TOUR ARCHIVE

Date: 2009-07-16
Location: Zurich - Switzerland [9 shows here]
Venue: Hallenstadion [4 shows here]
Fan reviews: 1 - Add yours!
Author: Phil
Setlist: Yes

I left work mid-afternoon to make it to the venue by 4 since I was working the show. It's the first time in a long time I've worked at my normal job and worked for Metallica on the same day. The concert was in Oerlikon, formerly a separate town, but now an area of Zurich. The train up there takes less than 20 minutes. I took a tram from the train station to the venue, but it was only 2 stops and I could have just as easily walked had I known.

I flashed my badge to the gate attendant, walked through the gated off parking lot with the trucks and found a door backstage. Jeff wasn't in his office so I sent him text and went to chill in catering where I'd be out of the way. Venue security and Chubbs ended up having their meeting at the next table to me and it was interesting hearing how the security for the show gets set up, particularly how things have changed in the last 5 or so years since Metallica was at this venue. In particular, I learned that in the US in most places, they stop selling alcohol a little before Metallica goes on stage (or whatever the main act is) which keeps the numbers of fights and injuries low. However, this doesn't really fly in Europe where people expect alcohol all night light.

Jeff came in with Filip - Dennis wasn't in Zurich due to his bad shoulder. We checked out the M&G area and the filming spot. Two (gorgeous) girls from the record label were there - they had two winners of a local Guitar Hero: Metallica contest coming, plus they had an award to give to the band. After some discussion between Jeff and the ladies about how this would work, Filip and I went off to find the M&Gers.

When we got there two girls frantically asked us if we were with the club; they'd been there two hours and were freaking out that they'd missed the M&G. We explained their email said to meet at 5pm and it was still 4:45pm. We got them calmed down, got them passes and waited for the rest.

The girls from the label showed up to check on their contest winners and I chatted with them a bit about Zurich.

Some guy didn't have a ticket, but managed to acquire one, and another girl had to pick up her ticket from will-call and nearly didn't make it in time. There's always a few.

It was incredibly hot outside and we were standing under the tiny bit of shade waiting to go inside. Finally we headed in, and I took the front of the line this time, and ripped tickets as we let them in the gate.

We took them to the room and lined them up. Again I filmed all 4 meet-n-greets. Rob came and left without much interesting going on. Kirk came in a few minutes later and when he was about 3/4 way through the room James came in and started at the other end. When Kirk had only 2 people left (I was still filming him), Lars came in and stuck his face right next to mine and said "What are you doing?"

I was concentrating on Kirk and hadn't notice Lars getting right next to me so this startled me... but I managed to respond.

"Filming Kirk"
"What is he doing?"
"Talking to that fan"
"Is it interesting?"
"Yes"
"What's that mean?" he asked about a light in the display
"Um, that it's recording?"
"Isn't that this other one?"
"Oh, that means it's recording to an SD card"

But he had lost interest half way through my sentence and moved on.
One of the first guys Lars spoke to had a German kid's book he wanted Lars to sign and Lars spend a few minutes reading it out loud to see how good his German was. He also managed to speak German to a few folks.

James and Lars intersected about a third of the way from Lars' side and from here I followed James back the way I'd just come with Lars. A few minutes later I heard Lars yelling, "heilige scheisse!" which is German for "holy shit!" and I knew I should have continued following Lars... but I wanted to get at least some of James.

When James was done I ran back over to Lars to catch any further antics, but nothing that noteworthy happened after that.

When Lars finally left my arms were exhausted; I hadn't had a break between Kirk and James or James and Lars.

Filip took the winners out onto the floor and I went to drop off the camera. Then I met Jeff and Filip for dinner in catering. I got to hear about how at the previous show in Madrid, after the tape intro for One, James started Fade To Black instead of One! They had to quickly cancel the pyro, switch the lights, and the entire crew hustled to adjust. Oops!

Being my hometown I had some friends at the show so I headed out to find them and hang out for a bit. I found Kyle and Crystal, brought them some water, and then showed them a better place to stand. Max, Nida and Ashish were already over by the less crowded area, so eventually I had everyone all in one place. We hung out for a bit and I got everyone water before heading backstage to get ready.

I picked up the camera, tripod, and setlist and then headed back to the floor. I had a few extra minutes so I stopped by my friends to see if they wanted a sneak-peak at the setlist (they were very excited to). The setlist said "One (NOT Fade To Black)" and I explained to them why, and they were highly entertained. But it was time for me to go and set up.

Tonight I was between the lights and the pyro - a common place to film from. But it was unbelievably hot tonight. It was ridiculous. All tour we'd been in hot places, but tonight the whole crew was fanning themselves and complaining. It was almost as if there was a heater on on-top of the heat of the crowd and the day.

Eventually Metallica hit the stage. Unlike the previous show I saw in Zurich, the crowd was loud tonight. Zurich in '08 was the quietest, most mellow crowd I'd ever seen at a Metallica show (after all "loud" isn't typically "Swiss"). But this year was totally different. The crowd was louder than any show I'd seen on this tour - they sang with all their might and I was proud to live in Zurich!

They played an awesome set! Zurich got Harvester of Sorrow, Holier Than Thou, Turn The Page, Dyers Eve and Stone Cold Crazy! They also got All Nightmare Long which even though it's became fairly common at this point in the tour, I still find an amazing live song!

The band really seemed to be in top-form tonight. Maybe it was the volume of the crowd or maybe it was just my imagination, but tonight was one of my favorite performances of this tour.

After the show I dropped off the camera and Jeff asked me to hang around after he let Filip go. It was my last night on tour and he arranged for me to get a purple crew shirt to match the (at-the-time 7-year-running) purple theme of IPOM! I was blown away. Thanks again Jeff!

I said goodbye and thanks to everyone and then headed out. I met up with my friends, handed out a few picks and we decided to get some food. Our first stop was a restaurant called Cheyenne, but it wasn't serving food, so we left there and sat down at another restaurant which was just closing. Finally we settled for McDonald's.

After food we took a train back to the Zurich main station, and I walked the 20 minute walk to the office (trams were no longer running, and the office is half way home) where my bicycle was, and then rode the rest of the way home.