Craving Dopamine

June 10, 2025 by njnonconformist 3 Comments

I was working from home the day before I was to attend the first of two Metallica M72 World Tour concerts in Philadelphia. I was trying to focus on getting through the workday so I could get ready to split in the morning. I got the alert that I won two Snake Pit passes through the Metclub contest and my mind went blank.

The best email I ever received in my life

“HOLY CRAP! I finally won one of these contests!”

“HOLY CRAP! I’m going to be in the Snake Pit tomorrow for the show!”

“HOLY CRAP! I need to pick somebody to come with me! What am I going to do?”

The M72 World Tour stage is shaped like a donut in the middle of a football stadium. The Snake Pit is the donut hole. If you are in the Snake Pit, you are immersed in the performance all night. I spent two nights in the Snake Pit in Madrid in 2024 and was blown away by the experience. I could not believe that I would be there again the next night. But I had to pick only one of my friends.

As I explained to them, they were all my favorite. But in 2017, Pooch scored us Snake Pit passes for Metallica in Montreal, and I have always felt like I was beholden to him since. I called him and offered him the pass, which he quickly accepted so that problem was solved.

With that dilemma solved, I was able to focus on the weekend ahead. I’ve been following the Metallica M72 World Tour since 2023, and these would be my first shows of 2025. I was excited to get back on the road.

May 23, 2025

I had a grandiose plan to ride my motorcycle to Philadelphia so I could enjoy a scenic ride back on Memorial Day along the Delaware River. Those hopes were dashed when I woke up to rain and cold that showed little sign of letting up. I also had a work emergency which ate into my day so there was no time to load the bike. I was bummed but was not going to let it ruin my weekend. I traded the excitement of my Harley for the comfort of my relatively uninteresting car.

I could have written a blog about how awful the traffic was from the moment I left my house in Hudson County, NJ until I got to Lincoln Financial Field, but you would not want to read it. By the time I got there, I felt like I ran a marathon. But we all managed to check into our hotels and since I had the car, I told the group I would be the designated driver. I grabbed Joe, Pooch, and Lefty and we made it to the show.

The Friday Night Crew before we split up

It was a bummer to have to split off from the rest of the crew. Lefty and Joe went into ham-and-egger general admission to meet up with Ed and Rita. Bobby was already somewhere along the rail; he lined up early to secure his spot. Pooch and I grabbed our Snake Pit wristbands from the box office and quickly made our way inside. We missed the first opening act, Ice Nine Kills. No big deal, they are not my favorite act on this tour.

I paused for a moment on my way into the Snake Pit. It is a bit of an overwhelming experience to begin with. But I especially enjoy walking past the losers on the other side of the general admission barrier knowing that I will have a much better view than they will. I sensed their jealousy. Granted, I would have been one of those losers had I not won the contest, but they didn’t know that.

I quickly found Chris and his stepson inside the Snake Pit. Chris cashed up and bought his way in. They picked a spot along the inside wall near where one of the four drum kits would pop up during the Metallica set.

Without much delay, Limp Bizkit hit the stage. This was my first time seeing them since July 8, 2023 when they opened for Metallica at Giants Stadium. This lineup was mostly original with a grey-bearded Fred Durst, accompanied by Wes Borland, Sam Rivers, DJ Lethal, and John Otto. We were standing right in front of Borland’s guitar rig.

Limp Bizkit is one of those bands that the cool kids did not want to admit they liked in the early 2000’s. But I never cared, I thought their tunes were catchy and I was excited to see them again. Durst sounded great and they played through their classics with intensity.

Not too long into the show, it unexpectedly started to pour. The road crew attempted to put a canopy over DJ Lethal and his equipment but appeared to fail and gave up. His stuff got soaked and apparently ruined. He unplugged everything, gave it to the fans, and eventually jumped into the Snake Pit to mosh with us. I got to high-five him.

When Limp Bizkit finished, things got real in my mind. It was my first time seeing Metallica in nearly nine months and not only was my wait about to end, but I was going to be surrounded by them all night.

This is when my Snake Pit strategy came into play. I was in the pit twice in Madrid in 2024 so I have a good feel for how things work inside and how to maximize the experience.

Metallica plays 15 songs per night, and there are 4 drumkits, one for each quadrant of the stage. The band roams the whole stage throughout the show, but most of the action takes place near the drums. They play four songs in the first quadrant, four in the second, three in the third, and four in the fourth. In a regular general admission concert setup, there is a crush of people in front of the stage. But since there is no front of this stage inside the circle, there is no singular crowded spot so you can move around. Therefore, I wanted to plant myself in front of all four drumkits before they popped up before people crowded them.

My original instinct told me we were in the wrong spot and standing in front of the third drumkit. Pooch was happy where we were and didn’t want to move. I told him I was going to the other side of the stage and that I’d find him. But when I got to the other side, I asked security, and they told me that side was the third drumkit. I immediately made it back to Pooch and Chris and told them that this must be the right spot for the first drumkit. Since my sources were not 100% reliable, I was very nervous for the rest of the break in between sets. I really did not want to screw this up.

The lights went off and AC/DC’s “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock and Roll)” blasted over the insane PA system Metallica uses for their stadium tour. It was time! AC/DC transitioned into “Eecstacy of Gold”, the traditional opening song for Metallica concerts. Much to my relief, a trap door opened in front of us and I caught sight of Jimmy Clark, Lars Ulrich’s drum tech being lifted on to the stage along with the drums. We got it right. We were about eight feet away from drums!

In a flash, Metallica took the stage and Lars counted in “Creeping Death”. The rest of the band huddled close to him and tore into the song. The crowd was screaming and jumping up and down. We were so close to the drums, we could hear them over the PA. It was bedlam.

We were just a few feet from the band when the show started

You can’t get closer to Metallica than the Snake Pit

Metallica was fired up as they ripped through the first song. They quickly transitioned into the slower but just as heavy “Harvester of Sorrow” and followed that with the deeper cut “Holier Than Thou”. They were moving at a blistering pace and had the entire stadium hanging on every note. With a quick pause to introduce “King Nothing”, I knew it was time to find the next spot.

Chris from his spot in the Snake Pit with James in the background

Chris elected to stay put, but Pooch and I pushed towards the second quadrant and found it with relative ease. “King Nothing” ended and the second drumkit popped up right in front of us and the band followed for two newer songs, “72 Seasons” and “If Darkness Had a Son”. The latter was made to be played live with James Hetfield prompting the crowd to chant “temptation!” repeatedly.

James sat on a chair for the intro to the “Death Magnetic” epic “The Day That Never Comes”. Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo huddled close throughout the long instrumental parts of the song, and the band was in a zone.

James playing the intro to “The Day That Never Comes”

By my count, it was time to think about the next move. Before the band could start “Cyanide”, Pooch and I had rushed towards the third drumkit. We had to sacrifice being close to Lars on this song, but it would pay off when the next song hit. Once again, we were mere feet away from the band and just in time for “Orion”, the greatest heavy metal instrumental song ever written.

The band stayed closest to each other during this song. Being within feet of Metallica playing one of their greatest songs is like having had the opportunity to watch Leonardo da Vinci paint.

Our view of the third drumkit while the band played “Orion”

Watching Metallica play “Orion” from this close is a near-religious experience

Next up were two more “Black Album” concert standards, “Nothing Else Matters” and “Sad But True”. About the time I wanted to depart for the fourth drumkit, James was standing right in the spot. I started to panic, there was no way we could make it to the front if everybody was looking right at him. Eventually I said we should go and figure it out on the way. Then I looked up and saw Robert being pushed through the Snake Pit on a mobile platform, and he was coming right at us! I looked up at Robert as he looked down at me, I couldn’t believe my luck. Pooch instinctively ducked behind the platform as it moved because it parted the crowd and gave us a path right to where we wanted to be for the fourth drumkit. We made our own luck this time.

With four songs to go, I was happy with how we progressed. We nailed the spot for all four drumkits and had the best Snake Pit experience out of anybody there! At the end of “Fight Fire With Fire” Kirk threw one of his picks and it hit me in the right ear. It stuck to my jacket and the guy behind me handed it to me. I would have kept it if I was him.

Our spot for the final four songs of the show

Metallica rounding out their set right in front of us

The set rounded out with pyrotechnics during “Fuel”, a beach ball drop during “Seek and Destroy”, and a frenzied rendition of “Master of Puppets”. Metallica owned Lincoln Financial Field that night.

May 24, 2025

One of the many cool things about the two-night schedule for the M72 World Tour is that it leaves a gap on Saturday. It is even cooler if you are visiting a city that you wouldn’t normally be in and you have your friends with you.

Unfortunately, Ed and Bobby couldn’t stick around on Saturday, but Joe, Lefty, and Pooch were ready to go. I was especially happy to have Pooch there, he is known for his PhD-level research of things to do when travelling, with a focus on breweries and restaurants.

We met at The Butcher Bar on Chestnut Street or brunch. It is probably not a coincidence that Pooch picked a place with bottomless brunch drinks.

To avoid making it a messy all-day drink fest, we planned a bit of sight-seeing and spontaneous exercise following brunch. We walked to The Philadelphia Art Museum to visit The Rocky Statue. Someone had the idea that we should run the steps. We all made it up without having a coronary. All the time I spent at my local gym was worth it.

After we triumphantly conquered the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum, we took the obligatory picture in front of the Rocky statue.

Proud of our accomplishments, we walked south on the scenic Benjamin Franklin Parkway to Victory Brewing. I tend to be a Pabst Blue Ribbon and Miller Lite guy, so I was a bit lost. Pooch was already well versed in their offerings, so I asked him to fill out a flight order for me. They started off OK, but the flavor fell off a cliff on the last two. They didn’t convince me to be a craft beer guy.

Dressed in my Metallica shirt, several people at the bar asked if I was at the show the previous night. I’m not sure who would walk around Philadelphia in a Metallica shirt the day after they played there and have not attended the concert, but I answered their stupid questions in the affirmative anyway. They all said something like “I thought about it but didn’t go”. Talk about people who make really, really, really bad life decisions in this town.

But every time one of them asked me about the show, I could not help but picture Metallica right in front of me. It was my 39^th Metallica concert and I was still just as stoked as ever to have seen them and could not get over how good they were and how amazing the Snake Pit experience was. It really made me realize how appreciative I was to have had that experience. I made sure to let each one of those idiots know that they completely blew it.

We left Victory and made a few more stops. First was at a rooftop bar for some cocktails. Then we went to Barcade Philadelphia. Barcade is a small chain of bars that has rows of retro video games and pinball machines. A friend of ours, Brian, happens to be the manager there so it was cool to see him. Another lucky way Metallica brings us all together.

Barcade had the wrong band’s pinball machine. It was fun anyway.

At dinner time and Pooch directed us to Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse. Pooch is a big rodizio guy, so it was no surprise he wanted to go there. The waiters aggressively carved grilled meats on our plates, it was very intense. I flipped my stop/go card to the red side after I ate what felt like 17 pounds of beef.

Our last stop of the night day was a heavy metal bar called Doom that Pooch found. It was very spacious and was outfitted in gothic décor. There was custom stained glass and original art on the walls. There was one major flaw, however. The music they were playing was so obscure that we couldn’t identify it using Shazam. It was Metallica weekend in Philadelphia and there were only a handful of people there. Not a good showing for the only heavy metal bar in town. It looked like they had a good idea when they built it, but their execution was poor, and it did not catch on. It was worth checking out, but I would not recommend it.

May 25, 2025

I got a call from Bobby that he was in town and on the line for the Metallica pop up store. I drove over and cut in line next to him, saving myself about 45 minutes. These stores are very popular and often difficult to get in to. I grabbed three t-shirts and a license plate cover because I don’t have enough Metallica stuff already.

Me and Bobby outside of the greatest store in Philadelphia history

We finished our shopping excursion, and Pooch told us to meet him and Lefty at Yards Brewing. I was shocked that he picked another brewery! I never drink on Metallica days so I couldn’t partake in another crappy flight, but everyone else seemed to enjoy their beers.

The culinary highlight of the trip came next. We made the short walk to Del Rossi’s Cheesesteak & Pizza Co. for cheesesteaks. I’ve had a handful of Philadelphia cheesesteaks in my day, but this one was my favorite. Great bread and great cheddar cheese made the sandwich perfect.

Cheesesteaks usually do not photograph well, but this one was a 10/10

Pooch and Lefty wanted to hit a distillery, so I went back to the hotel to grab my stuff and check out before heading back to the stadium for the final time. I didn’t miss much, Pooch later told me that each successive taste of whiskey in his flight tasted more and more like turpentine. Even PhD’s have errors in their research sometimes.

We met up and took an Uber to the stadium. Pooch, Lefty, and Joe wanted to grab some beers at Victory Brewing at the Xfinity Center entertainment complex outside the stadium. I wanted to catch Suicidal Tendencies, the first opening act so I went in early. I said hi to Sue, Ned, and Colleen who were on the rail already.

I visited Ned and Colleen near their spot on the rail

Then I found Bobby who was dutifully lined up close to the rail on the side of the stage. It was a bit of a bummer being reduced to ham-and-egger general admission status for this show, but I was stoked regardless. We had a good spot, and I was going to make the most of it.

Suicidal Tendencies now features a rhythm section of Jay Weinberg on drums, and Robert Trujillo’s son, Tye Trujillo on bass. During the show, we noticed that Robert was watching the show from one of the Lux Æterna platforms on the far side of the stage. It must have been a proud moment for him as a father and a former bass player for Suicidal Tendencies. It was a fun show and Suicidal played all their hits. I could see Chris in the Snake Pit directly across from me and we had fun taking pictures of each other and sending them back and forth.

After the ST set ended, Pooch, Lefty, and Joe came in and met up with Ed. Unfortunately, too many people surrounded me and Bobby by that time, and they were not able to get very close to us. Pantera hit the stage and people started to mosh behind us. It was a lot of fun, it reminded me of seeing the original Pantera lineup in the late 1990’s. I always love watching Zakk Wylde play, he is one of my favorite musicians.

The hour-long wait between Pantera and Metallica always feels like it is a day long. But when AC/DC hit the PA, it felt like we were hit by lightning. Metallica took the stage and started with the 1-2 punch of “Whiplash” and “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. They always hit the stage and sprint out of the gate. I never understood how they can get so fired up so quickly.

In my third year of following this tour, I pretty much always know what song is coming next. But the lack of suspense never dulls my excitement for the classics like “Ride the Lightning” and “The Memory Remains” which followed. Metallica played an extended outro at the end of the latter which I had never seen live. It looked like something they improvised.

We were on the side of the stage where the final two drumkits would pop up. We stood in front of Robert Trujillo’s rig and bass tech, so he spent a lot of time in front of us between songs.

Robert Trujillo’s side of the stage was right in front of us

When the drums made it to our side of the stage for the second half of the show, we had our best views of the evening. They started with “The Call of Ktulu”, an instrumental on par with “Orion”. The band stuck together like they normally do for that song and looked like they were having a blast playing it. I think that is one of the things that make these M72 concerts so great. Since Metallica is in the round, they can’t hide anything. You can sense their genuine enjoyment throughout the night.

Not quite the Snake Pit, but close enough

The final songs of the night battered our senses with fire, fireworks, beach balls, and loudness. They played through hits, finishing up with “One” and the anthemic “Enter Sandman”. I was completely drained.

We huddled up and took the subway back to the hotel. Since I couldn’t ride my motorcycle as originally planned, I just drove home after the show. It wasn’t quite the ending to the weekend I was looking for, but my spirits were high. I got everything else I wanted out of the weekend. Time spent with friends in a fun city, and 30 unique songs from The Greatest Band of All Time.

Next up for me is a trip to Houston for a one night-only stop at NRG Stadium. A friend of a friend scored us Snake Pit tickets, so it is going to be worth the quick trip.

