Loud rock, overpriced food, mosh pits, half-naked women and the slight aroma of petchuli. Not quite the Country Fair. Instead, the climax of my summer ­­ Metallica performing at 3Com Park in San Francisco.
In high school, I thought Metallica was some radical, hard-rock, head-banging band. Thank God I came to college and learned something.
Soon after arriving at college, I was asked if I liked Metallica. Truthfully, there hadn’t been a lot of rock influence in my rather backwoods childhood growing up on a farm. So I humbly admitted that I wasn’t exactly sure what Metallica sounded like.
Needless to say, thirty seconds of “Unforgiven” got me hooked. So when I heard that Metallica was playing in the Bay Area on July 14, I decided I had to attend. After all, I wanted to say I did one cool thing over the summer. And by buying tickets for my best friend for his birthday, I killed two birds with one stone.
The drive to San Francisco was a long one, especially starting out at 11 p.m. The drive was uneventful other than being pulled over for speeding ­­ luckily we got off with a warning ­­ and the predictable rush hour traffic that began in Sacramento at 5:30 a.m.
But none of it mattered, not even my state of exhaustion, because we were hyped up to see Metallica, the god-father of rock bands! After checking into our hotel, we headed for 3Com Park, better known as Candlestick Park. Unfortunately, in our haste, we forgot to bring the contents of our room’s honor bar with us.
Because of our overestimatation of traffic, we arrived more than an hour early. Great opportunity to get good seats, or so we thought, until we mounted the stairs to the near-empty stadium. Entertaining notions that I was in the wrong place, I practically napped during the next hour in the warm sun, oblivious to the steady stream of fans finding seats and the tuning of instruments.
The concert kicked off with opening bands System of A Down and Powerman 5000, in what order, I have no idea, as there wasn’t any memorable distinctions between them. The two bands seemed typical — unusual attire, indistinguishable lyrics and a lot of bouncing up and down. But they did succeed in getting the crowd riled up, or at least enough that several young gals began shedding their clothing.
Ironically, the flesh displayed between sets gathered more attention than the openers. At least the bands didn’t have people chanting “Show me your tits.”
Of course, the antics of Kid Rock’s strippers didn’t lower the sexual climate any. The self-proclaimed “pimp” got the crowd going crazy singing about his white trash background and sexual gallantry while wearing a wife-beater. And of course, his midget side-kick Joe C. was an interesting addition, as was the giant blow-up hand giving the crowd the finger.
But unlike the other two bands, Kid Rock pulled it off. Somehow, he straddled that delicate balance and gave an explosive performance including his biggest hit “Bawitdaba” and the ballad “Cowboy.” Even his rendition of the Grand Funk Railroad’s “We’re an American Band” was dynamic.
Korn followed, and succeeded in really making Kid look good. Their live performance was nowhere near the quality of their CD and singer Jonathon Davis’ attempt at uniqueness ­­ he wore a kilt and played the bagpipes ­­ was a miserable failure.
Even the girl next to me who was wearing a Korn shirt seemed put off when the crowd realized the bagpipe playing was a hoax, as the eerie melody continued when he put down the instrument.
Metallica finally arrived on the scene at 9 p.m. ­­ five hours after the concert had begun ­­ to show the wannabes how it’s done. Looking more like yuppies who stepped off the golf course than a rock band, Metallica showed that it’s about the music, not just the show. Every song was rich with melody and meaning, literally music to my ears after the abuse they received from Korn.
And they gave the crowd what they wanted, playing “Unforgiven,” “Fade to Black,” “Master of Puppets” and other classics from an earlier decade of rock. Fireworks and a light show only added class to the performance, as did Metallica choosing not to scream profanity at the crowd, a tactic of the other bands.
While Metallica outshined the others immeasurably, it was obvious it wasn’t just a well-polished show but the product of years of working and succeeding together. Metallica closed the Summer Sanitarium Tour with a finish that wrapped up their performance with a single word: indescribable.