First of all I just want to thank all of my readers over the years and I hope all is well in your neck of the woods! The last time we checked in I had made the effort to go to every metal show big or small that caught my eye. It led to a wicked year full of metal, mosh pits, and all around good times with friends! 2020 was set to be another great year with an amazing crop of shows lined up... and here we are in the dying days of August with my first show opportunity a physically distanced drive-in with lots of wicked face masks and the faint smell of hand sanitizer on the breeze. PANDEMICA!! All has been well at Yeti HQ but the loss of live music has taken a larger tole on me than I expected. So many amazing shows have been cancelled and I am eagerly awaiting reschedule date for the ones that are hoping to continue. When I caught wind of the Metallica drive-in show, the decision was pretty simple to grab a ticket for a car full. Something different and a night out is exactly what everybody needs right about now! The show was filmed a week or so ago and set to play all across North America and elsewhere in one glorious metal event! A desperate attempt to capture the connections and power of the live experience.
The entire Squatch family was looking forward to the loudness so I borrowed an elder-squatch's kick ass Jeep with a fully stacked stereo system to make the most of the night. We rolled into the Starlight Drive In around 8:45 and drove through a few rows of cars and trucks lined up on the mounds, all setting up their mosh bubbles with physically distance polls marking where to park. The opening band could have been a better choice but I understand where they were going. I will not deny that Three Days Grace put on a wicked high energy set; easy to rock out and have a good time to for sure. Metallica took the stage (screen?) after a classic Ecstasy of Gold intro highlighting all appropriate PPE and black and white long shots of the filming location. They opened with Hardwired to Self-Destruct and then continued with a very satisfying set list full of classics and a few modern hits. I was really happy to hear songs like For Whom The Bell Tolls, Seek and Destroy, Wherever I May Roam, Fade to Black, and One... but I started a micro sized jeep pit with the Yeti clan for CREEPING DEATH, MASTER OF PUPPETS, and BAT-TER-RY! I of course kept rocking to tunes like Fuel, Sad But True, Unforgiven, and Moth, but when it came to the closer I would have enjoyed a little bit of out of the box thinking instead of the radio's favourite song Enter Sandman. I would have loved to hear Ride the Lightning, Trapped Under Ice, or any other song..
All in all I had an absolutely wicked night! The show was very well done and it felt quite personal. James spoke to us as our sunset synced up with his mentioning that it was "Good to play again". The sound came through AMAZING in the jeep and we supplied the bass for a few rows. The band sounded great and they played as if they knew we were all watching, calling for the crowd where you'd expect and answering with a trademark "yeah!". There were distant cheers and honks between songs and I even caught a few other people chanting DIE for Creeping Death!! There were clouds of funky smoke, bootlegged shirts, lighters burning out car windows for the deep cuts, and lots of fellow metalheads just making the best of the situation.I think this may have just made me miss live music even more though and as it only left me wanting more (just like every other live show). A huge thank you to the Metallica boys for trying to give us some shred of normalcy for concert goers in the pandemic. Other bands like Between the Buried and Me have been streaming live shows which offers another great way to connect with bands these days but leave it to Metallica to do it bigger. A big screen live stream would be the next level here!! Cheers to every metalhead out there waiting for the return of shows and please continue to respect your regions pandemic response. If we mask up and wash our dirty ass hands, maybe we can have some live music in the years to come!
-Metal Yeti /../;,,;/../
