I remember how I fished some 120 bucks out of my hard-earned money as a student working as a part-time waiter at a coffee house in PJ to buy a ticket to their concert. It was my very first time coming to a concert of an international band. I watched intently and in disbelief as they sang at the top of their lungs and jumped as high as the giant speakers on the stage – almost non-stop. I wondered where they got their energy from.
It was when I saw the difference between local and international music bands.
The images of their lively and energetic performances kept flashing in my mind. I hoped so much that they’d come back to Malaysia again.
Many years passed by and still there was no sign of their return. I was losing hope.
But suddenly the news of their coming to Malaysia broke and spread like wildfire. I was ecstatic. I was going nuts. 10 years!
I wanted to revive the moments that I was in 10 years ago. As a working adult with a little bit of income now, I wanted to watch them as closely as possible this time so I bought a ticket at the pit. I wanted to buy one at the VIP corner – but from my experiences at concerts in the past, I saw how the front rows were always overcrowded. I knew the concert was going to involve a lot of jumping so I didn’t want to jump with so limited space around me. Ahaks!
But then, I told myself that I shouldn’t be expecting too much from them this time. They have definitely aged. There is no way they could do as good as they did back in those days.
How wrong I was. They still have every ounce of energy that they had 10 years ago. I was having goosebumps watching (and listening) at Chester Benington singing at the top of his lungs almost effortlessly. I was bracing for his voice to crack at one of those high-pitches but it never happened. He performed every song very perfectly. It was like listening to a CD. It was simply unbelievable.
I hope it wouldn’t take them another 10 years to come back to Malaysia.
Then came this Metallica. I could not believe that they were actually coming to Malaysia. It was too good to be true. I was a hard-core (and still is) fan when I was at secondary school. I’d listen to their songs while trying to understand myself as a teenager (konon LOL). I had all their cassettes except their later albums when I lost track of their music career because, well, I had to move on.
We had a trend at school where a guy’s (or even a girl’s) coolness is judged based on how much of the lyrics of Metallica songs that he/she could memorize. Even wearing a Metallica t-shirt was considered a major boost in one’s personal branding. It just felt so good to be associated with Metallica.
People in my time at school were idolizing them – probably a little bit too much. Their songs and music were infectious and transpired into the lifestyle of almost every student. I might be long over that age now but their music continued to live in me and I am still a big fan.
If I hadn’t bought a ticket to the Linkin Park concert, I would have bought a ticket that would put me at the front row of Metallica concert. Spending more than a thousand bucks over two concerts which were separated only by a day was something that I could not quite do as a grown-up and wise-thinking adult.
As expected, it turned out to be an (almost) sold-out concert. I could see many people gathering expectantly at the gates to see if there were any more tickets made available at the very last minute. There were none. Some of them climbed up the fence and stood on the ticket check booths at the entrance to get a peek of Metallica’s performances. They were so many of them they even outnumbered the security personnel which in the end had to give in to their aggressive march.
But seriously, I would have done the same. The first one to climb up the fence was a teenager and he was immediately confronted by a security guard. He clung adamantly to the fence, trying with all his might to resist and stay put despite being hauled down by a big (or rather fat) security guard. In the end the security guard had to give in because people were beginning to throw plastic bottles at him.
You should see the face of the teenager when he took a glimpse of Metallica through the fence. The happy expression on his face was priceless. It was like the face of Samba when he first saw the Promised Land after the very long and adventurous journey in The Lion King.
Thanks to a friend who was late to turn up when I had his ticket in my possession, I was among the last to enter the stadium. In fact, the first song had started when I marched through the gate. The concert started 15 minutes earlier than schedule. Nobody minded though because some people had been waiting since as early as 3pm.
There was no space to squeeze into. Standing at the last row was not a good idea too unless I was a 6-footer which I was not. I could see some of the audience went some extra mile by climbing up to the water tank and watched from there. Of course that was before the dedicated personnel came to haul them down.
In the end, I had to back off and take a small space on the grassy slope near the entrance gate where I could see not only the stage but almost the whole of the audience. It was good to see the vibrant vibes of the audience who were all just as excited as I was.
I could never explain the feeling that I had as I watched one of my favourite band groups in the world performed LIVE right in front of my eyes. I was teleported into another world where I only had myself and Metallica and the music that they were playing. I screamed, I clapped and of course I head-banged to their every song, almost totally in oblivion to the surrounding. By the time they performed Enter Sand Man, I was going absolutely nuts!
If there was something that Linkin Park had to learn from Metallica, it would be to interact with the audience. I think I have to say that James Hetfield really knows how to engage himself with the audience. He’d jokes, ask questions and make faces which truly shows how witty he is as an entertainer who had sold millions and millions of albums all over the world.
There was one part towards the end of the show where the stage went entirely blacked-out and had remained so for a good couple of minutes. When the lights went back on, there James was in the middle of the stage with a surprised look and asked “You still there?”. Everybody laughed.
Then after performing another few songs, he declared that it was time to call the night. He put the guitar down as if ready to leave and asked “OK guys, that’s all for now. Go home”, and he made a yawning gesture and put his head on his hands to tell the audience that it was time to go home and sleep.
“Nahh, you guys waited too long. You guys deserve more”, he said while slinging his guitar back to his shoulder. Needless to say, the audience erupted in an uproar.
Of course the night had to end and James Hetfield and his friends knew how to end it with style. They greeted the crowds in Malay (good try) before taking out a Malaysian National flag to end the concert like no other did before.
Everybody was happy. I left the stadium feeling like another thing in my life had just been completed 😛