For this review I will include my extended travel experiences. Jess and I flew into Seattle the Wednesday before, the plan was to grab some teriyaki from a place I know and go watch the sunset from Richmond Beach which we did. The view and food were amazing! We then stayed in a shit motel near the airport where I argued with the owner over the TV not working. He clearly didn’t care because he only rented out his rooms to hookers and drug users. It was clear that none of them cared about a working TV. Since we were only there a few hours I let it go as well. We caught an early flight into Edmonton, ran some errands like got some food, supplies for our stay and of course weed for the weekend. We also checked out the big mall that everyone talked about, it was pretty big. We didn’t see all of it but from what we did see it was pretty cool. Tried a cheesecake from their food court that was pretty good. When we were done, we scoped out the stadium and the path we would be taking the next day to walk to the show. Then we returned to our rental car, and we headed back to our room to get ready for the next day.
The next morning, we got up early and walked to the venue which was about a 35-minute walk. When we got there, we were 3ish in line for our VIP group (there were several VIP groups). When I say 3ish it’s because those lines are a little fluid, and you have to pay attention throughout the day, or you will lose your place even though you get marked with a marker. As people join the line, and they know people in the line they just join them in that line regardless of the numbers on their hands or when they get there. Which is similar to what happens back at home, so I was prepared for this. I managed to stay close to the front of the line all day until they let us in the stadium and let us line up inside. Once we lined up inside Jess ran and was able to get us the specific shirt for the night, but they were already sold out of the posters for the night. Once they let us in, we managed to get a spot on the rail, while she held our spot, I ran to another merch tent and was able to get the poster. While I was standing there in line one of the Metallica sound guys was there and he commented on my vest and handed me one of the dated guitar picks for the night, which was cool!
As far as the band Wolfgang Van Halen (Mammoth) was great just like the last time, we saw him. He had good energy, unfortunately he didn’t come to the side of the stage where we were, so we didn’t see much of him, but he sounded great. Got the crowd pumped up. Pantera was also great, they of course had a much harder beat and had the crowd going a little more than Wolfgang Van Halen. At the start of their set one of the guys who was helping to set up for Metallica walked by me and handed me a snake pit pass, which was fucking bad ass!! The only problem is he only handed me 1 pass. I showed Jess and she told me to go. For those of you who don’t know a snake pit pass gives you access to the center of the stage, and they sell for over 4k. I told her I wasn’t going to go and leave her by herself, especially somewhere in a place she didn’t know. It was cool to get the pass, but I just wasn’t going to leave her alone. It was too bad I couldn’t figure out a way to use it on both of us. I guess that guy ended up doing that to a few people on the rail and they also didn’t use them because they didn’t want to leave the person they were with. Tough dilemma. Needless to say, we had a great spot and had a great time.
As far as Metallica’s performance, it was fucking amazing, they put on a great show with high energy! The crowd was pumped! People were moshing, a fight broke out behind us at one point. Security had to call the police on a guy who was trying to push his way on the rail between me and the guy next to me. Besides that, all the people around us were chill and we made some new friends that night! I managed to get some more picks, and we had a great time. The walk home was interesting. We were following the crowd and as we approached ChinaTown, we smelled food or so we thought so we veered off trying to find it and we went from all fun and happy crowds to sketchy, homeless people doing drugs. It was quite the change in atmosphere, after a few blocks of not finding food, we decided to join the crowd of concert goers again and just ate when we got back to our room.
Saturday, we had a fairly chill day, we headed to the Metallica pop up store. When we got there the line was around the building down the alley. Though the line was long we only waited for about an hour. Unfortunately, I was only wearing a t-shirt when it started raining on us, thankfully it didn’t last long. After grabbing our merch, we walked around downtown and found a nice steakhouse to eat at. We called it an early night since we knew we wanted to try and get to the stadium earlier the following day, which we didn’t.
Sunday, we ended up getting there about the same time as Friday and ended up being like 5th or 6th-ish in our group. As they lined us up in the stadium, I got in 2nd position which allowed me to get a good spot on the rail. As we were going to the rail, I saw our friend we made on Friday, and I had him cut in line with us so he was able to get a spot next to us. After we got our spots, Jess later ran into the other guy we made friends with, and he later joined us not on the rail but behind us. And just like Friday, once we got in Jess got our shirts and some hoodies while I grabbed posters. So, we were all set with merch and our spots.
The first band of the night was Ice Nine Kills. I only know one of their songs. They put on a good show, very theatrical. They have zombies running on the stage and a few other characters. Though I don’t know their music, they are very entertaining to watch, and they are fun to watch. Though I have to admit I was more excited to see Five Finger Death Punch. When they hit the stage, the place went crazy. I guess a lot of people saw them the night before with Marilyn Mason and they said both of them put on a great set. I know that FFDP put on a great set that night in Edmonton for us and got us all pumped for Metallica. The friend I made on Friday night saw them the night before and got a pick and set list both nights, so he gave me his pick and set list from the Edmonton night.
When Metallica hit the stage, the place was packed, and everyone was ready! After the great performance they put on Friday night fans were excited, and the band delivered another outstanding show! The crowd was dancing, singing, head banging and certainly enjoying themselves, I know I certainly was! At the 2nd to the end last song ” Enter Sandman” when they dropped the big beach balls I managed to get my hand on one of them and one of the Metallica workers tried to bat it back into the crowd but I had a good grip on it, after about 3 hit he was annoyed so I let it go. Then another one came, and I got a hold of that one and he tried to bat that one but this time I held on, he was annoyed again but pulled out his pocket knife and popped it. Since I couldn’t take it back with me, I ended up giving it to the friend I made on Friday, the one who gave me the FFDP pick and set list. All and all Jess and I had a great time in Canada at the Metallica show. We met some great people in line and on the rail and we were excited for our next trip to see them in Seattle. Also thanks to the German friend who gave me the fan picks and patches.
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