My M72 World Tour Itinerary

	Show #	Date	Venue	City
Complete	1	5/17/2023	Stade de France	Saint-Denis, France
	2	5/19/2023	Stade de France	Saint-Denis, France
	3	8/4/2023	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ
	4	8/6/2023	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ
	5	8/11/2023	Stade Olympique	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
	6	8/13/2023	Stade Olympique	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
	7	9/1/2023	State Farm Stadium	Glendale, AZ
	8	7/12/2024	Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano	Madrid, Spain
	9	7/14/2024	Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano	Madrid, Spain
	10	8/2/2024	Gilette Stadium	Foxborough, MA
	11	8/4/2024	Gilette Stadium	Foxborough, MA
	12	5/23/2025	Lincoln Financial Field	Philadelphia, PA
	13	5/25/2025	Lincoln Financial Field	Philadelphia, PA
Upcoming	14	6/14/2025	NRG Stadium	Houston, TX
	15	6/27/2027	Empower Field at Mile High	Denver, CO
	16	6/29/2027	Empower Field at Mile High	Denver, CO

My lifetime Metallica concert history

Show #	ShowDate	VenueDescription	City	Tour/Event	VantagePoint
1	4/8/1992	Brendan Byrne Arena	East Rutherford, NJ	Wherever We May Roam	Seats
2	7/17/1998	Giants Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	Poor Retouring Me	Seats
3	11/24/1998	Roseland Ballroom	New York, NY	Garage Barrage	General Admission
4	11/23/1999	Madison Square Garden	New York, NY	S&M	Seats
5	7/20/2000	Giants Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	Summer Sanitarium	General Admission
6	7/8/2003	Giants Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	Summer Sanitarium 2003	General Admission
7	4/20/2004	Nassau Coliseum	Uniondale, NY	Madly In Anger With The World	General Admission
8	10/22/2004	Continental Airlines Arena	East Rutherford, NJ	Madly In Anger With The World	General Admission
9	1/17/2009	Wachovia Center	Philadelphia, PA	World Magnetic	Seats
10	1/31/2009	Prudential Center	Newark, NJ	World Magnetic	General Admission
11	2/1/2009	Prudential Center	Newark, NJ	World Magnetic	Seats
12	11/14/2009	Madison Square Garden	New York, NY	World Magnetic	General Admission
13	11/15/2009	Madison Square Garden	New York, NY	World Magnetic	Seats
14	9/14/2011	Yankee Stadium	New York, NY	The Big 4	General Admission
15	6/23/2012	Bader Field	Atlantic City, NJ	Orion Music + More	General Admission
16	6/24/2012	Bader Field	Atlantic City, NJ	Orion Music + More	General Admission
17	5/12/2017	Lincoln Financial Field	Philadelphia, PA	Worldwired	General Admission
18	5/14/2017	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	Worldwired	General Admission
19	5/17/2017	The New Coliseum Presented by NYCV	Uniondale, NY	Worldwired	General Admission
20	7/19/2017	Parc Jean-Drapeau	Montreal, QC	Worldwired	Snake Pit
21	10/20/2018	Bryce Jordan Center	State College, PA	Worldwired	General Admission
22	10/25/2018	Wells Fargo Center	Philadelphia, PA	Worldwired	General Admission
23	9/6/2019	Chase Center	San Francisco, CA	S&M2	Seats
24	9/24/2021	Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center	Louisville, KY	Louder Than Life	General Admission
25	9/25/2021	Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center	Louisville, KY	Louder Than Life	General Admission
26	5/29/2022	Harvard Athletic Complex	Boston, MA	Boston Calling	General Admission
27	8/11/2022	Highmark Stadium	Buffalo, NY	(none)	General Admission
28	5/17/2023	Stade de France	Saint-Dennis, FR	M72 World Tour	Seats
29	5/19/2023	Stade de France	Saint-Dennis, FR	M72 World Tour	Seats
30	8/4/2023	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	M72 World Tour	General Admission
31	8/6/2023	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	M72 World Tour	General Admission
32	8/11/2023	Stade Olympique	Montreal, QC	M72 World Tour	General Admission
33	8/13/2023	Stade Olympique	Montreal, QC	M72 World Tour	General Admission
34	9/1/2023	State Farm Stadium	Glendale, AZ	M72 World Tour	General Admission
35	7/12/2024	Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano	Madrid, ES	M72 World Tour	Snake Pit
36	7/14/2024	Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano	Madrid, ES	M72 World Tour	Snake Pit
37	8/2/2024	Gillette Stadium	Foxborough, MA	M72 World Tour	General Admission
38	8/4/2024	Gillette Stadium	Foxborough, MA	M72 World Tour	General Admission
39	5/23/2025	Lincoln Financial Field	Philadelphia, PA	M72 World Tour	Snake Pit
40	5/25/2025	Lincoln Financial Field	Philadelphia, PA	M72 World Tour	General Admission

Link to YouTube playlist of all official Metallica concert videos I have been present for.

Metallica songs I have seen performed on the M72 World Tour

Song	Times Seen
Creeping Death	7
Fuel	7
Harvester Of Sorrow	7
Lux Æterna	7
Nothing Else Matters	7
Orion	7
Sad But True	7
Seek and Destroy	7
72 Seasons	6
Enter Sandman	6
For Whom The Bell Tolls	6
If Darkness Had A Son	6
King Nothing	6
Master of Puppets	6
Moth Into Flame	6
One	6
Ride The Lightning	6
The Call of Ktulu	6
The Day That Never Comes	6
Wherever I May Roam	6
Fade To Black	5
Shadows Follow	5
The Unforgiven	5
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)	5
Whiplash	5
Battery	4
Blackened	4
Holier Than Thou	4
Too Far Gone?	4
Whiskey In The Jar	4
Cyanide	3
Hardwired	3
Screaming Suicide	3
The Memory Remains	3
You Must Burn!	3
Fight Fire With Fire	2
Inamorata	2
Leper Messiah	2
Until It Sleeps	2
Dirty Window	1
I Disappear	1
No Leaf Clover	1
Sleepwalk My Life Away	1
Unique:	43
Total:	200

All Metallica songs I have seen performed live

Song	Times Seen
Nothing Else Matters	32
Enter Sandman	31
One	31
Sad But True	31
Master of Puppets	30
Seek and Destroy	28
For Whom The Bell Tolls	25
Creeping Death	23
Fade To Black	20
Fuel	19
Wherever I May Roam	17
Blackened	15
Moth Into Flame	15
Battery	14
Ride The Lightning	14
The Unforgiven	14
Harvester Of Sorrow	13
The Day That Never Comes	13
Whiplash	13
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)	12
The Memory Remains	11
Hardwired	10
Holier Than Thou	10
Cyanide	9
King Nothing	9
The Call of Ktulu	9
Fight Fire With Fire	8
Orion	8
Whiskey In The Jar	8
Lux Æterna	7
Now That We’re Dead	7
72 Seasons	6
Atlas, Rise!	6
If Darkness Had A Son	6
No Leaf Clover	6
The Four Horsemen	6
All Nightmare Long	5
Broken, Beat And Scarred	5
Halo On Fire	5
Of Wolf and Man	5
Shadows Follow	5
That Was Just Your Life	5
The End Of The Line	5
Breadfan	4
Hit The Lights	4
Last Caress	4
Too Far Gone?	4
Until It Sleeps	4
I Disappear	3
Screaming Suicide	3
St. Anger	3
The God That Failed	3
Through the Never	3
Turn The Page	3
You Must Burn!	3
Am I Evil?	2
Bleeding Me	2
Blitzkrieg	2
Die, Die My Darling	2
Dirty Window	2
Don’t Tread On Me	2
Frantic	2
Inamorata	2
Last Caress/Green Hell	2
Leper Messiah	2
Motorbreath	2
My Friend Of Misery	2
Overkill	2
The Outlaw Torn	2
The Shortest Straw	2
The Struggle Within	2
The Thing That Should Not Be	2
Trapped Under Ice	2
– Human	1
(Anesthesia) – Pulling Teeth	1
…And Justice For All	1
All Within My Hands	1
Confusion	1
Damage Inc.	1
Devil’s Dance	1
Disposable Heroes	1
Dyers Eve	1
Escape	1
Hell And Back	1
Helpless	1
Hero of the Day	1
Iron Foundry	1
Jump In The Fire	1
Justice Medley	1
Killing Time	1
Last Caress/So What/Die, Die My Darling	1
Low Man’s Lyric	1
Mastertarium	1
Mercyful Fate	1
Metal Militia	1
My Apocalypse	1
No Remorse	1
Phantom Lord	1
Sabbra Cadabra	1
Sleepwalk My Life Away	1
Small Hours	1
So What	1
Spit Out The Bone	1
Stone Cold Crazy	1
The Ecstasy of Gold	1
The Judas Kiss	1
The Prince	1
The Unforgiven III	1
The Wait	1
Unique:	109
Total:	684

Filed Under: Metallica Tagged With: 72 Seasons, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich, Limp Bizkit, M72 World Tour, Metallica, Pantera, Philadelphia, Robert Trujillo, Suicidal Tendencies, Travel

No Mercy from the Ghost Within

December 31, 2024 by njnonconformist 1 Comment

A diary of my trip to Foxborough to see Metallica on the M72 World Tour in August 2024.

My final stop on the Metallica M72 World Tour was in Foxborough, Massachusetts. It was an easy decision to pick Foxborough as a destination because it was easily drivable from home in New Jersey. Anytime Metallica plays a drivable concert for me, I buy tickets and go.

I put together a group of friends to spend the weekend in Boston and go to both shows. There was no rain in the forecast for Thursday or Monday so instead of driving, I readied my motorcycle and plotted a scenic route to Boston. I could not ask more for a long early-August weekend: spending time with friends, taking a motorcycle trip, and going to see the greatest band of all time twice.

August 1, 2024

I promised myself the last time I drove to Boston (to see Metallica in 2022, of course) that I was never again going to just take the most efficient route through Connecticut. The main roads are typically choked with traffic and uninteresting. Instead, I plotted a scenic route through southern Vermont. Vermont is not on the way to Boston from my home in New Jersey, but this ride was about the journey.

I woke up early, mounted my luggage on the bike, and hit the road towards the Bear Mountain Bridge. The Bear Mountain Bridge is an out-of-the-way Hudson River crossing that is not part of any major Interstate Highway. It leads to highway 9D in Putnam County, New York. Once I crossed the bridge, the scenery for most of the ride was beautiful.

I took 9D to Cold Spring, New York and headed east through some state highways and backroads until I hit US-7 in Connecticut. I took that north through Massachusetts and into Vermont. I left Massachusetts so I could come back to Massachusetts! This is what you do when you take the scenic route on the bike.

It was about when I reached Bennington, Vermont that I stopped to check the time to Boston. I had to be cleaned up and ready to meet my friend Erin for dinner at 7 PM. I hooked a right and headed east through the mountains to Brattleboro. I went south to Route 2 and took that east to Boston. Traffic picked up the closer I got to the city, but my main mission was accomplished. I took the most scenic and least hectic route I could find between my home and Boston.

Trace of my ride from New Jersey to Boston through the mountains of west MA and south VT

Wearing over 300 miles of road grit on my face

I cut my timing for dinner very close. I jumped off the bike, checked in to the hotel, showered up, hopped in an Uber, ran up a flight of stairs, and breathlessly greeted Erin. I did my best to hold up my end of the conversation after 325 miles and eight and a half hours on the motorcycle.

It was a work night for Erin so after dinner I found my good friends Gail and Joe who were in town for the weekend. Joe was coming to both Metallica shows and Gail was along for the sightseeing. We had a few drinks, and I had to call it a night.

August 2, 2024

Friday was the first big day of the weekend; we were going to get to see Metallica at night! My plan was to refrain from drinking so I could focus on the show at the stadium. Pooch arrived in town shortly after noon, and we met him at the Dorchester Brewing Company for lunch. Pooch is a great guy to travel with if you are into drinking craft beer and eating barbecue. They had both at Dorchester.

I went with him to another brewery on his list (he has a brewery list everywhere he goes), Castle Island Brewing for the rest of the afternoon. We drove past the highway and saw first-hand how bad the Boston traffic was headed out of town. As a group, we decided to take the train to Foxborough to save ourselves from the trouble of sitting in traffic.

We went back to the hotel and got the group together to head out to the train station. Ed rolled in just as we were leaving (he lost about two hours to the aforementioned traffic between New Jersey and Boston) and he hurried along with us to the train.

The trip from Boston to Foxborough sucks. The stadium is nowhere near the city and the roads are unable to handle event-day traffic flow. I highly recommend taking the train if you ever have the misfortune of having to make the same trip. It was relatively painless.

The train dropped us off at the parking lot and we grabbed something to eat outside the stadium. We headed in to catch the end of Mammoth WVH’s set.

We settled in near the center of the stage on the opposite side of the entrance. We were able to get close and had a good view of half of the stage from where we were standing. We were excited for the second act to come on. Pantera hit the stage and tore through a blistering set.

Pantera guitarist Zakk Wylde, the 5th Greatest Guitar Player of All Time

All the money Pantera made on this tour, Phil still can’t afford socks and shoes

Pantera will obviously never be the same without the deceased Abbott brothers. But there could not be a better replacement for Vinnie Paul than Charlie Benante. And if you must replace Dimebag Darrell with someone, it might as well be the 5^th greatest guitar player of all time, Zakk Wylde.

The crowd was hot for this show. It looked like a lot of us had seen the original Pantera lineup 25 years ago. There was a lot of singing and head-banging. I thought they picked up some younger fans while they were at it.

Throughout the tour, the wait between the end of the Pantera set and the beginning of the Metallica set feels like it lasts a day. I don’t even know what to do with myself while I’m waiting.

By the time AC/DC played, I was fired up and ready to rage! In just a few minutes, Metallica hit the stage. Lars Ulrich counted in “Creeping Death”, and it was on. I knew they were going to start with “Creeping Death”, and I was still amazed. The wave of energy that sweeps a football stadium when Metallica begins their set is indescribable. People are yelling, singing, head banging, moshing, even crying tears of joy. It is an experience unlike anything else.

The third song in the set was “Leper Messiah” and this was only the second time I’ve ever seen this classic played live. Metallica always finds a way to make each show memorable like this.

The rest of the set was standard M72 World Tour stuff. A combination of songs that spanned the band’s entire career, from the “Kill ‘Em All” to “72 Seasons” albums. Nobody in heavy metal has a catalog like theirs, and each song they chose to play filled the entire football stadium. The production, the sound, and the band battered our senses for two hours.

They capped the setlist with a ferocious rendition of “Master of Puppets” and we were spent. We made a quick trip to the train because if we missed it, we were going to have to sleep in the parking lot. The train was slow to leave, because a passenger had a medical emergency and had to be removed. But once it got going, we made a straight shot back to the city and to our hotel.

August 3, 2024

Before Pooch visits a new locale, he does PhD-level research on the local bars and restaurants. He can find the best craft beer and barbecue before he even arrives. So, we left Saturday planning to him.

We started off at the Tip Tap Room for brunch. From there we walked around Downtown Boston for the afternoon, making several stops along the way. We hit the Distraction + Democracy Beer Garden at Boston’s Old City Hall, the Sam Adams Downtown Boston Taproom, and a handful of other breweries. Did I mention Pooch likes his breweries?

One of the many breweries on Pooch’s spreadsheet

Saturday was a standout day on my Metallica M72 World Tour journey. On some of my trips, Saturday was full of sightseeing and moving around from place to place. This time, I got to spend a relaxing day with like-minded friends, enjoying our trip to a city we would not have gone to had it not been for Metallica.

The plan for the evening was to find a sports bar that was showing WWE SummerSlam. Pooch and I are huge WWE fans and did not want to miss the biggest show of the summer. Pooch contacted Banners at TD Garden and was told they were going to show it on the big screen, so we went there for dinner. We arrived and comedy ensued.

We checked in at the hostess stand, and asked to be seated with a view of the screen that would air SummerSlam. The hostess had no idea what we were talking about. Pooch told her that he had emailed a gentleman who told him they would show SummerSlam and that was why we were there.

Pooch told her that the email came from a gentleman named Sam. The guy standing next to the hostess said, “I’m Sam!”. Then he denied sending that email and said maybe we talked to a different Sam.

This led to somewhat of a tense argument, and even Joe who is not a WWE fan complained loud enough that they decided to seat us and put SummerSlam on the big screen after all.

Pooch and I were happy we got to watch the show. It was the best WWE show since WrestleMania 40 earlier in the year. Even Ed got into it, he liked the pants that Seth Rollins wore. We stayed through the end when Roman Reigns made his surprise return to WWE at the conclusion of the main event. It was cool that I found a way to combine WWE with one of my Metallica trips.

We had some post-show drinks and then headed back to the hotel. It was a long day, and we had to get up for the big day on Sunday. One more Metallica show to go.

August 4, 2024

We had one more round of sightseeing before it was time to head to the concert. We started with a historical ferry tour of Boston Harbor. The tour guide was knowledgeable and kept us engaged with the tour. One bit of Boston history that I learned from him was that Boston was mostly filled in over time and that it was not entirely natural land.

Next up was a trip to the New England Aquarium which was a block away from the ferry. We were greeted near the entrance by a somewhat randy pair of penguins.

Next, we wandered over to the tropical fish tank. Much to my surprise, Pooch was a tropical fish expert. He used to own a tank and had a wealth of knowledge about tropical fish and was able to point out several species without having to check the guide.

We toured the whole aquarium, including the four-story ocean tank, and the sea lion show.

After the aquarium, we stopped for a barbecue lunch (refer to my earlier comments about Pooch and barbecue) and went back to the hotel to get ready to head out to Metallica.

That afternoon, we made a bad tactical mistake. We decided to drive to Foxborough rather than take the train, assuming that there would be no rush hour traffic to get there on a Sunday. Erin was going to join us for the Sunday concert, so we grabbed her and headed to the stadium.

The forecast was awful for Sunday night, and it proved to be correct. We arrived at the stadium parking lot, and it was raining heavily. We walked towards the stadium through the Patriots Way pavilion and upon arrival, a sign said the stadium was closed and we should seek shelter. This was problematic as we wanted to get there and find a good spot on the floor.

We ducked into a nearby bar and ordered some food and waited out the rain. It started to drag on and I started to get nervous there would be a weather delay or a cancellation of the whole show. I kept an eye on the Gillette Stadium X account, and after a significant wait, it posted an update that they were reopening the stadium. We hurried inside and found a spot near where we were on Friday. We were a bit further back, having lost some positions due to the stadium entry discombobulation.

I watched the Metallica X account feed, too. They announced that there would not be enough time for Ice Nine Kills to perform (no big deal) but Five Finger Death Punch would be able to play an abbreviated set. This would push the end of the show back until after 11 PM, likely costing the promoters and the band a nice chunk of change in overtime wages for the facility staff. At about 7:45 PM, Ivan Moody ran on stage and FFDP kicked off their set.

Better late than never, the show got started with Five Finger Death Punch

At this point in the tour, I felt like I had seen FFDP one too many times. I guess I could start to appreciate their live act, but I was never a fan to begin with and I did not see myself changing my opinion of the band after seeing them live.

As promised, FFDP kept their set short and for my final time in 2024, the wait for Metallica began.

Highly sophisticated method of keeping that microphone dry

This would be my fifteenth show on the M72 World Tour and the anticipation for their set remained constant. It is always the longest hour of my life. I get anxious, nervous, excited, and when the lights go out, I get overjoyed.

Metallica hit the stage and Lars pounded on the drums. James Hetfield shredded the opening riff and shouted “Whiplash!” into the microphone and Gillette Stadium went ballistic. The rain delay was a thing of the past and the show was on.

We were a little further away than I’d like, but we could still see the whole thing pretty well

“Whiplash” quickly transitioned into “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and our excitement continued to skyrocket. We knew this song was coming and were ready to sing along and bang our heads to it. The band transitioned into the title track from their sophomore album “Ride the Lightning”, which just happens to be Ed’s favorite Metallica song. It was a delightful start to the show for everybody.

The rest of the career-spanning set was pure bliss. The crowd was electric, and the band fed off it. The song selection filled in the gaps from what they played on Friday night. We were treated to an epic performance of “Inamorata” before the ending sequence of songs that culminated with “Enter Sandman”. Before they played it, James made a joke about their beach balls not being deflated, a reference to one of the many New England Patriots cheating scandals that occurred in Gillette Stadium.

