Metallica w/ Godsmack
Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2004 @ Air Canada Centre, Toronto

Metallica is back in Toronto at the ACC for another sold out performance with opener Godsmack.

22 years of rocking will generate a massive fan base that will consist of people like Old biker farts, 11 year old stoner kids, to the typical mullet clad metal heads. 22 years of rocking and these dudes are still some how head banging to the bank. With that all said, was the show worth the big ticket prices the band is charging?

The stage was on a slowly rotating platform and rigged with everything from lights to smoke, and 12 foot flames. Above the stage, there were screens and suspended people in chairs operating lights and cameras. The pyrotechnics were done well, although at some points it just seemed like they had leftovers so they just chucked it in here and there. The sound was good, except for some of the minor screw ups, an example would be the part when they tried to syncing audio over top when the little girl recites the prayer during the song Enter Sandman. At one point Hetfield yells to the audience something like “who here bought our new album?” The audience obviously cheers back, but I was hoping everyone would yell out “WE ALL DOWNLOADED IT!” just to see how pissed off Lars gets.

Needless to say the whole place was booming, before, during, and after the show. Lots of stage presence and the band didn’t seem to want to leave. They played 3 encores and the show spanned to about 3 hours long. There was a good mixture of old and new songs in the set list. One of the highlights for me was when they played the song One and how the strobes kicked in during the last half of the song.

Too tell you the truth, I haven’t listened to Metallica since high school and currently don’t really have a lot of respect for them anymore, from current events. I only went because a friend offered to pay for everything because he didn’t want to look like a school girl wetting his panties over a rock band by himself. However it was an entertaining stage show and everyone had a blast. Now I can’t seem to hear very good.

7.4 out of 10 on my ass kick meter.

– Chian