Every time a potential problem was served, the production team found an answer. The following days were spent making adjustments to many aspects of the physical production. Then there’s the simple fact that you can’t fucking jog with an expensive instrument in your hands! Of course, wills and ways win out, but not before much thought and extra effort take place… Then, there are blind spots that cannot always be seen. How was he going to get to all four points? How about the maintenance of FOUR kits in ONE show? Ditto, I found myself thinking a lot about the other techs, Zach, Justin, and Chad, who were all now having to have eyes and ears on four very different areas of a stage so large that the entire 40th Anniversary arena show could fit within the Snake Pit? It isn’t as easy as “well, they can just gently jog around the pit, right?” There are security and crew watching over the tech aspects of the show. ![]() Four! I wanted to laugh, but such cruelty would be the providence of bastards. Jimmy, Lars’ drum tech, had gone from maintaining one to two drum kits per night to watching over four. And then there were the logistical issues of four drum kits, all on under-stage risers, making sure they worked, making sure other band members realized when a drum “pit” was open, being careful not to get swallowed up by the “drum jaws” as they coughed up the yellow kits.Īdd to that the fact that the humans still had to play their parts. ![]() I tried to imagine how the band would connect, where they would go, and how they would “feel” it. Of course, to properly gauge what I’m talking about, indeed, what some of you saw tonight, you must imagine what the band did on the first day we arrived on April 19.Ī huge stadium with some partially built towers, a whale-sized stage, its bright yellowness screaming loudly through the frigid air, literally tons and tons of hardware, cables, and steel piled up or scattered across the floor, cranes and other industrial vehicles on the floor, and that large set of aforementioned incredibly dedicated men and women building what would be the M72 stage, but which at that point looked like the construction site it was…įrankly, I was not sure how this could be pulled off. You know that phrase “go big or go home?” Put it this way, with M72, Metallica decided (broadly speaking) to not just go big but to plan on stretching it out the next 2 years. I laugh when people question whether this band might be, errr, thinking of “winding down.” For this M72 event to come alive, from concept to tonight’s birth, has been a 28-hour-a-day, 10-day-a-week affair.įor this “club gig within an arena gig within a stadium gig” to scream into ecstatically bright, loud life has challenged every aspect of the Metallica organization. Such is the magic of disguise, an experienced crew comprised of brilliant professionals from truck drivers to production managers, and some of the longest working hours you could possibly (not even) imagine. No one knew what to expect, as is generally the way when a tour starts, but the result was seamless. “We want our shows to be the best… we’re fans too!” James had said when speaking with Zane Lowe from Apple Music the night before this first show on the (gargantuan) M72 World Tour, a comment he volunteered without a moment’s thought when Lowe asked about the pressure of fan expectations of the band’s live events.Īnd it’s fair to say that, here, on King’s Day in the Netherlands, Metallica most certainly hit the ground running with energy, fortitude, and tightness on a stage which it is fair to say was one of – if not the – the most ambitious the band have ever attempted in their 42 years. He’s at the lowest point of the stage when he shakes his head in disbelief and softly mouths, “Holy shit!” It’s an overwhelmed, excited, possibly relieved, but most definitely charged “holy shit,” the sort of “holy shit” people exclaim when they are enjoying a surge of raw, positive emotion. ![]() “NO, NO, NO…” James Hetfield roars as “King Nothing” pulverizes the Johan Cruijff ArenA.
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