As excited as I was for the show, it was a huge bummer for me when it ended, knowing it would be the end of my M72 World Tour run. I had a great run, but I didn’t know if or when Metallica would hit the road again and what the tour would look like when they did.

I visited two European cities that I probably would not have seen otherwise and had many adventures with friends and family in the North American cities. I got to see the best band in the world perform 11 times. I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to do all of that.

I had plenty of time to reflect on it all as we attempted to drive home. The traffic situation leaving Gillette Stadium is an unmitigated disaster. We were already running late because of the rain and then sat in the lot forever waiting for it to even move. Unfortunately for Erin, she had to work the next morning, so it really threw her schedule off. If I ever visit Gillette Stadium again, I will take the train no matter what.

August 5, 2024

My last planned day off work for the M72 World Tour. I woke up, loaded up the bike, and split. I wanted to once again avoid the traffic on the Interstates and take a unique route, so I headed west on route 2 and took that to US 202 which goes all the way back to New Jersey.

Those who know me would tell you that thinking isn’t something I’m known for. But being on the bike is an isolating experience that traps you in your own thoughts. It gives me the opportunity to recognize the few thoughts I do have.

As I meandered southwest through Massachusetts and Connecticut, I thought about my entire tour itinerary and how much of a dream come true it was. Two European trips, four motorcycle trips, five cities visited, eleven Metallica concerts, and most importantly time spent with family and friends. I really couldn’t have asked for anything more.

The members of the band started to turn 60 on this tour. They are playing the fewest number of concerts per year than they ever have in their past. They shortened the set from 16 songs to 15 songs. Time is catching up to them. They are not going to tour forever and opportunities like this are running out. Knowing this, the best thing I could do to honor the experience was to live in the moment and enjoy the final ride of the tour.

I stopped for gas late in the afternoon. My phone had been ringing but I didn’t see it. My boss was trying to call me. The stock market went haywire that day. The trading system I’m responsible for had a technical issue causing it to fail and we missed an opportunity to trade in advantageous conditions. It was a big snap back to reality for me and it was time to get back to work.

Epilogue

For the first time in two years, I wasn’t holding tickets for a Metallica concert, nor did I have any travel plans. I had toyed with the idea of going to one of the remaining cities after Foxborough but when it was done, I felt like I had done enough for one two-year tour cycle.

The band headed west and then south to Mexico City to round out the remaining stops on the tour. I procrastinated writing my final blog entry. Things had returned to normal.

I assumed that Metallica would announce 2025 and potentially 2026 tour dates at some point in the fall. I was hoping somewhat for somewhere in South America because I have never been there. I was on a business trip to Fort Lauderdale and woke up to a barrage of text messages and social media updates from Metallica. They were going to tour the US again in 2025.

I quickly surveyed the cities and settled on Philadelphia and Denver as the two stops that would best suit me. I attempted to buy a Lux Æterna platform in Denver and Snake Pit passes for Philadelphia and got skunked on both. But I did manage to get good tickets for each. So, with much excitement, I can declare that I am not done with the M72 World Tour! Stay tuned for two more updates in 2025.

My M72 Would Tour Itinerary

	Show #	Date	Venue	City
Complete	1	5/17/2023	Stade de France	Saint-Denis, France
	2	5/19/2023	Stade de France	Saint-Denis, France
	3	8/4/2023	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ
	4	8/6/2023	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ
	5	8/11/2023	Stade Olympique	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
	6	8/13/2023	Stade Olympique	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
	7	9/1/2023	State Farm Stadium	Glendale, AZ
	8	7/12/2024	Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano	Madrid, Spain
	9	7/14/2024	Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano	Madrid, Spain
	10	8/2/2024	Gilette Stadium	Foxborough, MA
	11	8/4/2024	Gilette Stadium	Foxborough, MA
Upcoming	12	5/23/2025	Lincoln Financial Field	Philadelphia, PA
	13	5/25/2025	Lincoln Financial Field	Philadelphia, PA
	14	6/27/2027	Empower Field at Mile High	Denver, CO
	15	6/29/2027	Empower Field at Mile High	Denver, CO

My lifetime Metallica concert history

Show #	ShowDate	VenueDescription	City	Tour/Event
1	4/8/1992	Brendan Byrne Arena	East Rutherford, NJ	Wherever We May Roam
2	7/17/1998	Giants Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	Poor Retouring Me
3	11/24/1998	Roseland Ballroom	New York, NY	Garage Barrage
4	11/23/1999	Madison Square Garden	New York, NY	S&M
5	7/20/2000	Giants Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	Summer Sanitarium
6	7/8/2003	Giants Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	Summer Sanitarium 2003
7	4/20/2004	Nassau Coliseum	Uniondale, NY	Madly In Anger With The World
8	10/22/2004	Continental Airlines Arena	East Rutherford, NJ	Madly In Anger With The World
9	1/17/2009	Wachovia Center	Philadelphia, PA	World Magnetic
10	1/31/2009	Prudential Center	Newark, NJ	World Magnetic
11	2/1/2009	Prudential Center	Newark, NJ	World Magnetic
12	11/14/2009	Madison Square Garden	New York, NY	World Magnetic
13	11/15/2009	Madison Square Garden	New York, NY	World Magnetic
14	9/14/2011	Yankee Stadium	New York, NY	The Big 4
15	6/23/2012	Bader Field	Atlantic City, NJ	Orion Music + More
16	6/24/2012	Bader Field	Atlantic City, NJ	Orion Music + More
17	5/12/2017	Lincoln Financial Field	Philadelphia, PA	Worldwired
18	5/14/2017	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	Worldwired
19	5/17/2017	The New Coliseum Presented by NYCV	Uniondale, NY	Worldwired
20	7/19/2017	Parc Jean-Drapeau	Montreal, QC	Worldwired
21	10/20/2018	Bryce Jordan Center	State College, PA	Worldwired
22	10/25/2018	Wells Fargo Center	Philadelphia, PA	Worldwired
23	9/6/2019	Chase Center	San Francisco, CA	S&M2
24	9/24/2021	Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center	Louisville, KY	Louder Than Life
25	9/25/2021	Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center	Louisville, KY	Louder Than Life
26	5/29/2022	Harvard Athletic Complex	Boston, MA	Boston Calling
27	8/11/2022	Highmark Stadium	Buffalo, NY	(none)
28	5/17/2023	Stade de France	Saint-Dennis, FR	M72 World Tour
29	5/19/2023	Stade de France	Saint-Dennis, FR	M72 World Tour
30	8/4/2023	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	M72 World Tour
31	8/6/2023	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	M72 World Tour
32	8/11/2023	Stade Olympique	Montreal, QC	M72 World Tour
33	8/13/2023	Stade Olympique	Montreal, QC	M72 World Tour
34	9/1/2023	State Farm Stadium	Glendale, AZ	M72 World Tour
35	7/12/2024	Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano	Madrid, ES	M72 World Tour
36	7/14/2024	Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano	Madrid, ES	M72 World Tour
37	8/2/2024	Gillette Stadium	Foxborough, MA	M72 World Tour
38	8/4/2024	Gillette Stadium	Foxborough, MA	M72 World Tour

Link to YouTube playlist of all official Metallica concert videos I have been present for.

Metallica songs I have seen performed on the M72 World Tour

Song	Times Seen
Creeping Death	6
Fuel	6
Harvester Of Sorrow	6
Lux Æterna	6
Nothing Else Matters	6
Orion	6
Sad But True	6
Seek and Destroy	6
72 Seasons	5
Enter Sandman	5
For Whom The Bell Tolls	5
If Darkness Had A Son	5
King Nothing	5
Master of Puppets	5
Moth Into Flame	5
One	5
Ride The Lightning	5
Shadows Follow	5
The Call of Ktulu	5
The Day That Never Comes	5
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)	5
Wherever I May Roam	5
Battery	4
Fade To Black	4
The Unforgiven	4
Too Far Gone?	4
Whiplash	4
Blackened	3
Hardwired	3
Holier Than Thou	3
Whiskey In The Jar	3
You Must Burn!	3
Cyanide	2
Inamorata	2
Leper Messiah	2
Screaming Suicide	2
The Memory Remains	2
Until It Sleeps	2
Dirty Window	1
Fight Fire With Fire	1
I Disappear	1
No Leaf Clover	1
Sleepwalk My Life Away	1
Unique:	43
Total:	170

All Metallica songs I have seen performed live

Song	Times Seen
Nothing Else Matters	31
Enter Sandman	30
One	30
Sad But True	30
Master of Puppets	29
Seek and Destroy	27
For Whom The Bell Tolls	24
Creeping Death	22
Fade To Black	19
Fuel	18
Wherever I May Roam	16
Battery	14
Blackened	14
Moth Into Flame	14
Ride The Lightning	13
The Unforgiven	13
Harvester Of Sorrow	12
The Day That Never Comes	12
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)	12
Whiplash	12
Hardwired	10
The Memory Remains	10
Holier Than Thou	9
Cyanide	8
King Nothing	8
The Call of Ktulu	8
Fight Fire With Fire	7
Now That We’re Dead	7
Orion	7
Whiskey In The Jar	7
Atlas, Rise!	6
Lux Æterna	6
No Leaf Clover	6
The Four Horsemen	6
72 Seasons	5
All Nightmare Long	5
Broken, Beat And Scarred	5
Halo On Fire	5
If Darkness Had A Son	5
Of Wolf and Man	5
Shadows Follow	5
That Was Just Your Life	5
The End Of The Line	5
Breadfan	4
Hit The Lights	4
Last Caress	4
Too Far Gone?	4
Until It Sleeps	4
I Disappear	3
St. Anger	3
The God That Failed	3
Through the Never	3
Turn The Page	3
You Must Burn!	3
Am I Evil?	2
Bleeding Me	2
Blitzkrieg	2
Die, Die My Darling	2
Dirty Window	2
Don’t Tread On Me	2
Frantic	2
Inamorata	2
Last Caress/Green Hell	2
Leper Messiah	2
Motorbreath	2
My Friend Of Misery	2
Overkill	2
Screaming Suicide	2
The Outlaw Torn	2
The Shortest Straw	2
The Struggle Within	2
The Thing That Should Not Be	2
Trapped Under Ice	2
– Human	1
(Anesthesia) – Pulling Teeth	1
…And Justice For All	1
All Within My Hands	1
Confusion	1
Damage Inc.	1
Devil’s Dance	1
Disposable Heroes	1
Dyers Eve	1
Escape	1
Hell And Back	1
Helpless	1
Hero of the Day	1
Iron Foundry	1
Jump In The Fire	1
Justice Medley	1
Killing Time	1
Last Caress/So What/Die, Die My Darling	1
Low Man’s Lyric	1
Mastertarium	1
Mercyful Fate	1
Metal Militia	1
My Apocalypse	1
No Remorse	1
Phantom Lord	1
Sabbra Cadabra	1
Sleepwalk My Life Away	1
Small Hours	1
So What	1
Spit Out The Bone	1
Stone Cold Crazy	1
The Ecstasy of Gold	1
The Judas Kiss	1
The Prince	1
The Unforgiven III	1
The Wait	1
Unique:	109
Total:	654

Filed Under: Metallica, Riding Tagged With: 72 Seasons, Boston, Foxborough, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich, M72, M72 World Tour, M72Foxborough, Metallica, Robert Trujillo, Travel

Static and Disarray

November 15, 2023 by njnonconformist 1 Comment

A diary of my experience during Metallica’s M72 World Tour stop at State Farm Stadium in Arizona over Labor Day weekend in 2023

August 30, 2023

Our flight was preparing to depart Newark Liberty Airport at about 7 AM and although I knew the answer I had to ask, “Who’s idea was it to fly this early?” Susan’s quick response was “It was your idea.” She was right. It was a busy summer with all the Metallica related travel, and we only had so many off days to spare, so I wanted to maximize our time in Arizona by leaving early in the day. Luckily for us, the flight was abnormally on time, and we landed at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix without issue.

We grabbed our rental car and headed due north to our first destination in Sedona. The first thing you notice about Arizona is the natural beauty of the landscape. The scenery changes every few miles as you drive through the desert, revealing sprawling mountains and varying vegetation. None of it was as stunning as when we approached the red rock buttes of Sedona. We pulled into town and stopped for brunch at Creekside.

Gotta go with the burrito when in Arizona

After checking into the hotel, we headed to Red Rock Western Jeep tours for a tour than I had booked in Newark Airport that morning before we left. I did not want to lock into a tour before we knew our flight would be on time, so I did not research it much. I settled on “Earth Wisdom Tour”. I would soon regret that decision.

The tour had some cool scenery which is what I wanted out of it. But the driver was some hippie from Hawaii who relocated to Sedona who believed in all the local folklore nonsense. Instead of talking about the natural land formations, he wouldn’t shut up about vortex energy, quantum entanglements, inflows, outflows, drum clearings, meditation, and a bunch of Sedona claptrap. The mountain views were nice, but next time I’m doing a regular Pink Jeep tour.

Everything the guy said was nonsense, but the view could not be beat

Sedona looked like a daytime only town. We were barely able to find a restaurant open after dusk but were able to get someone to seat us for dinner. We called it a night after dinner, primarily because there was no place left open when we were done.

August 31, 2023

I was excited to get out of bed today. We went to breakfast at the Coffee Pot, famous for having 101 omelets on the menu. They had a cool outdoor patio, and it was hard to nail down exactly what to order.

We finished up breakfast and headed straight for EagleRider Sedona to pick up our Harley rental. The plan was to pick up a bike for 24 hours and ride it to The Grand Canyon and back. The weather forecast was a bit sketchy but I figured it was a desert so there was no way it would rain so it made sense just to go. Susan followed me in the car on the way to Flagstaff. She parked at Target and hopped on the bike for the trek to the Grand Canyon.

It looked like there were only two routes to get there, US 180 to AZ 64, or US 89 to AZ 64. I wanted to see them both so plotted a round trip course that started with the US 180 route and would take us back on US 89.

As we expected the scenery was stunning for the entire trip. What we didn’t expect was that yet again, the desert scenery changed so much every few miles. There was always something different to look at. The route was devoid of civilization except for an odd gas station until we got closer to Grand Canyon National Park.

I stopped to pay the fee at the main gate and followed the signs to the nearest parking lot along the south rim of the canyon. This was Susan’s first trip to the canyon, and my second. But I think we were equally stunned by the view as we approached it. None of my pictures can do it justice and it is hard to put into words how vast and majestic it looks.

Definitely the best dressed people at the Grand Canyon that day

We got back on the bike and rode around the park to see some of the other vantage points on the south rim. We walked down part of the trail to the bottom of the canyon to take some pictures.

I stopped to look at the weather forecast and the radar map on my phone and things were starting to look a bit icky. I thought it was not supposed to rain in the desert! Undetered, we headed east along AZ 64. We stopped at a few more points of interest along the south rim to keep taking pictures. It seemed like the canyon would stretch east forever.

This rental is not as cool as my bike back home, but it made for a good ride to the canyon

As we made our way towards US 89, we could start to see columns of rain off in the distance, along with ominous lightning strikes. I thought that if we could make it to US 89 and head south that maybe we could dodge the storm. That plan failed when rain drops started falling on us.

I ride through rain all the time on the east coast. But the rain in Arizona has a much different characteristic. The locals call those storms monsoons, a term that is not as menacing as it sounds. Visibility was low and the rain made us feel cold, but it was inconsistent and not very heavy. Susan ducked behind me and used me as a windshield, and I used the taillights on the car ahead of me as a guide.

We stopped at a gas station to take a break from the rain and to wait for it to end. It did not seem like it was going to stop any time soon, but we figured we made it that far and were close enough to the car in Flagstaff to make a break for it. We got back on the bike and just like that, it stopped raining. Had I kept going we would have been fine. We made it back to the car in Flagstaff, Susan got in and followed me back to Sedona.

It was a whirlwind trip on the rental bike and one of the most unique I have been on. I had never been on a motorcycle in the desert before. Arizona does not have nearly as many roads to bike on than we do on the east coast, but they are amazing to ride on.

We had one more night in Sedona, so we showered up and hailed an Uber to downtown. There seems to be a major Uber shortage in Sedona. That, coupled with our observation that everything closes at dark made me wonder if something was keeping visitors from coming to town. Either way, the car finally came and we made it to dinner at Elote Café.

The southwestern cuisine was a must on this trip

September 1, 2023

I woke up excited for the day, we were going to see Metallica at night! We started with another breakfast at the Coffee Pot because their menu was large enough to warrant a second trip. Susan wanted to rent a bicycle and go for a scenic ride in Sedona, so I dropped her off at the shop. I went back to the hotel to work on my blog for an earlier Metallica trip while she went for her ride.

I checked out of the hotel and went to get her when she was done, and we headed straight south to our hotel for the rest of the trip in Scottsdale. We spent most of the afternoon poolside at our hotel. I wanted to conserve energy for the concert. We got dressed up really fancy and drove to State Farm Stadium in Glendale for the show.

We walked into the stadium and surveyed their dinner options. The best thing I could find was a “sausage” that was more like a hot dog. That was somewhat of a letdown for a new stadium that had just hosted a Super Bowl earlier in the year.

But I inhaled whatever it was, and we made our way down to the floor to find a good vantage point for the show. We walked down as Pantera was playing and that immediately set my mood. We found a spot outside the donut-shaped stage and about twenty feet from the barrier.

In a scene almost right out of a classic Beavis and Butthead episode, some shirtless chubby dude was moshing with himself to the music right in front of us. Then he raised his arms, bent over, and puked whatever he had eaten or drank for the last three days. Another sign this was going to be a great night!

The lights dimmed and AC/DC’s “Long Way to the Top” played. This was about to be my seventh Metallica show for the year and I was just as excited for this one as I was for the first six. The people in our surrounding area were feeding off the energy, too. It was about to get good. Metallica took the stage and tore into “Creeping Death”!

