About 20 years ago , Paul, Doug and I saw Metallica in Milwaukee during their big breakout tour, explaining why the old site had those colors. They may look wimpy for Metallica but they’re the primary colors from …And Justice for All; the marble background and the band’s logo.
Metallica was one of Paul’s favorite bands and he had been a fan since their debut in 1983. I, on the other hand, had a strong disdain of all things Metal during college. If I had remained living in Springfield for my more formative years, I probably would’ve had similar tastes as Paul. However, my musical awakening in Houston through MTV (during the early Eighties), bad experiences with metalheads in high school and the general elitism college induces in young people, all contributed to my dislike of the genre. However, Metallica became a big exception thanks to Paul and a 1987 EP of Punk/Alternative covers. It showed their influences being more than the usual, predictable source: Led Zeppelin.
Everything came together perfectly for this concert too. It was during Thanksgiving week so we only had classes for two days; the opening act was Queensryche whose current album Operation: Mindcrime was an interesting concept record; and my internship at WQFM got us backstage passes! Paul receiving an autographed poster from Metallica and talking briefly to Queensryche’s lead singer Geoff Tate earned me some goodwill over the rough semester we had (it’s okay, we’re way past those disputes). I didn’t walk away empty handed either. I still have my poster and it’s signed, “To Steve, Metal up Your Ass!” It’s one of their old slogans and on T-shirts which I have in my collection.
Overall, Metallica put on a great show. Most of the Milwaukee-area metalheads were there, shaking their heads and fists in the same manner as Beavis & Butt-head. The only exception was “Seek and Destroy.” The band has everyone shake their fists in unison during the key phrase. It always make the song and concert eerily resemble a Hitler Youth Rally. Metallica obviously did all the hits their fans knew except for the cover of “Helpless.” James could see the poor reaction so he scrapped it after the first verse and the band moved to another song. I was rather bummed since it was my favorite on the cover EP. Queensryche’s performance raised my opinion of them as well, especially during “Spreading the Disease.” Tate had some amazing vocal range.
The following couple of days were another story. I was exhausted, partially deaf and had a small ringing headache. Having to get up at the crack of dawn for my internship at WQFM didn’t help with my recovery. Steven and Susie quizzed me about the show on the air, made a joke over the T-shirt and probably alienated the younger portion of the station’s audience. I’m not sure if the competition played Metallica though; WQFM did but only in the evening.
Paul and Doug were lucky. They went home the following day to recuperate over Thanksgiving break. I stayed behind in the dorms for the long weekend to earn money through my front-desk job and to procrastinate on my class projects due in December. Sleeping became activity number one instead. The aftermath wore me out so much, I was late for one shift which was embarrassing due to my obsession over punctuality. It was still worth it, especially when Paul showed off those autographs to his friends and my collection of Brushes with Greatness was picking up steam.
Epilog: Metallica put out a new record this year, their first since 2003. How I wish I could’ve been excited over it like so many other artists I’ve followed this long but they lost me in 1996 with Load, aka Alice in Chains Lite.