Never Enough Metal Memories Department

I am going to see Mötorhead and Morbid Angel at the Catwalk this coming Tuesday. YAY ME! I'm so excited that I am having trouble sleeping. It's also got me reminising about other metal concerts I've seen over the years. Here's some of the more memorable ones:

Anthrax, Metal Church: Arcadia Theatre, July 11, 1987--My first ever metal concert, after years of listening to metal on the radio and borrowing tapes from friends. Metal Church was pretty good, with crazy versions of "Ton Of Bricks" and "The Dark." Anthrax played a wonderfully loud show, but I realised their appeal would be limited when Joey Belladonna donned a war bonnet and pranced about on stage during "Indians." The hood ornament from my father's Ram Charger got stolen; he was not happy. But that show did make an impression; I'd see more metal concerts in my life, oh yes.

Van Halen, Scorpions, Dokken, Metallica, Kingdom Come: Cotton Bowl, July 3, 1988--The last ever Texas Jam, part of the Monsters Of Rock tour, this was the first time I saw Metallica live. Not a bad show, but there was no way I could get close enough to the stage. I got a big toe bloodied trying, and the crowd was so packed near the stage that the crowd would sway as one, literally carrying one off one's feet! I got heat exhaustion half-way through Metallica's mid-day set. Scorpions were good; Sammy Hagar climbed the scaffolding during Van Halen's set and made an impression. I was offered a joint and refused--the guy's girlfriend said she was proud of me. The Metallica t-shirt I bought got stolen before we left. Bummer. All in all, it left a bad taste in my mouth as far as stadium rock went. But the Metallica set was WORTH IT.

Metallica, Queensryche: Reunion Arena, February 5, 1989--I had sworn I'd see this concert for my birthday no matter what--and never mind that Texas got hit by snow, meaning that there'd be ice on the highway for the whole hour-plus ride from East Texas State to Dallas. Queensryche was pretty good but stuck to songs off their Operation: Mindcrime album, never getting to the old classics I liked the best. Metallica put on a tight, heavy concert. Although we were in the nosebleed section, my college buddy and I slammed against one another from the rail, to the annoyance of the late-comer fans but to our delight. Best memory was of the Justice statue crumbling into huge pieces onto the very stage, climaxing when one of the light scaffolds broke free on one end and swung back and forth dramatically. In retrospect, I realise that a LOT of choreography had to go into that to make sure nobody got creamed by a statue head or by the swinging scaffold, but at the time, it blew my mind.

DRI, Nasty Savage, Sick Of It All, Sedition: Theatre Gallery, March 17, 1990--Easily the best show I've seen ever, mainly because it wasn't in a club, stadium, or arena. It was in a warehouse with concrete pipes stacked up on the sides. This provided the best moshpit I've been in, with plenty of room for fast-paced whirlpooling and slamming. I even took a roll at one point and didn't get stomped on. Nice! I caught one of Spike Cassidy's guitar picks at the end of the DRI set. Sick Of It All was brilliant, too. Turner Van Blarcum of Sedition had his bone mike-stand sculpture which got quite a flailing during their energetic set. Alas, what I remember most of Nasty Savage was the way this one middle-aged woman in slut finery sat on the edge of the stage and kept flashing her tits at the lead singer. But damn, this really was one of the finest times I've had at a concert, and it set the standards for all the others since. (BTW, there's a poster for this show online!)

There certainly have been other metal concerts, such as Pantera and Prong, and a Godflesh show, that I'd like to mention, but sleep has finally started to hit me upside the head, and it would probably be wise to take advantage of the drowsiness. Besides, I have to have something to talk about LATER.