It was such a hot start to the show that it felt like the crowd was almost overwhelmed with emotion. A father was standing in front of us with his adult son who broke into tears of joy as they hugged. We collectively sang every word of the song.

The setlist progressed through a familiar mix of new and old songs. For the “deep cut” song they tend to play in the third slot, they returned to “Holier Than Thou” like they did in Paris and in East Rutherford. James, Robert, and Kirk roamed the stage and played to every inch of the stadium. Lars filled the room with his drumbeats. I turned around and saw Robert’s wife Chloe, sitting in the nearest VIP section behind us.

Lars Ulrich, the greatest drummer of all time

My favorite part of the show is when Lars is playing in front of us and the band stands near him

As Metallica worked their way through the performance, I could tell that Susan was really getting into the concert, more so than at the last four we had been to together. Initially she had some hesitation about seeing Metallica six times in a year (having had seen them a total of zero times in prior years) but the greatest band in the world had won her over. She was calling out songs and correctly predicting when and where Lars’ drumkit was going to move.

Things were going great but towards the show I started to notice something unusual. They played the intro tape to “The Day That Never Comes” but then played “Hardwired” to follow it. I thought I had maybe misplaced the song, or they changed things up. But it was a sign that something was wrong.

The next song was “Fuel” and it sounded like James’ microphone was cutting out because he was missing parts of the song. I looked over to his part of the stage and saw that he was not singing parts of the song. And when he did sing, his voice was strained. I started to worry that it was giving out.

They cued “Seek & Destroy” and the beachballs fell from the lighting towers. James again had a hard time finishing the song. And when it was over, the houselights came on and the band started throwing picks to the crowd and taking bows. The show was over, by our count they only played 14 songs out of the usual 16. There was no “Enter Sandman”.

We were worried about what happened to James as we left. It seemed like it could have been laryngitis or some sort of vocal issue that can understandably happen to the lead singer of a band. But they were supposed to put on another show in two days and if he could not get through this one, what would come of the Sunday show?

We made it to our rental car in the parking lot and sat there for an hour and a half before we were able to exit. What started off awesome with puking fans and Pantera ended up with a shortened Metallica show and insane traffic. It certainly was not the biggest problem I have ever had, but it was a bummer.

September 2, 2023

As part of the Metallica takeover of the Phoenix area for the weekend, Robert Trujillo and Blackened American Whiskey master distiller Rob Dietrich were advertised for a bottle signing at Paradise Liquor in Phoenix. I had met Robert Trujillo at a similar signing in New Jersey in 2022 so it was not my top priority to do it again. But much to my surprise, Susan wanted to go. I told her from my experience that if we wanted to ensure ourselves an opportunity to get inside, we would have to get there at least three hours early. She still wanted to go. Metallica really did manage to convert her.

We grabbed a quick breakfast near our hotel and drove to the liquor store. We arrived about three and a half hours before the event was supposed to begin, and there were maybe 50 people ahead of us on the line, so I figured we were in good shape to get our bottles signed. We lucked out and managed to stand behind a gate that shaded us from the mid-day Arizona sun while we waited. We made some friends on the line while were passing the time.

A shirtless and shoeless man walked across the three-lane street while cars slammed on their breaks to not hit him. He appeared to behave like a fictitious zombie, and I was immediately worried for Robert Trujillo’s safety and well-being. Maybe next time Metallica’s management can put him in a liquor store in a better neighborhood.

The event started on time, and we got to move inside the store. We each bought a bottle of M72 limited edition Blackened American Whiskey and got on the next line to meet the guests of honor. One by one were told to hand our phones over to someone who would take our pictures while we stood on the “X”.

I briefly told Robert Trujillo that I met him in New Jersey last year. He said he remembered that appearance and wore a t-shirt for a local EMT that someone gave him at that signing on stage this year at one of the MetLife Stadium shows. That was about all the time I got with the two Robert’s. I turned around for my picture and waited on the side for Susan to get her bottle signed and her picture.

Left to right: The second greatest bass player of all time, me, and the greatest master distiller of all time.

Susan got to meet her favorite bass player, too!

They sent us out the back door and I got to say “I told you so” to Susan. The line to get in was now huge and there was no way all those people were going to get in.

These ham-and-eggers should have gotten out of bed earlier, there was no way they were gonna get to meet Robert Trujillo

I have family in Arizona and part of the agenda of the weekend was to visit them. I drove to visit my cousin Josh and his family a few towns over. We finished up there and drove back to the hotel. I parked the car and saw a notification on my phone. I read the e-mail and it hit me like a ton of bricks.

I got my reason why the show was cut short on Friday. James Hetfield had the COVID-19. Not only was Friday’s show cut short, but Sunday’s show was postponed to the following Saturday, after we were planning to fly home on Tuesday. We were going to miss the second show.

I immediately felt bad for Susan, I know she was really getting into the tour, and we had flown all the way across the country to see them twice. I was bummed as well, but I guess I could not say I was Metallica-deprived for the year; I had seen them seven times. On the bright side, we would not have to suffer through Five Finger Death Punch.

We got ready for the evening and my cousin Brandon, and his wife Victoria came to get us. We went out for dinner and drinks in Phoenix and in Scottsdale. Phoenix was a bit livelier than I had expected, and Scottsdale looks like it is always fun on a Saturday night.

September 3, 2023

Whelp, we had a lot more time on our hands on Sunday than we had originally planned. There would be no need to get to the stadium early to fight for a spot near the stage, nor would we get stuck in traffic getting out of there after the show.

We grabbed breakfast and drove to Taliesin West. Taliesin West was a winter camp designed by Frank Lloyd Wright to create a community and a workspace for himself and other architects. We did the self-guided tour through the buildings and grounds.

One of the more interesting things I saw was a sketch Lloyd made of the Guggenheim in New York. I visited the Guggenheim in 1998 for their Art of the Motorcycle exhibition and it inspired me to go out and get my motorcycle license and first bike.

From there we headed into Old Town Scottsdale for lunch and to wander the town. The Old Town area is mostly a tourist trap. We checked out a lot of the stores but did not find much in the way of things to buy other than some souvenirs for friends and family. It was probably the least interesting part of Scottsdale we saw that weekend.

We went back to the hotel and sat by the pool. I guess that was the next best thing to going to the Stadium early. Anyway, we wrapped that up and headed back into town for dinner at Citizen Public House. The food there was better than the garbage at the stadium on Friday, another silver lining.

After dinner, we walked to the Cake Nightclub for some drinks. I was stopped at the door and the bouncer made me turn around and lift the back of my shirt up, he wanted to be sure I was not trying to bring a concealed pistol into the club. Wild west, indeed.

We hung out there for a while and decided to see hop to the other bars in the area. By the time we went outside, the area had exploded with people moving from club to club. It was quite a scene. I guess it was more crowded than a regular Sunday because it was a holiday weekend. Some of the bars opened to the outside, others had long lines to get in. It looked like a fun neighborhood to party in.

If you gave me the choice between Metallica and clubbing, I would pick Metallica 10 times out of 10. But I did not have a choice, so we made the most of the night. It was a fun time and at the very least I knew the lay of the land for any return trips.

September 4, 2023

What to do on the last full day in the Phoenix suburbs? How about off-roading? We got up and drove north to Arizona Outdoor Fun Adventures & Tours. We made an online reservation prior to departure for two ATVs on a guided tour. When we signed in, the staff strongly recommended that we switch to a two-person UTV instead due to the relative difficulty of the trail and our inexperience. We agreed that if they were going to suggest we make a change so emphatically that did not cost us any extra money that we should probably take their advice.

We boarded the UTV and I took the wheel. Our tour guide made it easy for me to understand how to operate it and how to follow along. He took off and we fell in line behind him and some of the other vehicles.

The trail was wild up and down the mountain range. It was rocky and vertical and most of it was on the side of a very steep cliff. One wrong move and we were going straight down!

Gussied up for the UTV off roading tour, we were smiling but you can’t tell

We stopped along the way to check out the scenery and listen to our tour guide explain the desert vegetation. He was a self-described desert geek and was very enthusiastic about the topic. He was way better than the Sedona “positive energy” mumbo jumbo-spewing tour guide from the previous week.

After several stops and starts, the tour headed us back to the parking lot. It was an exhilarating finish to the tour and we both really enjoyed it. It was my first time driving a UTV and it was a lot of fun to operate. Covered in dust, we got in the car and headed for lunch.

Our final tourist stop was at the Arizona Boardwalk in Scottsdale. The Arizona Boardwalk is a complex that has attractions like the ones you would find on a Jersey Shore boardwalk. It is just nowhere near an ocean.

We were there to visit the OdySea Aquarium. It is a smaller-sized aquarium than some of the others I have been to, but it had all the standard stuff. Lots of tanks and fish.

Our final meal in Arizona was at Oregano’s in Scottsdale. Oregano’s is a laughable attempt at an Italian restaurant, but it was good for what we needed. I had invited out all my Arizona cousins, their significant others, their kids, and my aunt out to dinner. It was good to be able to get everyone in the same place at the same time while I was there.

That was a wrap for the Arizona leg of my M72 World Tour itinerary. We had an uneventful flight home the next morning and settled back into our normal post-Labor Day Weekend activities.

Wrap

Arizona worked out well as a destination. I had been there before, but never on a proper vacation. Much like Paris, I got to combine a motorcycle trip with a host of touristy activities. The natural beauty of Arizona was what stood out to me most.

Of course, it was not a perfect trip. It rained on my motorcycle ride. Metallica cut one show short and postponed the other one to a date that I could not attend because of COVID. When you plan a vacation, everything is going to be perfect in your mind, but you must roll with what happens if things do not go to plan.

I had a fantastic time with my Metallica itinerary in 2023. I got to visit Paris, Montreal, and Arizona and see them in all three cities. I also got to see them in my home stadium with a large group of friends in East Rutherford. Paris and Arizona were fantastic destinations, and even though Montreal was not what it was cracked up to be, I still got to make it into a cool motorcycle trip.

I am grateful to Metallica for inspiring me to travel. I probably would not have gone to any of these cities in 2023 had it not been for them. I am looking forward to going back on the road next year for the 2024 leg of the tour in Madrid and Foxborough. Who knows, maybe I will add one or two more cities to the list.

My M72 World Tour Itinerary

	Show #	Date	Venue	City
Complete	1	5/17/2023	Stade de France	Saint-Denis, France
	2	5/19/2023	Stade de France	Saint-Denis, France
	3	8/4/2023	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ
	4	8/6/2023	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ
	5	8/11/2023	Stade Olympique	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
	6	8/13/2023	Stade Olympique	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
	7	9/1/2023	State Farm Stadium	Glendale, AZ
Upcoming	8	7/12/2024	Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano	Madrid, Spain
	9	7/14/2024	Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano	Madrid, Spain
	10	8/2/2024	Gilette Stadium	Foxborough, MA
	11	8/4/2024	Gilette Stadium	Foxborough, MA

My lifetime Metallica concert history

Show #	ShowDate	VenueDescription	City	Tour/Event
1	4/8/1992	Brendan Byrne Arena	East Rutherford, NJ	Wherever We May Roam
2	7/17/1998	Giants Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	Poor Retouring Me
3	11/24/1998	Roseland Ballroom	New York, NY	Garage Barrage
4	11/23/1999	Madison Square Garden	New York, NY	S&M
5	7/20/2000	Giants Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	Summer Sanitarium
6	7/8/2003	Giants Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	Summer Sanitarium 2003
7	4/20/2004	Nassau Coliseum	Uniondale, NY	Madly In Anger With The World
8	10/22/2004	Continental Airlines Arena	East Rutherford, NJ	Madly In Anger With The World
9	1/17/2009	Wachovia Center	Philadelphia, PA	World Magnetic
10	1/31/2009	Prudential Center	Newark, NJ	World Magnetic
11	2/1/2009	Prudential Center	Newark, NJ	World Magnetic
12	11/14/2009	Madison Square Garden	New York, NY	World Magnetic
13	11/15/2009	Madison Square Garden	New York, NY	World Magnetic
14	9/14/2011	Yankee Stadium	New York, NY	The Big 4
15	6/23/2012	Bader Field	Atlantic City, NJ	Orion Music + More
16	6/24/2012	Bader Field	Atlantic City, NJ	Orion Music + More
17	5/12/2017	Lincoln Financial Field	Philadelphia, PA	Worldwired
18	5/14/2017	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	Worldwired
19	5/17/2017	The New Coliseum Presented by NYCV	Uniondale, NY	Worldwired
20	7/19/2017	Parc Jean-Drapeau	Montreal, QC	Worldwired
21	10/20/2018	Bryce Jordan Center	State College, PA	Worldwired
22	10/25/2018	Wells Fargo Center	Philadelphia, PA	Worldwired
23	9/6/2019	Chase Center	San Francisco, CA	S&M2
24	9/24/2021	Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center	Louisville, KY	Louder Than Life
25	9/25/2021	Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center	Louisville, KY	Louder Than Life
26	5/29/2022	Harvard Athletic Complex	Boston, MA	Boston Calling
27	8/11/2022	Highmark Stadium	Buffalo, NY	(none)
28	5/17/2023	Stade de France	Saint-Dennis, FR	M72 World Tour
29	5/19/2023	Stade de France	Saint-Dennis, FR	M72 World Tour
30	8/4/2023	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	M72 World Tour
31	8/6/2023	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	M72 World Tour
32	8/11/2023	Stade Olympique	Montreal, QC	M72 World Tour
33	8/13/2023	Stade Olympique	Montreal, QC	M72 World Tour
34	9/1/2023	State Farm Stadium	Glendale, AZ	M72 World Tour

Link to YouTube playlist of all official Metallica concert videos I have been present for

Metallica songs I have seen performed on the M72 World Tour

Song	Times Seen
Creeping Death	4
Fade To Black	4
Fuel	4
Harvester Of Sorrow	4
Lux Æterna	4
Nothing Else Matters	4
Orion	4
Sad But True	4
Seek and Destroy	4
72 Seasons	3
Battery	3
Enter Sandman	3
For Whom The Bell Tolls	3
Holier Than Thou	3
If Darkness Had A Son	3
King Nothing	3
Master of Puppets	3
Moth Into Flame	3
One	3
Ride The Lightning	3
Shadows Follow	3
The Call of Ktulu	3
The Day That Never Comes	3
Too Far Gone?	3
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)	3
Wherever I May Roam	3
Whiskey In The Jar	3
You Must Burn!	3
Blackened	2
Hardwired	2
The Unforgiven	2
Whiplash	2
Cyanide	1
Dirty Window	1
I Disappear	1
Leper Messiah	1
No Leaf Clover	1
Screaming Suicide	1
Sleepwalk My Life Away	1
The Memory Remains	1
Until It Sleeps	1
Unique:	41
Total:	110

All Metallica songs I have seen performed live

Song	Times Seen
Nothing Else Matters	29
Enter Sandman	28
One	28
Sad But True	28
Master of Puppets	27
Seek and Destroy	25
For Whom The Bell Tolls	22
Creeping Death	20
Fade To Black	19
Fuel	16
Wherever I May Roam	14
Battery	13
Blackened	13
Moth Into Flame	12
Ride The Lightning	11
The Unforgiven	11
Harvester Of Sorrow	10
The Day That Never Comes	10
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)	10
Whiplash	10
Hardwired	9
Holier Than Thou	9
The Memory Remains	9
Cyanide	7
Now That We’re Dead	7
Whiskey In The Jar	7
Atlas, Rise!	6
Fight Fire With Fire	6
King Nothing	6
No Leaf Clover	6
The Call of Ktulu	6
The Four Horsemen	6
All Nightmare Long	5
Broken, Beat And Scarred	5
Halo On Fire	5
Of Wolf and Man	5
Orion	5
That Was Just Your Life	5
The End Of The Line	5
Breadfan	4
Hit The Lights	4
Last Caress	4
Lux Æterna	4
72 Seasons	3
I Disappear	3
If Darkness Had A Son	3
Shadows Follow	3
St. Anger	3
The God That Failed	3
Through the Never	3
Too Far Gone?	3
Turn The Page	3
Until It Sleeps	3
You Must Burn!	3
Am I Evil?	2
Bleeding Me	2
Blitzkrieg	2
Die, Die My Darling	2
Dirty Window	2
Don’t Tread On Me	2
Frantic	2
Last Caress/Green Hell	2
Motorbreath	2
My Friend Of Misery	2
Overkill	2
The Outlaw Torn	2
The Shortest Straw	2
The Struggle Within	2
The Thing That Should Not Be	2
Trapped Under Ice	2
– Human	1
(Anesthesia) – Pulling Teeth	1
…And Justice For All	1
All Within My Hands	1
Confusion	1
Damage Inc.	1
Devil’s Dance	1
Disposable Heroes	1
Dyers Eve	1
Escape	1
Hell And Back	1
Helpless	1
Hero of the Day	1
Iron Foundry	1
Jump In The Fire	1
Justice Medley	1
Killing Time	1
Last Caress/So What/Die, Die My Darling	1
Leper Messiah	1
Low Man’s Lyric	1
Mastertarium	1
Mercyful Fate	1
Metal Militia	1
My Apocalypse	1
No Remorse	1
Phantom Lord	1
Sabbra Cadabra	1
Screaming Suicide	1
Sleepwalk My Life Away	1
Small Hours	1
So What	1
Spit Out The Bone	1
Stone Cold Crazy	1
The Ecstasy of Gold	1
The Judas Kiss	1
The Prince	1
The Unforgiven III	1
The Wait	1
Unique:	108
Total:	594

Filed Under: Metallica, Riding Tagged With: 72 Seasons, Arizona, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich, M72 World Tour, Metallica, Phoenix, Robert Trujillo, Scottsdale, Travel

Dragging Home This Heathen Harvest

August 9, 2023 by njnonconformist 1 Comment

A diary of my experience during Metallica’s M72 World Tour stop at MetLife Stadium in August 2023

MetLife Stadium feels like the epicenter of the 2023 mega tour season. It started with the “You can send your kids to see Taylor, or you can send them to college someday, but you can’t afford both” extravaganza in May. It was followed by some prick named Ed Sheeran in June who broke the MetLife attendance record with a crowd of 89,000. Beyoncé followed in July. The Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen is going to round things out over Labor Day weekend.

