the station or signs. However, neither were present.

A few guys wearing Metallica shirts were near by so I asked them if they were heading to the venue and they said yes. After walking a few blocks they realized they were going in the wrong direction and asked someone else for directions, and we then found the right place.

The guys I was with got in the line forming at the front of the venue and I found my way down a side alley and into the venue. I found Jeff and we went through the evening. It seemed I would have to film from the scaffolding that had been erected (they do this when there's no reasonable place for the lighting and pyro guys to sit up in the seats). However, there was a chance he would get me a spot in the press area. Then we looked at the M&G area for the night, and talked about how that would go.

Tonight I was going to be teaching a new guy, Mike, the ropes. He'd be the only guy at an upcoming festival in east Austria and so he needed to be able to do lots of stuff himself. Mike showed up and then Filip - and we briefed them on everything.

Mike, Filip, and I then went to move all the tables and chairs in the M&G room out of the way. Once that was all worked out it was time to go get the M&Gers. We were meeting them in this little cafe area that was attached to the venue - there was a door right next to us that Jeff would open when it was time to bring them in. It was a complicated night for M&Gers. Some guy came up to tell us that due to a large protest two M&Gers would be late - trains, cars, everything was running behind. I called Jeff and told him we should try to go in a bit later tonight.

Then we had a girl named Isabel who had no ID on her. ID is pretty important. She was freaking out because we told her that we didn't know if she'd get back stage.

As we neared the time we were going to go in, the girl admitted that she was not Isabel, but Isabel wasn't sure if she was going to make it in time and told her to go in her place. Apparently Isabel was just parking now and would make it. She nearly didn't, but arrived in time, with ID, and all was well. Fortunately for her we waited an extra 15 minutes before going back that night.

We brought the kids back. As we were nearing the M&G room a girl at the back of the line got a phone call and didn't want to go into the room. When she got off the phone a minute later she said she had to go. I explained that if she left she couldn't come back and she said that was fine. I looked at Jeff who told me to find out what was up while he talked to the rest of the kids. I caught up with her, and apparently, her baby was at home, the babysitter was leaving (!!), and the kid needed to be fed (?!). OK. So I took her M&G pass off of her, walked her to the door, and then went back to the M&G.

As I got back security was telling Jeff that one of the two "going to be late" M&Gers had just arrived and was outside the venue. Jeff had me go and get him. This guy was very lucky. Generally speaking if you miss the time we pick up the M&Gers, you're out of luck. But since there was a protest and the M&G hadn't started yet, Jeff decided to let him in. So I went and got him, Jeff repeated the rules to him, and finally everything was settled.

Unfortunately, the band is also subject to traffic and was very late. We waited over an hour and a half before Rob came in, leaving the M&Gers (and us) a bit restless. Rob came in and I filmed him, planning to trade off with Mike, but before Rob was done James came in, and as Rob was leaving, Kirk came up and started at the opposite side as James. When Rob left I handed the camera to Mike and motioned him to film James.

Those of you who have done a M&G know that we ask before hand if anyone wants to have skin signed. If so, we tell them not to ask Kirk since Kirk doesn't like to sign skin. Tonight, as always, we asked this question, and no one said yes. But Isabel (yes, the same Isabel), asked Kirk to sign her skin. Not only did she not tell us she wanted skin signed, but she happened to only ask the one member who doesn't want to sign skin.

After James and Kirk were gone, we waited about 20 minutes for Lars. One fan had realized that Kirk hadn't signed one of the things he wanted but the rest had (perhaps because James and Kirk crossed paths at him?) and mentioned this to Lars who kindly said he'd get it signed by Kirk - and then handed it to Jeff, heh.

We walked the kids outside, then put the M&G room back the way we found it, and then it was dinner time. Mike wanted to go find his friends, so Filip, Jeff, and I went to catering where we met Zach, and all ate dinner. I hadn't seen Zach since the US, so it was cool to chat with him again and hear stories of tour buses. One particularly fun thing from catering was that they had a Sacher Tort cake shaped in the Metallica logo (old school lightning-letter "Metallica")! Well, it wasn't technically Sacher Tort, I'm sure (the name is quite protected), but it was a good imitation.

I then grabbed the camera and got a setlist and waited for Mike. We went up to the VIP area that Jeff had gotten for us and setup for filming. Some guy decided it would be fun to through a half-full glass of beer, which landed... on me. Well, better than the camera, I suppose.

The show was good; The setlist wasn't anything particularly amazing except for Jump in the Fire which was a nice surprise. It was only the second time I've ever seen it.

Where we were filming that night resulted in us having quite a fight through the crowd - while holding a camera - to get backstage (up stairs, down a long hall, down stairs, then the wrong way down another hall). Finally we got back stage where Kyle and Filip's girlfriend were waiting. We dropped off the camera and such, chatted for a bit, and then headed out.

And here's a video of the row of press people all headbanging here.