Metallica - Moscow 2010

Olympiski, Moscow, Russia
25th April 2010
Metallica, Fear Factory, Gojira

To say that these two concerts were long-awaited means to say nothing at all! The tickets for the first one were sold-out long before April. Of course, it was much easier to find some tickets for the second concert; however on the 25th of April, the venue was full. But let’s talk about everything in succession…

There was only once when a band played two gigs and both days Olympiski was crowded, but the event took place a couple of years ago when for the first time QUEEN and Paul Rodgers came to Russia. But on the 24th and 25th of April, METALLICA broke that record. The band always gets a warm welcome in our country and on Sunday, even in the afternoon you could meet fans going in an orderly manner to storm the venue. The concert started just in time and the first act was French death metal formation GOJIRA. The musicians were highly welcome by the audience and played their set with enthusiasm. They thanked the crowd in almost excellent Russian and left the stage, which was later occupied by FEAR FACTORY.

Setlist Gojira
01. Oroborus
02. The Heaviest Matter of the Universe
03. Backbone
04. Lizard Skin
05. Flying Whales
06. Toxic Garbage Island



This band is better known in Russia than its French colleagues and by that time the quantity of people near the stage doubled and the performance heated up the atmosphere and made fans feel excited, preparing them for the headliners of the evening. So the change-over took 20 minutes and there was enough time to look around: the audience consisted of parents with little children, teenagers, old men and even handicapped people. But let’s get back to stage. The light was subdued and when METALLICA appeared the whole stadium exploded.

Setlist Fear Factory
01. Shock
02. Edgecrusher
03. Linchpin
04. Smasher/Devourer
05. Powershifter
06. Fear Campaign
07. Demanufacture
08. Self Bias Resistor
09. Replica




Metallica

The cult band founded in 1981 came to Russia within the “World Magnetic Tour 2010” to support the latest album entitled “Death Magnetic”. METALLICA is James Hetfield (vocals, rhythm guitar), Kirk Hammet (lead guitar), Robert Trujillo (bass) and Lars Ulrich (drums). http://www.myspace.com/metallica  

Music & Performance
The set started with short intro ‘The Ecstasy of Gold’ which was accompanied by a laser show and then was replaced by dynamic ‘That Was Just Your Life’. The people were bathing in emotions, the hall was roaring while tongues of flame were shooting up to the dome of Olympiski. The only drawback was the lack of screens and people on the balconies couldn’t see everything that happened on the stage and for them the musicians looked like ants darting about a big lighted spot.



But anyway it wasn’t a dreadful shortcoming and during the concert the audience was raving besides the quality of the sound was beyond praise. Near the stage there was going something really inconceivable and from time to time someone got out of the crowd to have a breath of fresh air. But when ‘The Unforgiven II” began the tension provoked by a number of extremely vigorous compositions seemed to be relieved. Hetfield’s voice produced a strong impression and in whole sounded somewhat different and heartfelt. No wonder that with the first seconds of ‘Master of Puppets’” the venue simply blew up. But that was only the beginning of the emotional heat which burst out on ‘Nothing Else Matters’. Many people were wailing and smiling like children.



METALLICA constantly kept in touch with the audience, sometimes talked to the fans using phrases in Russian. After the main set the musicians expressed their admiration of such hearty welcome. They said that it was really unexpected and pleasant to see so many people on the both concerts and of course they promised to come back. Then they played five-piece encore, the apotheosis of which became ‘Seek and Destroy’: the song was sung by everyone and with the first accords big black balloons with METALLICA logo on one side and ‘Death Magnetic’ on the other began to fall down to the stage. Finally Ulrich threw the drumsticks, Hetfield and Hammet dropped a kilo of guitar picks but the crowd still didn’t want to let their idols go.



Anyway everything good ends sooner or later and this time the concert was over yet it will remain in memory of the fans who are going to wait for the return of the gods of metal to our land.

Setlist
01. The Ecstasy of Gold (Intro)
02. That Was Just Your Life
03. Cyanide
04. Harvester of Sorrow
05. Kirk’s Solo # 1 (The House Jack Built jam)
06. Creeping Death
07. The Day That Never Comes
08. Sad but True
09. My Apocalypse
10. The Memory Remains
11. The Unforgiven II
12. No Remorse
13. One
14. Master of Puppets
15. Blackened
16. Kirk’s Solo #2
17. Nothing Else Matters
21. Whiplash
22. Seek and Destroy
23. Wasting My Hate (outro)

Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 10
Sound: 10
Light: 9
Total: 9.9 / 10





All pictures by Rimma Bobkina
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