But all these shows combined could not match the level of intensity of the two shows Metallica played on August 4^th and 6^th at MetLife Stadium. Therefore, this is the only non-travel blog in my Metallica M72 World Tour series because Metallica brough the show to me.

There is something exciting about Metallica coming to the area you live in. They do not just show up and play, they take over the area for four days. They promote Blackened American Whiskey happy hours and events, host a film festival of Metallica related content, promote concerts for bands that their kids are in, and open pop-up stores with all the Metallica merchandise you could want. So, of course I bought half of the inventory at the pop-up store at the American Dream Mall the day before the first show.

The most important thing to me about Metallica playing at home is getting to attend with my friends. It is a great excuse to get together, and it gives us an event that we will tell stories about for decades to come. In fact, we were telling stories about getting guitar picks at a Metallica show at the old Izod Center in 2003 while we were at the show this year.

Most of us had general admission tickets, and with as many people as I had going with me, it was a logistical exercise in herding kittens to get everyone in the same place at the same time. It started off in the afternoon on Friday, a bunch of us blew off work early, piled into my car, and went to the Blackened American Whiskey and WFAN pre-party at Redd’s in Carlstadt. Others partied at a local brewery; others drank on the NJ Transit Train on the way to the stadium.

After the pre-gaming was done, we shot over to the stadium, waited for Joe to get off the train, and headed in. Bobby was not one to wait, he went straight inside and scouted out a spot as close to the railing as he could get for us. We made it inside and then I had to text half a dozen people with our approximate location. I looked up and saw a banner for Larry Grantham who had his #60 retired by the Jets so I told everyone to look for that sign and meet us between that and the stage.

Larry Grantham was as good a spot as any to meet

It turned out to be a pretty good spot, it was right at the main entrance for the band members. First up was Mammoth and we caught a good view of Wolfgang Van Halen’s mother, Valerie Bertinelli who accompanied him to the stage.

Mammoth was a lot of fun to watch. Wolfie has rock and roll genes, and he puts in the effort to prove he belongs on stage.

As you can see, we were very happy to be there!

Next up was Pantera. I haven’t seen them since about 1999 before they broke up and when the Abbott brothers were still alive and well.

Phil Anselmo walked on stage and milled about for a bit before the show started. He took his shoes off and performed the entire set barefoot.

Zakk Wylde walked right in front of us before he went on stage. Zakk is the 5^th greatest guitar player of all time and one of my favorite rock stars ever. I’ve seen him with Ozzy Osbourne, his own band Black Label Society, and Generation Axe. This was my first time seeing him with Pantera. He is the only guitar player in the world that is an acceptable substitute for Dimebag Darrell.

Pantera hit the stage and crushed their set. It will always be a strange feeling to see Pantera play without the Abbott brothers, but Charlie Benante and Zakk filled in the gaps admirably. Pantera was one of the best opening bands I’ve ever seen for Metallica.

There are fewer things more enjoyable in life than watching Zakk shred

Pantera finished up and anticipation started to build. People that I had texted earlier kept filing in. We could barely contain our excitement.

Friends and former work colleagues getting together for Metallica

The lights went out and “Long Way to The Top” by AC/DC hit the speakers. It was time for Metallica to start and I thought my head was going to explode. Metallica walked through the aisle toward the donut-shaped stage and Lars Ulrich, the greatest drummer in history, stopped right in front of us.

Lars Ulrich putting his in-ear monitors in

Once the traditional opening song “Ecstasy of Gold” was finished, the excitement in the stadium was at fever pitch. The band took the stage, and bam! They started right off with my favorite live Metallica song “Creeping Death”! I, along with the frenzied MetLife Stadium crowd of over 80,000, started singing along to every word.

Fifteen songs followed through a blistering set that spanned Metallica’s entire career. There was a heavy dose of classics such as “Harvester of Sorrow”, “Holier Than Thou”, “Battery” and others that we all grew up with. They also played three songs from the new album “72 Seasons”, including the live debut of “Shadows Follow”.

James Hetfield is a superbly talented front man. He held the crowd in the palm of his hand for the entire night. He compelled us to chant “Temptation” during “If Darkness Had a Son”. He acknowledged his 60^th birthday just the night before the show as he prepared to play “Fade to Black”.

There is a genuine element to Metallica that helps them to connect with the audience. Kirk Hammett made a mistake during the intro to “Nothing Else Matters” but he laughed it off and started over and he nailed it. Nobody seemed to be upset about it. Robert Trujillo held down the bass line and backing vocals like the seasoned veteran that he is.

The stage setup is massive for this tour, and it is very difficult to take everything in. There was smoke, fire, lights, a snake pit, and a beach ball drop. Lars used four different rotating drumkits at different points of the stage throughout the show. We had a great vantage point when the band was right in front of us but had a hard time seeing them when they wandered elsewhere on the stage.

With “Master of Puppets”, the show came to an end. We were excited, exhausted, and left wanting more. We dove to the floor as the band showered us with guitar picks. I did not manage to grab one, but Pooch got two and gave me one of his. What a guy!

Saturday was a day of rest for the band in between shows. I put on my finest Metallica t-shirt from the European leg of the tour and went to Manhattan with Susan to run some errands and see Bobby and his kids. Susan and I were in Eataly, and someone saw my shirt and told me he was at the show the previous night, too. We traded Metallica stories for a bit. As we walked around town, I spotted people who looked like tourists in Metallica apparel. They really did take over the whole area.

Sunday was a bit less hectic getting to the stadium. We left early to be there because I hired a friend BBQ-By-Bear to cater our tailgate. Bear is a grill master who routinely caters tailgates at MetLife Stadium events, and he was the right man for the job.

Bear got to the stadium right when the parking lot opened and found a great spot right by the entrance to the stadium to set up. We started to filter in as food was ready on the grill. It was a perfect day for a tailgate and excitement was once again building for the show.

This time we were on different agendas for when to go inside and where to stand. Ned, Sue, and their kids wanted to get inside for both opening acts, so they went back to the Larry Grantham spot early. Chris was unsatisfied with the view from that spot, so he went in by himself to get another vantage point.

A handful of us went in before Five Finger Death Punch went on to try to scout a different spot with a better view and settled on a different location where the stage was lower. I am not a FFDP fan and was not overly impressed with the show. They were slightly better than my low expectations.

I was at that Guns ‘N Roses show. And the Slayer show!

A lot of people wearing Iron Maiden tonight

The canned music routine to start the Metallica set was the same as on Friday. Metallica hit the stage and tore into “Whiplash”, and it was on! Bobby was especially excited, that is one of his favorite songs to see live. They went right into “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and the crowd nearly lost it. This was such a hot opening that I used up nearly all the energy I had on the first two songs.

Sunday night followed the same theme of career spanning songs, and as promised was completely unique from Friday’s set. We were treated to the live debut of “Too Far Gone?” which was intermingled with classics like “Ride the Lightning”. Kirk played the solo for “Lux Æterna” right in front of us. While this is far from his best solo, it was mesmerizing to watch a guitar god like him shred right in front of us.

James Hetfield commanded the crowd again. They re-worked “Wherever I May Roam” to pause the instruments so the crowd could sing the hook repeatedly. Giant beach balls fell from the light towers as the band ripped into “Whiskey in The Jar”. I was wiped out when “One” and “Enter Sandman” finished off the set and the show was over. This time, I was able to grab a guitar pick of my own as it hit the floor!

The last ones standing in general admission at the end of the night

It was a bitter-sweet feeling when the show ended. It was just such an epic weekend that I couldn’t wrap my head around it. It was an exciting feeling to know that Metallica was in town and had taken it over. The shows were breathtaking. Most importantly, as far as I could tell, everyone in my group had an absolute blast.

My plan when the tour was announced was to go to six cities in 2023 and 2024, but the most important two for me were Paris and East Rutherford. Everything else is just going to be the cherry on top. Metallica may be done with my home state, but next up for me is a road trip to Montreal to see them do it all over again!

My M72 World Tour itinerary

	Show #	Date	Venue	City
Complete	1	5/17/2023	Stade de France	Saint-Denis, France
	2	5/19/2023	Stade de France	Saint-Denis, France
	3	8/4/2023	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ
	4	8/6/2023	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ
Upcoming	5	8/11/2023	Stade Olympique	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
	6	8/13/2023	Stade Olympique	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
	7	9/1/2023	State Farm Stadium	Glendale, AZ
	8	9/3/2023	State Farm Stadium	Glendale, AZ
	9	7/12/2024	Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano	Madrid, Spain
	10	7/14/2024	Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano	Madrid, Spain
	11	8/2/2024	Gilette Stadium	Foxborough, MA
	12	8/4/2024	Gilette Stadium	Foxborough, MA

My lifetime Metallica concert history

1	4/8/1992	Brendan Byrne Arena	East Rutherford, NJ	Wherever We May Roam
2	7/17/1998	Giants Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	Poor Retouring Me
3	11/24/1998	Roseland Ballroom	New York, NY	Garage Barrage
4	11/23/1999	Madison Square Garden	New York, NY	S&M
5	7/20/2000	Giants Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	Summer Sanitarium
6	7/8/2003	Giants Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	Summer Sanitarium 2003
7	4/20/2004	Nassau Coliseum	Uniondale, NY	Madly In Anger With The World
8	10/22/2004	Continental Airlines Arena	East Rutherford, NJ	Madly In Anger With The World
9	1/17/2009	Wachovia Center	Philadelphia, PA	World Magnetic
10	1/31/2009	Prudential Center	Newark, NJ	World Magnetic
11	2/1/2009	Prudential Center	Newark, NJ	World Magnetic
12	11/14/2009	Madison Square Garden	New York, NY	World Magnetic
13	11/15/2009	Madison Square Garden	New York, NY	World Magnetic
14	9/14/2011	Yankee Stadium	New York, NY	The Big 4
15	6/23/2012	Bader Field	Atlantic City, NJ	Orion Music + More
16	6/24/2012	Bader Field	Atlantic City, NJ	Orion Music + More
17	5/12/2017	Lincoln Financial Field	Philadelphia, PA	Worldwired
18	5/14/2017	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	Worldwired
19	5/17/2017	The New Coliseum Presented by NYCV	Uniondale, NY	Worldwired
20	7/19/2017	Parc Jean-Drapeau	Montreal, QC	Worldwired
21	10/20/2018	Bryce Jordan Center	State College, PA	Worldwired
22	10/25/2018	Wells Fargo Center	Philadelphia, PA	Worldwired
23	9/6/2019	Chase Center	San Francisco, CA	S&M2
24	9/24/2021	Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center	Louisville, KY	Louder Than Life
25	9/25/2021	Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center	Louisville, KY	Louder Than Life
26	5/29/2022	Harvard Athletic Complex	Boston, MA	Boston Calling
27	8/11/2022	Highmark Stadium	Buffalo, NY	(none)
28	5/17/2023	Stade de France	Saint-Dennis, FR	M72 World Tour
29	5/19/2023	Stade de France	Saint-Dennis, FR	M72 World Tour
30	8/4/2023	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	M72 World Tour
31	8/6/2023	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	M72 World Tour

Link to YouTube playlist of all official Metallica concert videos I have been present for.

Metallica songs I have seen performed on the M72 World Tour

Song	Times Seen
72 Seasons	2
Battery	2
Blackened	2
Creeping Death	2
Enter Sandman	2
Fade To Black	2
For Whom The Bell Tolls	2
Fuel	2
Harvester Of Sorrow	2
Holier Than Thou	2
If Darkness Had A Son	2
King Nothing	2
Lux Æterna	2
Master of Puppets	2
Moth Into Flame	2
Nothing Else Matters	2
One	2
Orion	2
Ride The Lightning	2
Sad But True	2
Seek and Destroy	2
The Call Of Ktulu	2
The Day That Never Comes	2
The Unforgiven	2
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)	2
Wherever I May Roam	2
Whiskey In The Jar	2
You Must Burn!	2
Cyanide	1
I Disappear	1
Screaming Suicide	1
Shadows Follow	1
Sleepwalk My Life Away	1
The Memory Remains	1
Too Far Gone?	1
Whiplash	1
Total:	64
Unique:	36

All Metallica songs I have seen performed live

Song	Times Seen
Enter Sandman	27
Nothing Else Matters	27
One	27
Master of Puppets	26
Sad But True	26
Seek and Destroy	23
For Whom the Bell Tolls	21
Creeping Death	18
Fade to Black	17
Fuel	14
Blackened	13
Wherever I May Roam	13
Battery	12
Moth Into Flame	11
The Unforgiven	11
Ride The Lightning	10
The Day That Never Comes	9
The Memory Remains	9
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)	9
Whiplash	9
Harvester of Sorrow	8
Holier Than Thou	8
Cyanide	7
Hardwired	7
Now That We’re Dead	7
Atlas, Rise!	6
Fight Fire With Fire	6
The Four Horsemen	6
Whiskey In The Jar	6
All Nightmare Long	5
Broken, Beat And Scarred	5
Halo On Fire	5
King Nothing	5
No Leaf Clover	5
Of Wolf and Man	5
That Was Just Your Life	5
The Call of Ktulu	5
The End Of The Line	5
Breadfan	4
Hit The Lights	4
Last Caress	4
I Disappear	3
Orion	3
St. Anger	3
The God That Failed	3
Through the Never	3
Turn The Page	3
72 Seasons	2
Am I Evil?	2
Bleeding Me	2
Blitzkrieg	2
Die, Die My Darling	2
Don’t Tread On Me	2
Frantic	2
If Darkness Had A Son	2
Last Caress/Green Hell	2
Lux Æterna	2
Motorbreath	2
My Friend Of Misery	2
Overkill	2
The Outlaw Torn	2
The Shortest Straw	2
The Struggle Within	2
The Thing That Should Not Be	2
Trapped Under Ice	2
Until It Sleeps	2
You Must Burn!	2
– Human	1
(Anesthesia) – Pulling Teeth	1
…And Justice For All	1
All Within My Hands	1
Confusion	1
Damage Inc.	1
Devil’s Dance	1
Dirty Window	1
Disposable Heroes	1
Dyers Eve	1
Escape	1
Hell And Back	1
Helpless	1
Hero of the Day	1
Iron Foundry	1
Jump In The Fire	1
Justice Medley	1
Killing Time	1
Last Caress/So What/Die, Die My Darling	1
Low Man’s Lyric	1
Mastertarium	1
Mercyful Fate	1
Metal Militia	1
My Apocalypse	1
No Remorse	1
Phantom Lord	1
Sabbra Cadabra	1
Screaming Suicide	1
Shadows Follow	1
Sleepwalk My Life Away	1
Small Hours	1
So What	1
Spit Out The Bone	1
Stone Cold Crazy	1
The Ecstasy of Gold	1
The Judas Kiss	1
The Prince	1
The Unforgiven III	1
The Wait	1
Too Far Gone?	1
Total	548
Unique	107

Filed Under: Metallica Tagged With: 72 Seasons, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich, M72EastRutherford, M72WorldTour, Mammoth, Metallica, MetLife Stadium, Pantera, Robert Trujillo, Zakk Wylde

Feed The Appetite

June 9, 2023 by njnonconformist 1 Comment

A diary of my trip to France to see Metallica’s M72 World Tour in May 2023

May 15, 2023

Since this is 2023 and we were flying United, our scheduled 6:30 PM departure turned out to be a 12:15 AM departure out of Newark Liberty Airport. Our original flight was cancelled, and the replacement flight was delayed numerous times. I guess this type of fun is what I was missing all the years I spent not flying to Europe.

May 16, 2023

We landed about six and a half hours later than originally planned. Susan arranged for a pickup at the airport and notified the dispatcher about the cancelled flight and the delayed replacement flight before we took off. We landed and she got a note saying that they cancelled the ride because we didn’t show up. So, we stood in the “ham and egger” taxi line and hopped a cab to the hotel. The first thing I noticed about Paris is that they sure do love their graffiti. It’s everywhere, on the walls along the highway, on the box trucks, and on street signs.

We rolled up to the hotel in Montmartre and our room was not ready, so we headed into town. First off, I needed to kill my jet lag, so I started off with my trusty cure.

My handy jet lag cure, slam a 5-Hour Energy Extra Strength and chase it with a tall Red Bull

We wandered into Cimetière de Montmartre. The second thing I noticed about Paris is that they like their mausoleums.

After checking into the hotel, we set off for dinner at Le Dôme on the Metro. The stations in the Metro do not smell nearly as bad as the stations in the New York City subway. I ordered the monkfish and the third thing I noticed about Paris, and this was not a surprise at all, is that the food is awesome.

We walked from the restaurant towards Notre Dame through Jardin Du Luxembourg. It reminded me of a smaller version of Central Park. Notre Dame is still being rehabilitated from damage from a devastating 2019 fire so we could not get very close but could see where the fire had badly damaged the structure.

As close as you can get to Notre Dame while it is being restored

Across the street, we stopped at La Crème de Paris for dessert. I grabbed a honey crepe and officially ate too much on my first day in Paris.

At about this point, bone-crushing jet lag set in, so we headed back to the hotel in an Uber. I needed to be at the top of my game for Wednesday, the night of the first Metallica concert!

May 17, 2023

I woke up ready to rock for the most important day of the year so far, my first Metallica concert since August 2022!

Our hotel gave us a walking tour guide of the surrounding area of Montmartre. One of the stops was a restaurant called Hardware Society, so we stopped there for breakfast.

My French isn’t very good, but I think I understood the sign at Hardware Society

After breakfast, we took a short walk to Sacre Coeur and the Montmartre overlook. This was my first view of what Paris looked like, sprawling and full of buildings that were only a few stories high. I was not expecting the terrain to be so hilly.

We walked to the Metallica pop up store at Crémerie de Paris. I wanted to beat the lines at the concert by buying my t-shirts there, but there turned out to be a long line to get in anyway.

