NJMatsuya Photography

A couple of months back I was asked by a friend if I’d be interested in going to a Metallica concert.  Now, I’ve never listened to any form of heavy metal, and though I knew the Metallica name, I had no idea what their music would be like – to me, all heavy metal sounds pretty much like…noise.

However, I thought it would be an interesting experience, one of those things that you’d like to try at least once, so I went ahead and asked him to get me a ticket.  I also asked another friend (Leon, whose recital I recently attended) if he would be interested since I knew he was a Metallica fan from back in our university days.  He enthusiastically agreed, and said his fiancée would also be coming along.

The concert was yesterday (September 25) at the Saitama Super Arena, and the 4 of us met around 15:00, grabbed a bite to eat, and headed in to take our seats.

We stayed for the entire show which ran from 17:00 to almost 22:00.   There were 2 opening acts, one by a group called “The Sword“, and the another called “Fear Factory“, both of which garnered applause from an enthusiastic audience.  However, when Metallica came on, the entire arena burst into a frenzy.  Honestly, even though I’m still not a heavy metal fan, I have to admit that the sheer energy emanating from the audience was something to see and experience.  Watching a video on youtube or a music video on TV simply can not compare.

Though I was somewhat deafened by the end of the concert (seriously, I did have trouble hearing for a short period of time after the performance), it was actually fun!  My friends and I were commenting that we didn’t really see any teenagers in the audience – the youngest we saw were in their mid-twenties, and there were plenty in their 30’s.  In short, the audience comprised mostly of people who’ve probably followed the band since they first came on the scene in the 1980’s.  And there were plenty of fans – I’d guess at least a good couple thousand people were in the audience last night.

I took several hundred pictures last night (over 500…) and I’m slowly going through them.  I should have them uploaded in the next day or two, but for the time being, here’s a video clip I shot of the opening song.