Along the walk to the Metallica pop up store, I was taken aback by how many cafes and restaurants there are in Paris. I wondered at first how they all stayed in business, but throughout the trip noticed how full and bustling they all seemed to be.

With our Metallica merchandise in hand, we took the Metro to the Eiffel Tower. Our tickets included a glass of Moet at the top floor.

The Tower offered an even grander view of Paris than the Montmartre overlook. The streets are laid out in a chaotic and maze-like fashion, and the sprawl is even more evident than my first vantage point.

On the way out, we walked down the stairs from the “2^nd floor”. I found out the hard way that the 2^nd floor is much higher than two stories, and it was a dizzying descent down a long spiral staircase.

We went back to the hotel for a quick power nap and to get gussied up for Metallica! We grabbed a quick dinner nearby at La Sancerre. It was my first time eating French Onion Soup in France!

We used Google maps to plot a course to the show at Stade de France in Saint-Denis. It told us to take the Metro to a bus stop to connect there to a bus that went to the stadium. This turned out to be a huge mistake. Our bus did not show and there appeared to be angry commuters walking away in disgust. There was a lot of construction and traffic in the area, and we were confused about what to do. None of the buses that came were the bus we wanted, and the clock was ticking, we had to get there!

Walking didn’t seem to be a good idea; it would take about 45 minutes, which we didn’t have. We tried an Uber, but it looked like it drove past us and was stuck in traffic and wouldn’t arrive for 20 minutes. We tried hailing several taxis to no avail (we couldn’t figure out their red light/green light/no light system) until one finally waived us in, apparently somewhat begrudgingly. I expected to get stuck in traffic as we approached the stadium, but it took about five minutes for him to drop us off right outside. Crisis averted; we were there on time.

This was my first time in a stadium outside of the US. I read that it previously had hosted international events including World Cup Soccer. But it looked to be very bare bones to me, missing a lot of the amenities that standard NFL stadiums have. The lettering and numbering convention for their seating sections was confusing. I stopped to ask an usher where our seats were. He looked at my ticket and shrugged his shoulders and told us he did not know. It turned out we were only one section over from where he was stationed.

Our seats were in the lower bowl in the 16^th row. I normally like getting general admission tickets for Metallica so I can get close, but I had a Ticketmaster snafu and accidentally bought seated tickets. This tour is the first time that Metallica featured a stage in the round in a stadium, normally that practice is reserved for arenas. There were six lighting and sound towers that surround the stage and one of them partially obstructed our view, but not to the point that we would miss any substantial part of the show.

We sat down 20 minutes before the show. The anticipation was building despite the continued sunshine. At this time of year, sunset in Paris is well after the normal start time for Metallica at around 8:45 PM. With all the exhaustion from the travel to Paris, and the transit debacle getting to the stadium, I barely had time for it to sink in that I was about to live a life-long dream to see Metallica in Paris! It hit me like a ton of bricks when the loudspeaker blared AC/DC’s “Long Way to The Top”, the traditional cue that a Metallica concert is about to start. We were minutes away and I thought my head was going to explode!

At the commencement of the recorded music to cue the show, Metallica took the stage to a thunderous reception from the crowd. They tore into “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. James Hetfield started jumping up and down to fire up the crowd and the audience sang every word.

Fifteen songs followed, and they were a mix of classics, rare cuts, and new songs from their recently released album “72 Seasons”. I was excited to hear “I Disappear” for the first time in years. It was the first time I got to see any of the new songs performed live. “Lux Æterna” was an instant heavy metal anthem. I enjoyed the three songs they played from their greatest album of all, the eponymously named “Metallica”. “Holier Than Thou” always fires me up. The band took delight in playing the instrumental “Orion”, their excitement was evidenced in their body language.

The centered stage let Metallica connect with the crowd in a way that they couldn’t do from their normal end stage setup at stadiums. James, Kirk Hammett, and Robert Trujillo circled the stage throughout the show. Lars Ulrich’s drum kit was relocated to different sections of the stage throughout the show and rotated in each spot, so the audience had many different vantage points for his playing. The band played to all sections of the stadium, including fans in the Snake Pit in the center of the doughnut-shaped stage.

The frenzied set concluded with “Master of Puppets”, which is critically accepted as one of the most important heavy metal songs in the history of the genre. Fireworks were displayed on the big screens on top of the lighting towers. I thought that was odd, I’m used to actual fireworks at Metallica shows, I wonder if they just didn’t have a pyrotechnic permit for the show in Paris.

Our view of the whole stage and the lighting towers, such a cool setup

Usually, the end of a Metallica show is bitter-sweet because it is over, but this one was different. Due to the nature of the M72 World Tour, they were going to play a second show in less than 48 hours with a completely different set list. I was able to leave happy both from satisfaction from the show I had just seen and anticipation for the second one.

We followed the crowd to a train station that was fifteen-minute walk away from the stadium. I guess city planners didn’t think it was important to build a stadium near a train station. We made our way back to Pigalle for a nightcap. This section of Paris was especially lively for a Wednesday night. A few glasses of wine later, we walked back to our hotel completely exhausted.

May 18, 2023

The day started with a breakfast of pain au chocolate from a local bakery. That was one of my objectives, to have pain au chocolate as much as I could in France. Our first destination was the Musée du Louvre. The Louvre started off as a palace for kings outside of the busy section of the city, so it is obscenely large. So large in fact, that it is hard to make sense of some parts of the visitor map. We managed to figure out the route to the Mona Lisa, observing the art collection along the way.

A lot of the art in the Louvre was stolen from French conquests, but in recent years was purchased or collected from donations. It gave me an appreciation for their history and dedication to the arts. I’m not an art critic by any means, but it was interesting to see the conflation of pieces inspired by mythologies, Catholic teachings, and important historical figures.

Probably some French king who was a dick to his subjects

Next up was a wine tasting at Les Caves Du Louvre. It used to be the wine cellar for the Louvre. Some of the cellar tunnels were cut off for construction of the Metro. It was privately bought and turned into a wine shop that hosts tours. The ceilings were very low, even for someone of my stature.

Good thing I’m really short or I would have banged my head in here

We walked along the Seine and back to our hotel, about an hour away. The endless cafes were jammed, and people were out and about on a late spring day.

After a quick stop at the hotel, we went to dinner at La Boîte Aux Lettres. I grabbed a steak with smashed potatoes and cheese, it was fantastic. Susan rolled with a piece of fish and gave her meal high marks, too.

They do both the surf and turf very well in Paris

After dinner we went to see Moulin Rouge. We were prohibited from taking pictures of the show (probably because of the gratuitous nudity) which is too bad because it was quite an interesting experience. I’ve only been to a few Broadway musicals in my lifetime and sat there in agony throughout most of them. But I really enjoyed the Moulin Rouge cabaret, and it wasn’t just because of the nudity. It was an impressive production and featured some incredibly athletic performances and a fascinating contortionist. Maybe being in a different language helped, too. I couldn’t complain about the lyrics since I didn’t understand them.

Overall, visiting the Louvre Museum and the Moulin Rouge was quite a contrast to the previous day’s Metallica-centric activities.

May 19, 2023

I woke up ready to rock for the most important day of the year so far, my first Metallica concert since Wednesday!

We started the day with breakfast at the Breizh Café with both savory and sweet crepes. Why not have your first dessert of the day at breakfast?

Next up, we took the Metro to Le Catacombs for a tour. This was a wild experience, like nothing I had seen before.

The catacombs were originally a limestone mine underneath the entire city of Paris. Somehow their collective society forgot about the tunnels it left behind as they began to build throughout the city. The tunnels were structurally unsound so houses or even entire streets would sink into the ground. The catastrophe made its way to the king who did nothing at first but finally asked an architect to check out what was happening. They were startled to find the massive tunnels and set about stabilizing them to prevent further damage to the city.

Years later, cemeteries and hospitals were overflowing with carcasses from massive waves of death from diseases like the plague and syphilis. The reigning king ordered the bodies to be dumped in the mine tunnels, thus turning them into catacombs. Millions of bodies were disposed of in the catacombs in the following years, many of them in aesthetically pleasing patterns of femurs and skulls, with the rest of the bones piled up behind them.

The tour allowed us to walk among the bones throughout a small section of the tunnels. There were an unimaginable number of them throughout our walk. I found it to be paradoxically eerie and humorous. I took a lot of pictures.

I think that translates to “Attention: lotsa dead people ahead”

Luckily, I was dressed to match the skulls

I need to decorate my living room like this

This was a great way to prepare for a heavy metal concert: with skulls, bones, disease, despair, and death!

After the tour we stopped at La Mabillon for a drink, and I got a Tiki Toi. The name reminded me of one of my favorite drinks at the Jersey Shore, the Tiki Tea. This one was very different.

I stopped for a quick dinner at Le Nazir and ordered the burger with fries. I forgot they serve fries with mayonnaise in France.

The burgers in Paris beat the ones at my local Wendy’s

We changed our plan of attack to get to the stadium, reversing the route we took to get back from the Wednesday show on the Metro. That worked out well to get us there, but the biggest annoyance of our trip stuck upon our arrival at the station. On our way towards the exit, we were stopped by security who asked to see our tickets. We were told we then had to talk to someone who appeared to be some sort of transit officer. She told us we bought the wrong priced tickets and had to pay a EUR 30 fine on the spot! My first inclination was to start screaming and cursing at her, but instincts kicked in right away. I didn’t want to spend the night in a French prison instead of watching Metallica. Incredulously, I paid the fine with my credit card and we headed towards the stadium.

For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why our ticket at that price let us get through the turnstiles the previous night. Later, I checked into it, and we were exactly 1 EUR short on each ticket. I would have gladly paid the extra Euro had I known. Anyway, we chalked it up to France needing a way to keep government employees employed.

This time we had more time before the show to check out the stadium. Susan hadn’t had a chance to get dinner with me, so she tried to get a sandwich at the only concession stand anywhere near us. They said they were out of sandwiches, so she had to eat stale popcorn for dinner. They had only one beer to choose from, Heineken. What kind of stadium only serves one kind of beer? Especially something as awful as Heineken?

The bathrooms were woefully inadequate, they were far from the stands and undersized. They had no hand driers or paper towels, everyone just either didn’t wash their hands or walked out with them soaking wet.

Stade de France totally sucks. I don’t recommend attending an event there just to say you did. Only go for something important like Metallica.

None of that was going to deter me from having a blast. The standard canned audio to start the show hit the speakers and the crowd heated up. It looked like there were more people there, maybe because the show was on a Friday.

Metallica hit the stage and started with my favorite Metallica song, “Creeping Death!”. I was in absolute heaven, screaming along with the “Die! Die! Die!” chant coming from the frenzied crowd.

Just like on Wednesday, Metallica played a total of sixteen career-spanning songs, each one of which was an absolute delight. I really enjoyed seeing “If Darkness Had a Son” for the first time, the “temptation” chant it incurs from the crowd is intense. They played another instrumental, “The Call of Ktulu” from their second album. The set finished with blistering renditions of “One” and “Enter Sandman”.

These two concerts made the entire trip worth it. The members of Metallica have more money than they will ever need, and they are in their early sixties, around the age when many people start to think about retirement, especially those who are ultra-wealthy. But Metallica is soldering on, making new music and playing huge stadiums around the world. They have slowed down their touring pace considerably (this entire tour is only 25 shows over the course of two years), but they attack the shows with the same intensity they had when they started the band in the early eighties.

James told the crowd on both nights that they consider playing in front of crowds to be their purpose. The joy and excitement they play with cannot be faked; they clearly take pride in performing at the highest level of their lives.

Stade de France, the worst stadium you can possibly imagine

Almost time for the second Metallica concert in three nights

Metallica looks so heroic and triumphant

This time the end of the show was indeed bittersweet. I was thoroughly satisfied with both unique sets and happy that I was able to live a dream of seeing Metallica play in France. But I was bummed that the Metallica part of the trip was over, and I must wait until August to see them again in East Rutherford.

We bought the properly priced tickets for the Metro and headed back to Pigalle for a few drinks and a late-night snack before calling it a night.

May 20, 2023

We didn’t have much of an agenda for Saturday, so we started with breakfast at Marcel. We took the Metro to the Seine River for a riverboat tour hosted by Bateau Mouches. The narration was hard to follow because it was in about six different languages, and I kept zoning out before they got to the English portions. But it was a lot of fun and the views of the city from the boat were cool.

That’s an impressive thingy on that bridge

After the tour was over, we walked to Champs-Élysées. Other than the monuments at each end of the street, there didn’t seem to be much uniquely French to the area. It was a shopping destination full of global brands that I can shop at home. I have a Foot Locker at my local mall, I didn’t feel the need to stop into theirs.

We took the Metro back to the hotel, and I ran down the hill to get a bite to eat. I heard a commotion and there was a protest headed my way. Prior to the trip, I had seen in the news that there were protests in French cities regarding a proposal from the government to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. I couldn’t quite tell, but I think that was what the protest I saw was about.

Unlike the news clips I had seen at home, this one wasn’t dangerous looking. There were some senior citizens with makeshift drums and a megaphone singing a song. They were surrounded by dozens of cops in riot gear. The police presence seemed excessive, but I guess it was best they over prepared.

Good thing they sent in the SWAT Team, that guy with the megaphone looked dangerous

After avoiding catastrophic injuries due to the “riots” we ditched that part of town and went to Rue Montorgueil for the night. Rue Montorgueil is another Parisian walking street with lots of open restaurants and bars with outdoor seating. We settled on Le Compas on for dinner. I went with the pasta and Susan ordered tuna and it was another fantastic meal.

Another cool dinner at an outdoor bistro

We stayed in the area and bar hopped for the rest of the night. Let’s just say that the locals sure know how to live it up.

May 21, 2023

Sunday was our day to plan to leave Paris to visit the Champagne region of France. Originally, we were going to rent a motorcycle and head out this way, but logistics got in the way of easily making this happen, so we took the high-speed train there. The trains connecting the cities in France are insanely fast, I can’t think of a form of land transportation I have used in the states that moved this quickly. It only took about 45 minutes to make it to Reims.

We walked into town from the train station and this city has a much different vibe than Paris. I’m not sure if it was because we were there on a Sunday or because that’s how it always is, but compared to Paris, it was not very lively at all. There is a large pedestrian walkway in the center of town, and a big park nearby, but not many people were out and about, and we couldn’t find much to do.

We found another Notre Dame cathedral, like the rest of their cathedrals, it was insanely ornate and huge.

This is a different Notre Dame than the one in Paris!

After checking into our hotel, we walked to GH Mumm for our scheduled activity for the day, a tour of their historic champagne making facilities. Mumm has a history of using sophisticated techniques for harvesting and pressing grapes. We learned how sediment is removed from champagne in a process called riddling.

The underground tunnel system for their cellars is incredibly long. I think our tour guide used the number of four kilometers in total. Susan noted how much of our trip was spent underground considering the Louvre wine cellars, the catacombs, the Metro, and now the GH Mumm cellars.

Mumm seems to be especially proud of the research and development they’ve done on the first champagne that can be enjoyed in space. They are waiting for approval from the French Space Agency to start including their bottles on space flights.

GH Mumm: turning space stations into nightclubs one bottle at a time

Following the tour, we grabbed a simple dinner at one of the only restaurants that was open. I’d say that the Mumm tour was very cool, but other than that, there’s not much to see in Reims as a tourist.

May 22, 2023

We woke up and got back on the train to Paris and checked into a new hotel. Today was supposed to be the full day we would have been on the Harley, but since that didn’t work out, we winged a new plan. A lot of tourist attractions in Paris are closed on Mondays so we settled on the modern art museum Centre Pompidou.

We started upstairs at Restaurant Georges for lunch, and I ordered the croque monsieur.

The view from the rooftop outside the restaurant was cool.

We walked through most of the galleries to check out the current exhibits. The most interesting one to me was the Norman Foster exhibit, he is a world-renowned architect with a portfolio spanning 50 years.

The art on display there was expectedly different from what was on display at the Louvre. The contrast in modern art to the classical pieces is very pronounced. It was certainly less centered around mythology and religion. But it is all representative of Paris’ continued dedication to the arts.

Dinner that night was at L’Aller Retour. I ordered steak frites with mashed carrots. I sure had a lot of beef on this trip.

I came to Paris for Metallica. And the Steak frites.

May 23, 2023

This was the third biggest day of the trip, behind only the two Metallica days. Part of my original dream to see Metallica in Paris included renting a Harley and riding it around wine country. Tuesday was the day to seal the deal.

After I failed to locate a suitable bike using my paid Harley Owners Group membership, Susan managed to easily find one by contacting ATS Harley-Davidson Paris Bastille. I’m not sure why HOG didn’t make it that simple for me, but I’m glad she just googled it and figured it out.

We reserved a Road King for 9 AM for when they opened. We woke up and headed straight there to maximize the time on the road. They had the bike waiting for us outside the dealership. After signing off all the paperwork, we got on the bike and headed off. We had until 7 PM that day to get the bike back.

Brand new 2023 Harley-Davidson Rode Glide that was mine for the day

My normal bike that I’ve owned since 2007 is a Fat Boy. Harley has changed a lot of things since then, and the Road King is a bigger bike than my Fat Boy. It has a hydraulic clutch, a windshield, a bigger engine, and a six-speed transmission (mine is a five-speed). Additionally, my bike has a mount on the handlebars to use my phone as a GPS, but the Road King didn’t have the mount, so I was riding blind in a strange land. Even worse is that everything is in kilometers, there is a toll system I don’t understand, and all the road signs are in French.

All told, this added a great degree of difficulty for me. But with Susan’s help navigating from the back seat, and my exceptional riding talent and experience, we made it work. We rode through the craziness of the Paris city traffic and made it to the A4 highway.

The further we got from the city, the less traffic there was, and the scenery got better and better. We exited the A4 in the Champagne region and found signs for a Champagne trail through a series of vineyards. We made our way into Epernay and stopped for lunch. We walked to the Moet headquarters to take a few pictures and got back on the bike.

We improvised a route from there, heading north and west through Parc naturel régional de la Montagne de Reims. There were vineyards everywhere and the scenery was stunning.

From there, we wandered west and south, improvising a route through small towns and farmlands. We passed a lot of old homes and champagne houses. There were signs for WWII memorials, and even a sign for a US Memorial Day celebration. We kept this up until it was time to get back on the A4 to get the bike back to Paris by 7 PM.

The ride was exactly how I imagined it and I was impressed that we were able to improvise a ride without a GPS in a foreign land. It was the culmination of a dream come true vacation.

We timed it perfectly, getting the bike back to the dealer with about 25 minutes to spare. They checked it over, decided I didn’t do any damage to it and refunded my EUR 2,500 security deposit!

I noticed that the dealership windows were smashed with a blunt object. I asked about it and was told that the protestors had targeted them for some reason.

A very friendly and helpful Harley dealer, attacked by protestors

We went back to the hotel to get dressed for one last dinner. We went back to Rue Montorgueil for a late reservation at L’Escargot. Of course, we ordered the snails!

My last dinner in Paris was duck confit, and it was so good.

That was it for France, we woke up early the next morning, went straight to the airport and had an uneventful flight back home to New Jersey. I spent the time on the flight reflecting on this trip and writing most of this blog.

I got everything I wanted out of this trip and then some. I got to see the greatest band of all time play two concerts, I got to ride a Harley around wine country, and I got to explore a city I had never been to before. On top of that, I gained a new perspective about traveling to places outside the US. I think I need to keep this up. Most of all, I am grateful for Metallica, I probably would never have done a trip like this if it wasn’t for them.

Next up for me on the M72 Tour is the lone home game: East Rutherford in August.

My M27 World Tour itinerary

	Show #	Date	Venue	City
Complete	1	5/17/2023	Stade de France	Saint-Denis, France
Complete	2	5/19/2023	Stade de France	Saint-Denis, France
Upcoming	3	8/4/2023	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ
	4	8/6/2023	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ
	5	8/11/2023	Stade Olympique	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
	6	8/13/2023	Stade Olympique	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
	7	9/1/2023	State Farm Stadium	Glendale, AZ
	8	9/3/2023	State Farm Stadium	Glendale, AZ
	9	7/12/2024	Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano	Madrid, Spain
	10	7/14/2024	Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano	Madrid, Spain
	11	8/2/2024	Gilette Stadium	Foxborough, MA
	12	8/4/2024	Gilette Stadium	Foxborough, MA

My lifetime Metallica concert history

Show #	ShowDate	VenueDescription	City	Tour/Event
1	4/8/1992	Brendan Byrne Arena	East Rutherford, NJ	Wherever We May Roam
2	7/17/1998	Giants Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	Poor Retouring Me
3	11/24/1998	Roseland Ballroom	New York, NY	Garage Barrage
4	11/23/1999	Madison Square Garden	New York, NY	S&M
5	7/20/2000	Giants Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	Summer Sanitarium
6	7/8/2003	Giants Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	Summer Sanitarium 2003
7	4/20/2004	Nassau Coliseum	Uniondale, NY	Madly In Anger With The World
8	10/22/2004	Continental Airlines Arena	East Rutherford, NJ	Madly In Anger With The World
9	1/17/2009	Wachovia Center	Philadelphia, PA	World Magnetic
10	1/31/2009	Prudential Center	Newark, NJ	World Magnetic
11	2/1/2009	Prudential Center	Newark, NJ	World Magnetic
12	11/14/2009	Madison Square Garden	New York, NY	World Magnetic
13	11/15/2009	Madison Square Garden	New York, NY	World Magnetic
14	9/14/2011	Yankee Stadium	New York, NY	The Big 4
15	6/23/2012	Bader Field	Atlantic City, NJ	Orion Music + More
16	6/24/2012	Bader Field	Atlantic City, NJ	Orion Music + More
17	5/12/2017	Lincoln Financial Field	Philadelphia, PA	Worldwired
18	5/14/2017	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	Worldwired
19	5/17/2017	The New Coliseum Presented by NYCV	Uniondale, NY	Worldwired
20	7/19/2017	Parc Jean-Drapeau	Montreal, QC	Worldwired
21	10/20/2018	Bryce Jordan Center	State College, PA	Worldwired
22	10/25/2018	Wells Fargo Center	Philadelphia, PA	Worldwired
23	9/6/2019	Chase Center	San Francisco, CA	S&M2
24	9/24/2021	Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center	Louisville, KY	Louder Than Life
25	9/25/2021	Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center	Louisville, KY	Louder Than Life
26	5/29/2022	Harvard Athletic Complex	Boston, MA	Boston Calling
27	8/11/2022	Highmark Stadium	Buffalo, NY	(none)
28	5/17/2023	Stade de France	Saint-Dennis, FR	M72 World Tour
29	5/19/2023	Stade de France	Saint-Dennis, FR	M72 World Tour

Link to YouTube playlist of all official Metallica concert videos I have been present for.

Metallica songs I have seen performed on the M72 World Tour

Song	Times Seen
72 Seasons	1
Battery	1
Blackened	1
Creeping Death	1
Cyanide	1
Enter Sandman	1
Fade To Black	1
For Whom The Bell Tolls	1
Fuel	1
Harverster Of Sorrow	1
Holier Than Thou	1
I Disappear	1
If Darkness Had A Son	1
King Nothing	1
Lux Æterna	1
Master of Puppets	1
Moth Into Flame	1
Nothing Else Matters	1
One	1
Orion	1
Ride The Lightning	1
Sad But True	1
Screaming Suicide	1
Seek and Destroy	1
Sleepwalk My Life Away	1
The Call Of Ktulu	1
The Day That Never Comes	1
The Unforgiven	1
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)	1
Wherever I May Roam	1
Whiskey In The Jar	1
You Must Burn!	1
Total:	32
Unique:	32

All Metallica songs I have seen performed live

Song	Times Seen
Enter Sandman	26
Nothing Else Matters	26
One	26
Master of Puppets	25
Sad But True	25
Seek and Destroy	22
For Whom the Bell Tolls	20
Creeping Death	17
Fade to Black	16
Fuel	13
Blackened	12
Wherever I May Roam	12
Battery	11
Moth Into Flame	10
The Unforgiven	10
Ride The Lightning	9
The Day That Never Comes	8
The Memory Remains	8
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)	8
Whiplash	8
Cyanide	7
Hardwired	7
Holier Than Thou	7
Now That We’re Dead	7
Atlas, Rise!	6
Fight Fire With Fire	6
Harvester of Sorrow	6
The Four Horsemen	6
All Nightmare Long	5
Broken, Beat And Scarred	5
Halo On Fire	5
No Leaf Clover	5
Of Wolf and Man	5
That Was Just Your Life	5
The End Of The Line	5
Whiskey In The Jar	5
Breadfan	4
Hit The Lights	4
King Nothing	4
Last Caress	4
The Call of Ktulu	4
I Disappear	3
St. Anger	3
The God That Failed	3
Through the Never	3
Turn The Page	3
Am I Evil?	2
Bleeding Me	2
Blitzkrieg	2
Die, Die My Darling	2
Don’t Tread On Me	2
Frantic	2
Last Caress/Green Hell	2
Motorbreath	2
My Friend Of Misery	2
Orion	2
Overkill	2
The Outlaw Torn	2
The Shortest Straw	2
The Struggle Within	2
The Thing That Should Not Be	2
Trapped Under Ice	2
Until It Sleeps	2
– Human	1
(Anesthesia) – Pulling Teeth	1
…And Justice For All	1
72 Seasons	1
All Within My Hands	1
Confusion	1
Damage Inc.	1
Devil’s Dance	1
Dirty Window	1
Disposable Heroes	1
Dyers Eve	1
Escape	1
Harverster Of Sorrow	1
Hell And Back	1
Helpless	1
Hero of the Day	1
If Darkness Had A Son	1
Iron Foundry	1
Jump In The Fire	1
Justice Medley	1
Killing Time	1
Last Caress/So What/Die, Die My Darling	1
Low Man’s Lyric	1
Lux Æterna	1
Mastertarium	1
Mercyful Fate	1
Metal Militia	1
My Apocalypse	1
No Remorse	1
Phantom Lord	1
Sabbra Cadabra	1
Screaming Suicide	1
Sleepwalk My Life Away	1
Small Hours	1
So What	1
Spit Out The Bone	1
Stone Cold Crazy	1
The Ecstasy of Gold	1
The Judas Kiss	1
The Prince	1
The Unforgiven III	1
The Wait	1
You Must Burn!	1
Total	516
Unique	106

Filed Under: Metallica, Riding Tagged With: 72 Seasons, France, Harley Davidson, M72Paris, M72WorldTour, Metallica, Paris, Travel

On I Run, Still My Shadows Follow

May 11, 2023 by njnonconformist Leave a Comment

Do you ever think about what it takes to maintain a level of creative excellence for four decades? Do you take for granted that your favorite musical artists can just crank out new albums that easily engage their fan base on a whim? Evidence indicates that it is not as easy as it seems.

Billy Joel’s last rock album was released in 1993. These days he is content to play the same set of songs that are between 30 and 50 years old at every performance. It is a business model that works well for him, he is currently amid a residence at Madison Square Garden with no end in sight. I went to go see him last November, I enjoyed the show.

Twisted Sister was not as fortunate. They found mainstream success with their third album “Stay Hungry” in 1984 and that pushed them to the top of the rock and roll mountain for a fleeting moment. They did not take their own advice to stay hungry. Dee Snyder admitted that once he was rich and famous, he got writers block and couldn’t write good songs anymore. The band went on to only release two unremarkable albums and became an on again-off again nostalgia touring act until their split in 2016.

I found a playlist on Amazon Music titled “90’s Alternative Alternatives”. It is about seven hours long and I recognize three out of every four of the songs from the radio in the 1990’s. I could not tell you if any of those bands are recording new songs or touring today. Most of the acts barely had one album or even more than one song in them before they ran out of ideas.

Some rock and roll acts are best suited to remain relevant by repeating their strong back catalog to live audiences. Others simply did not have the ability to keep a stream of hits coming and faded away. This perspective makes it remarkable that Metallica is still writing and recording new music at the highest level of their career.

Metallica does not just release a new album. They have a public relations machine that turns their album releases into highly anticipated global events. They drip singles with accompanying videos one at a time up to the album release date. The day before the album release, they preview the album in movie theaters across the world. Following the release date, they continue to release videos for the remainder of the songs on the album. It is pretty much enough to whip their diehard fans into an extended frenzy.

All the attention they brought to the latest album also attracted plenty of reviews and commentary. In the four weeks since “72 Seasons” was released, you can sort through plenty of them online, and you’ll find that the album has been mainly positively received.

I refrained from making an instant judgement on the album when I first heard it, I wanted to spend some time with it to really listen and let it sink in. After listening to it constantly since it was released, I am comfortable saying that Metallica is still absolutely at the top of their game, and they have never sounded better.

“72 Seasons” proves that Metallica still has a hard creative edge. Despite all his fame and success, James Hetfield is still processing childhood trauma through the lyrics of his songs. Most of the themes of the songs are identical those of their earlier works: misery, darkness, suicide, and their own concerts.

Some of the songs are mature versions of songs they wrote when they were younger. “Screaming Suicide” is a new “Fade To Black”. “Lux Æterna” is a grown-up “Hit the Lights”. “Inamorata” is an extension of “My Friend of Misery”.

Time will tell if “72 Seasons” will be considered a classic Metallica album. Chances are that it will not be regarded in the same light as one of their first five albums. But the new music is moving Metallica forward and it demonstrates that they are not content to stand pat on their back catalog for their live act.

All of this has me extra excited for the M72 World tour which just started last week in Amsterdam. I’m glad that there will be new songs mixed in with the classics and that the set lists will differ from what I’ve seen at their concerts these past two years.

I am equally excited to visit Paris for the first time. My travel companion Susan is fluent in French and is an accomplished world traveler. But she’s never been to a Metallica concert! She oversees the itinerary for much of the trip, and I trust her plans are going to work out great. My job is to get the Metallica tickets (done!) and to operate the rented Harley Davidson Road King if the weather cooperates.

Next week, the M72 World Tour adventure begins for me. A year and a half with 12 Metallica concerts in six cities and four countries. I am grateful for this opportunity, and I plan to make the most of it. On I run!

My M72 World Tour itinerary

	Show #	Date	Venue	City
Upcoming	1	5/17/2023	Stade de France	Paris, France
	2	5/19/2023	Stade de France	Paris, France
	3	8/4/2023	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ
	4	8/6/2023	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ
	5	8/11/2023	Stade Olympique	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
	6	8/13/2023	Stade Olympique	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
	7	9/1/2023	State Farm Stadium	Glendale, AZ
	8	9/3/2023	State Farm Stadium	Glendale, AZ
	9	7/12/2024	Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano	Madrid, Spain
	10	7/14/2024	Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano	Madrid, Spain
	11	8/2/2024	Gilette Stadium	Foxborough, MA
	12	8/4/2024	Gilette Stadium	Foxborough, MA

My lifetime Metallica concert history

Show #	Date	Venue	City
1	4/8/1992	Brendan Byrne Arena	East Rutherford, NJ
2	7/17/1998	Giants Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ
3	11/24/1998	Roseland Ballroom	New York, NY
4	11/23/1999	Madison Square Garden	New York, NY
5	7/20/2000	Giants Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ
6	7/8/2003	Giants Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ
7	4/20/2004	Nassau Coliseum	Uniondale, NY
8	10/22/2004	Continental Airlines Arena	East Rutherford, NJ
9	1/17/2009	Wachovia Center	Philadelphia, PA
10	1/31/2009	Prudential Center	Newark, NJ
11	2/1/2009	Prudential Center	Newark, NJ
12	11/14/2009	Madison Square Garden	New York, NY
13	11/15/2009	Madison Square Garden	New York, NY
14	9/14/2011	Yankee Stadium	New York, NY
15	6/23/2012	Bader Field	Atlantic City, NJ
16	6/24/2012	Bader Field	Atlantic City, NJ
17	5/12/2017	Lincoln Financial Field	Philadelphia, PA
18	5/14/2017	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ
19	5/17/2017	The New Coliseum Presented by NYCV	Uniondale, NY
20	7/19/2017	Parc Jean-Drapeau	Montreal, QC
21	10/20/2018	Bryce Jordan Center	State College, PA
22	10/25/2018	Wells Fargo Center	Philadelphia, PA
23	9/6/2019	Chase Center	San Francisco, CA
24	9/24/2021	Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center	Louisville, KY
25	9/26/2021	Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center	Louisville, KY
26	5/29/2022	Harvard Athletic Complex	Boston, MA
27	8/11/2022	Highmark Stadium	Buffalo, NY

Link to YouTube playlist of all official Metallica concert videos I have been present for.

Metallica songs I have seen performed on the M72 World Tour

N/A

All Metallica songs I have seen performed live

Song	Times Seen
Enter Sandman	25
Nothing Else Matters	25
One	25
Master of Puppets	24
Sad But True	24
Seek and Destroy	21
For Whom the Bell Tolls	19
Creeping Death	16
Fade to Black	15
Fuel	12
Blackened	11
Wherever I May Roam	11
Battery	10
Moth Into Flame	9
The Unforgiven	9
Ride The Lightning	8
The Memory Remains	8
Whiplash	8
Hardwired	7
Now That We’re Dead	7
The Day That Never Comes	7
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)	7
Atlas, Rise!	6
Cyanide	6
Fight Fire With Fire	6
Harvester of Sorrow	6
Holier Than Thou	6
The Four Horsemen	6
All Nightmare Long	5
Broken, Beat And Scarred	5
Halo On Fire	5
No Leaf Clover	5
Of Wolf and Man	5
That Was Just Your Life	5
The End Of The Line	5
Breadfan	4
Hit The Lights	4
Last Caress	4
Whiskey In The Jar	4
King Nothing	3
St. Anger	3
The Call of Ktulu	3
The God That Failed	3
Through the Never	3
Turn The Page	3
Am I Evil?	2
Bleeding Me	2
Blitzkrieg	2
Die, Die My Darling	2
Don’t Tread On Me	2
Frantic	2
I Disappear	2
Last Caress/Green Hell	2
Motorbreath	2
My Friend Of Misery	2
Overkill	2
The Outlaw Torn	2
The Shortest Straw	2
The Struggle Within	2
The Thing That Should Not Be	2
Trapped Under Ice	2
Until It Sleeps	2
– Human	1
(Anesthesia) – Pulling Teeth	1
…And Justice For All	1
All Within My Hands	1
Confusion	1
Damage Inc.	1
Devil’s Dance	1
Dirty Window	1
Disposable Heroes	1
Dyers Eve	1
Escape	1
Hell And Back	1
Helpless	1
Hero of the Day	1
Iron Foundry	1
Jump In The Fire	1
Justice Medley	1
Killing Time	1
Last Caress/So What/Die, Die My Darling	1
Low Man’s Lyric	1
Mastertarium	1
Mercyful Fate	1
Metal Militia	1
My Apocalypse	1
No Remorse	1
Orion	1
Phantom Lord	1
Sabbra Cadabra	1
Small Hours	1
So What	1
Spit Out The Bone	1
Stone Cold Crazy	1
The Ecstasy of Gold	1
The Judas Kiss	1
The Prince	1
The Unforgiven III	1
The Wait	1

Filed Under: Metallica Tagged With: 72 Seasons, France, James Hetfield, M72 World Tour, Metallica, Paris, Travel

Full Speed or Nothing

January 14, 2023 by njnonconformist 1 Comment

My New Jersey Transit bus was predictably late, and when it arrived it was standing room only. The Lincoln Tunnel was jammed on the way to the Port Authority Bus Terminal. I dodged a few homeless people on my way to the subway platform and hopped the C Train to the Fulton Street Station. A quick walk from there to my Financial District office in Downtown Manhattan and my Monday morning slog to work was complete. I settled into my desk, said hi to everyone, put my phone on the charger and got to work. I am a software developer, and I had a lot of coding to do that day.

There was nothing out of the ordinary on the agenda for the day. The only unusual circumstance was that my boss was visiting that day from our Miami office. He and I had placed a sandwich bet on a Dolphins/Jets NFL game about a month prior, and my Jets won it for me. We decided we would settle the bet at the recently reopened Lenwich in Hanover Square that day. I knew he would be extra annoyed because he really hates the Jets. That was going to make my sandwich even more enjoyable.

About two hours into my day, I paused what I was doing to look at my phone. There was a text message from Metallica (I had previously subscribed to text alerts from their website):

Wait, what? A new Metallica song? How come I hadn’t heard anything about this? What is happening? I’m confused! Wait, how to you pronounce the title? Is “Æ” even in the alphabet?

With alacrity I put my PC headset on and navigated to YouTube. At the top of Metallica’s channel was a link to the new video. I set the volume to maximum and clicked play. Metallica had unleashed a thrash metal instant classic. On first listen, it sounded like a grown-up sequel to “Hit the Lights” from their first album “Kill ‘Em All” crossed with Motörhead’s “Overkill”. I was instantly amazed and fired up.

My mind was racing as I tried to take it in. I needed to know more so I navigated to metallica.com in search of answers. The home page was remade since my last visit.

Wait, what? I just found out about the new Metallica song. But what’s this about a new Metallica album? And what is this about a new Metallica Tour?

I clicked on the tour link and saw the full itinerary. They laid out their touring schedule for 2023 and 2024 all at once. They announced they would play two nights in each city and both set lists would be unique. There were cities all over North America and Europe on the list. One city jumped out at me. It would be a chance to finally make a dream come true.

Metallica is my favorite band, which probably goes without saying. I am imbued with the following beliefs:

Metallica is the greatest band of all time.
James Hetfield is the greatest singer of all time.
James Hetfield is the greatest guitarist of all time.
Lars Ulrich is the greatest drummer of all time.
Kirk Hammett is the second greatest guitarist of all time.
Robert Trujillo is the second greatest bassist of all time.

If you were to challenge me on any of those points, I would not even bother to argue. I would just think that you are stupid, and it would not be worth my time.

In 2018 I wrote a story about a twenty year stretch of my life as a Metallica fan against a backdrop of technological changes in the world over that time. I detailed the twenty-two Metallica concerts I had seen up to that point. But Metallica has been on the move since then and I added five more concerts to my total since 2019.

We flew to San Fransisco in September 2019 for S&M 2, which was the first event at the newly built Chase Center. After a pause in touring for the COVID-19 restrictions, the band hit the road again in 2021. We flew to Louisville in September for the Louder Than Life Festival, and Metallica headlined two of the four nights, playing a distinct set each time. In 2022 I went to the two closest Metallica shows to New Jersey, Boston in May, and Buffalo in August.

Each show was a unique experience, and they were all a reminder about how important it is for me to continue to see Metallica play live at every opportunity I get. They have significantly cut back on their touring schedule, and they are not getting any younger. But they look and sound better than they ever have.

I have been to 27 Metallica concerts over a 30 year stretch from 1992 to 2022. But prior to 2019, I had never traveled very far to see them. I was content to see them play in cities I could drive to from New Jersey, the furthest one being Montreal.

I was never much of a traveler. As a child, our family vacations consisted of driving south for two hours for a two week stay in Long Beach Island. I loved it. I never was jealous of other kids who flew to other places like Disney World. The Jersey shore had everything I needed from a vacation spot, and it was cheap and easy to get there.

Not much changed as an adult. I would rent out houses with friends in various spots between Belmar and Point Pleasant Beach and spend weekends there in the summer. The stories I could write about the things I have seen and done at the Jersey Shore could fill a book. If I could even remember them all!

I also purchased a Harley Davidson in 1999, and I have owned one ever since. When I was not at the shore in the summer, I would be on the bike exploring routes and destinations all along the Appalachian Mountains, from Georgia to Quebec.

Typically, those two activities would satisfy my need to get out of the house and go somewhere. But along the way, I did pick up a nagging desire to mix things up occasionally.

For a long stretch, in the 2000’s, Metallica would only tour in Europe. They would send me an e-mail with my fan club pre-sale code for tickets every time they announced a tour. It started to get annoying that I had priority access for tickets to shows on another continent, but there were none here in America. I started to think to myself that maybe I should go see them play in France one summer and make a vacation out of it. Maybe even rent a Harley and ride through the countryside for a day or two.

I was never able to put it together. At first, I didn’t make it a priority. Then, I had run myself into financial trouble by gut renovating a house. The project went off the rails and I was flat broke for four years. I finished the project in 2019 and sold my condo and I finally had both the time and the money to try to make the “Metallica in France” dream come true. Then a plague swept the earth and shut down all live concerts!

In 2021 I tried to go to one of their European shows, but due to a snafu with ticketing, and rising flight prices, I failed to put it together yet again. But that turned out to not be much of a problem when I saw the itinerary for the “M72 World Tour” for 2023 and 2024. Now was going to be my chance to live out that dream.

Within a few minutes of watching the Lux Æterna video, my phone lit up like a Christmas tree. Friends were texting back and forth about the news and the potential tour dates. I was so distracted that I had to come clean and explain to my boss that Metallica had just announced a tour and I immediately needed to plan. The pre-sale was going to start in less than 48 hours so some quick decisions would have to be made.

This was a tour announcement like none other. Metallica will play two shows in each city with no song repeats. The stage is in the center of each stadium. It will have a donut hole-shaped “Snake Pit” in the middle of the stage offering a 360 view. The tour itinerary covers North America and Europe from April 2023 to September 2024. The first round of tickets would be sold in two-night passes for each city that cannot be broken up.

The second city on the tour is Paris and that jumped out at me immediately! This could be my chance to finally make this dream a reality. The date is not great, it will require me to reschedule a camping trip that I traditionally host that weekend, but sacrifices would have to be made.

After a few more stops in Europe, the tour heads to North America and the first stop is right here in North Jersey at MetLife Stadium. If Metallica plays New Jersey, I go every time.

The following weekend, they head due north to Montreal. Motorcycle and Metallica trip!

The next city that looked good to me is Phoenix on Labor Day weekend. I just visited the area in 2021 for the NASCAR Cup Series championship race and felt like my trip was too short for some of the things I wanted to do. I also have family in the area and they are fun to spend time with. That would be four cities in 2023, a pretty good number to cap it.

Metallica is going to take a well-deserved break starting in November 2023 and they hit the road again in June 2024, beginning again in Europe. Of the five European cities they will travel to in 2024, the one that looked the most interesting to me is Madrid in July. Why limit my dream to see Metallica in Europe to just Paris when I can also go to Madrid?

The next city on the tour is back in America in Foxborough, MA. That will be another motorcycle and Metallica trip for me, not to mention I have a college friend in the area that I enjoy visiting.

Now that I had an itinerary planned out, it was time to start planning the logistics of buying tickets. To steal a quote from a crappy movie I once saw, I’d rather stick a flaming hot skewer in my eye than deal with Ticketmaster. The company was recently in the news for botching a Taylor Smith tour pre-sale. I was surprised so many people were unaware how horrible the Ticketmaster experience was until then. They have been screwing me since they went online in the late 1990’s.

But I still have my priceless Legacy Fan Club Membership at my disposal, so I was counting on that to help me get tickets for every show. I was a paid member of the Metclub for about 17 years, and in 2016 Metallica obsoleted the paid tier, but promised all paid members that they would be grandfathered in to future pre-sales before the rest of the general pubic. Since then they have kept that promise. Today, no amount of money could buy you a Legacy Fan Club Membership from their website. Take that, Taylor Swift fans!

I collected my unique pre-sale code and got to work. I asked around to see what friends wanted to go to what shows. I was able to buy four passes for each city (but only two Snake Pit passes if I was lucky enough to pull them). There were too many of us going to the New Jersey show for me to help everyone who was going. But between us all we had enough pre-sale codes to accommodate everyone. For the rest of the shows, I had enough of my own ticket allocations to cover those that wanted to join me.

I read through the fine print in the ticket sale FAQ. The Legacy Fan Club pre-sales all start at 9 AM local time. That meant that for the France and Madrid shows, I would have to be online at 3 AM local time. Great.

The East Rutherford, Montreal, and Foxborough pre-sales started simultaneously at 9 AM. But I was advised that Ticketmaster does not like when you are buying tickets for multiple events at the same time. It supposedly guards against things like different browsers on the same device, using one Ticketmaster account login or a singular credit card to make simultaneous purchases. There was no good way to verify this, but I was not going to take any chances. I opened two additional Ticketmaster accounts, I assigned each one a different credit card. I lined up three devices: my personal computer, my work notebook computer, and my work desktop computer. I could use them in conjunction to order tickets for the three shows simultaneously. I never trusted the Ticketmaster iOS app, so I nixed the idea of using my phone.

Finally, there was the Phoenix show. That pre-sale would start at 11 AM, but of course the venue has an agreement with Seat Geek instead of Ticketmaster so that would be a different platform and account altogether. I had never previously bought primary market tickets on Seat Geek, so I had a lot of apprehension about their web site capabilities. But I assumed I would be able to figure it out once the rest of the pre-sales were out of the way and just hope for the best.

I reviewed my plan, checked all my accounts and credit cards, got my PCs ready, copied my pre-sale code to them, then set my alarm for 2:40 AM. I do not recall a previous instance that I was so nervous heading to bed. Maybe it was the day before I bought my first Harley, and I knew that I had to ride it home having never previously operating a motorcycle on a highway.

I did not get much sleep, but I was groggy when the alarm went off. My cats Ozzy and Lemmy gave me a confused look as I stumbled down the hallway to the computers I set up. I followed the links from the band website to the event pages on Ticketmaster France and Ticketmaster Spain. The first thing I noticed was that Ticketmaster France has a much different user interface than the American version. On top of that, despite clicking the “EN” link at the top for English, it didn’t translate everything.

I managed to enter both ticket queues for the Madrid and Paris shows and waited about 15 minutes for my spot to pop up to buy tickets. Madrid was first and I immediately selected two Snake Pit tickets and clicked buy. Bingo, I was allocated two Snake Pit tickets! I began the checkout process, and my username and password weren’t working. Unbeknownst to me, you need a separate Ticketmaster account for each country you want to buy tickets in. I had to begin the process of creating an account quickly enough to secure the Snake Pit tickets.

While this was happening, I was trying to pull Paris tickets on a different computer. But with the different interface and the failed translations, I was having a much harder time figuring out what to do. Everything was in a grid that looked like this:

The Snake Pit column was straightforward, but this didn’t appear to be a simple 2-day pass as advertised. I had no idea which to pick but I tried the link for “Tarif Pack 2” but it came back and said “no more seats in this category”. While I was still trying to check out my Madrid tickets, I had to try to figure out how to drop down to general admission for Paris. I grabbed two tickets for what I thought was general admission, then I also had to create a Ticketmaster France account as a requisite for completing the purchase.

Groggy and as confused as I was, I managed to get Snake Pit for Madrid and two tickets for Paris as well. Off to a good start. I went back to bed.

In the morning, I forwarded the French confirmation e-mail to a friend to ask him if I screwed something up. It turned out that I had, I got seats and not general admission tickets. I guess I confused “Pelouse” with “Carrie Or” when I bought tickets. This was a mistake, but not the end of the world. I would still have a pretty good perspective.

Next up, it was time to buy tickets for East Rutherford, Montreal, and Foxborough at the same time. I checked and my regular Ticketmaster account worked for Montreal, so I was all set with my original three-computer plan. Everything was smooth this time, I was not able to get Snake Pit tickets for any of the shows but was easily able to move down to general admission for all three.

Finally, Phoenix was up next at 11. I checked my Seat Geek account and it said, “there is a problem with your account, please call customer service”. I opened a new account, added a credit card, and got in line for more tickets. I was unfamiliar with their queuing system, but after what seemed like a longer than usual wait, I managed to pull general admission tickets.

With that, I was locked in. No Ticketmaster snafus in any country was going to keep me out. My trusty Metclub Legacy Membership came through for me.

This capped a whirlwind 48-hour stretch. I came out of it with a whole new direction in life. I am going to break up the cycle of only spending my vacation time and weekends on my motorcycle and at the Jersey Shore and throw some big travel plans into the mix, inspired by the greatest band of all time.

I have a lot of preparing I need to do. I need to book flights and accommodations along with sightseeing itineraries. I told my personal trainer that I need to step up the intensity of my workouts. I need my strength and conditioning to be as best as possible for these shows.

This turn of events has inspired me to write. I’m going to keep a journal of events around every trip and every concert and turn it into a Metallica travel blog.

Four countries, six cities, twelve Metallica concerts. When it is done, my lifetime total of Metallica concerts seen will increase from 27 to 39.

The text message I got on Monday, November 28, 2022, wasn’t just a notification for a new Metallica video. It was my existential pivot.

Full speed or nothing.

My M72 World Tour itinerary:

City	Country	Venue	Dates
Paris	France	Stade de France	May 17, 19 2023
East Rutherford	USA	MetLife Stadium	Aug 4, 6 2023
Montreal	Canada	Stade Olympique	Aug 11, 13 2023
Phoenix	USA	State Farm Stadium	Sep 1, 3 2023
Madrid	Spain	Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano	Jul 12,14 2024
Foxborough	USA	Gilette Stadium	Aug 2, 4 2024

My lifetime Metallica shows:

Date	Venue	City
4/8/1992	Brendan Byrne Arena	East Rutherford, NJ
7/17/1998	Giants Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ
11/24/1998	Roseland Ballroom	New York, NY
11/23/1999	Madison Square Garden	New York, NY
7/20/2000	Giants Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ
7/8/2003	Giants Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ
4/20/2004	Nassau Coliseum	Uniondale, NY
10/22/2004	Continental Airlines Arena	East Rutherford, NJ
1/17/2009	Wachovia Center	Philadelphia, PA
1/31/2009	Prudential Center	Newark, NJ
2/1/2009	Prudential Center	Newark, NJ
11/14/2009	Madison Square Garden	New York, NY
11/15/2009	Madison Square Garden	New York, NY
9/14/2011	Yankee Stadium	New York, NY
6/23/2012	Bader Field	Atlantic City, NJ
6/24/2012	Bader Field	Atlantic City, NJ
5/12/2017	Lincoln Financial Field	Philadelphia, PA
5/14/2017	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ
5/17/2017	The New Coliseum Presented by NYCV	Uniondale, NY
7/19/2017	Parc Jean-Drapeau	Montreal, QC
10/20/2018	Bryce Jordan Center	State College, PA
10/25/2018	Wells Fargo Center	Philadelphia, PA
9/6/2019	Chase Center	San Francisco, CA
9/24/2021	Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center	Louisville, KY
9/25/2021	Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center	Louisville, KY
5/29/2022	Harvard Athletic Complex	Boston, MA
8/11/2022	Highmark Stadium	Buffalo, NY

Songs I’ve seen performed live:

Song	Times Seen
Enter Sandman	25
Nothing Else Matters	25
One	25
Master of Puppets	24
Sad But True	24
Seek and Destroy	21
For Whom the Bell Tolls	19
Creeping Death	16
Fade to Black	15
Fuel	12
Blackened	11
Wherever I May Roam	11
Battery	10
Moth Into Flame	9
The Unforgiven	9
Ride The Lightning	8
The Memory Remains	8
Whiplash	8
Hardwired	7
Now That We’re Dead	7
The Day That Never Comes	7
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)	7
Atlas, Rise!	6
Cyanide	6
Fight Fire With Fire	6
Harvester of Sorrow	6
Holier Than Thou	6
The Four Horsemen	6
All Nightmare Long	5
Broken, Beat And Scarred	5
Halo On Fire	5
No Leaf Clover	5
Of Wolf and Man	5
That Was Just Your Life	5
The End Of The Line	5
Breadfan	4
Hit The Lights	4
Last Caress	4
Whiskey In The Jar	4
King Nothing	3
St. Anger	3
The Call of Ktulu	3
The God That Failed	3
Through the Never	3
Turn The Page	3
Am I Evil?	2
Bleeding Me	2
Blitzkrieg	2
Die, Die My Darling	2
Don’t Tread On Me	2
Frantic	2
I Disappear	2
Last Caress/Green Hell	2
Motorbreath	2
My Friend Of Misery	2
Overkill	2
The Outlaw Torn	2
The Shortest Straw	2
The Struggle Within	2
The Thing That Should Not Be	2
Trapped Under Ice	2
Until It Sleeps	2
– Human	1
(Anesthesia) – Pulling Teeth	1
…And Justice For All	1
All Within My Hands	1
Confusion	1
Damage Inc.	1
Devil’s Dance	1
Dirty Window	1
Disposable Heroes	1
Dyers Eve	1
Escape	1
Hell And Back	1
Helpless	1
Hero of the Day	1
Iron Foundry	1
Jump In The Fire	1
Justice Medley	1
Killing Time	1
Last Caress/So What/Die, Die My Darling	1
Low Man’s Lyric	1
Mastertarium	1
Mercyful Fate	1
Metal Militia	1
My Apocalypse	1
No Remorse	1
Orion	1
Phantom Lord	1
Sabbra Cadabra	1
Small Hours	1
So What	1
Spit Out The Bone	1
Stone Cold Crazy	1
The Ecstasy of Gold	1
The Judas Kiss	1
The Prince	1
The Unforgiven III	1
The Wait	1

Filed Under: Metallica Tagged With: 72 Seasons, East Rutherford, Foxborough, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich, Lux Æterna, M72 World Tour, Madrid, Metallica, Montreal, Paris, Phoenix, Robert Trujillo

Craving Dopamine

May 23, 2025

May 24, 2025

May 25, 2025

No Mercy from the Ghost Within

August 1, 2024

August 2, 2024

August 3, 2024

August 4, 2024

August 5, 2024

Epilogue

Static and Disarray

Dragging Home This Heathen Harvest

Feed The Appetite

On I Run, Still My Shadows Follow

My M72 World Tour itinerary

My lifetime Metallica concert history

Metallica songs I have seen performed on the M72 World Tour

All Metallica songs I have seen performed live

Full Speed or Nothing

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