Caren: Hanging With Metallica/Machine Head @ The O2 Arena
Metal Hammer’s deputy editor Caren Gibson tells all about her night out and hanging with Metallica and Machine Head this past Saturday.
Metallica/Machine Head at the O2 on Saturday was a stark contrast to the review of the first night you will read in the mag on sale April 8. But one thing remains: you can guarantee they will provide the soundtrack to an utterly LEGENDARY night out!
I missed the Sword due to having a big ol’ chat with Sir Robert Flynn of Machine fucking Head for publication at a later date. Needed food as I felt hollow and stomach was impolitely rumbling throughout the interview. Saw them on Sunday at the Borderline, though, and they were A-Mazing! There’s a band not short on RIFFS. It’s amazing I made it out at all given the way Saturday night unfolded…
Machine Head were on. Fucking. FIRE! I have to admit I was disappointed at the first O2 show – by Machine Head’s standards anyway. But Flynn said it: you guys kicked the first night’s ass! And so did they. It’s great that they mixed the set list up – we got Slanderous, which they have never ever played live before, and Hallowed Be Thy Name, which they busted out for only the second time in the UK. Halo is usually my toilet break song for MH – top tune but it’s never really rung my bell live. But on Saturday it was a highlight. They finished with the obligatory Davidian which is still as crushing today as it was 15 years ago!
Win Phil Demmel limited edition Machine Head guitar picks!
It’s impossible to say Metallica sucked. Of course they didn’t. They’re awesome. But the choice of songs left me a little flat. I was well up for a bit of RRRRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! But I got HMMMMMMMMMM… One sounds wrong so early in the set. Sad But True may be one of heaviest riffs ever written but mid-set – from Broken, Beat And Scarred to The Day That Never Comes – was just way too slow paced when all I wanted to do was lose my mind to a bit of Whiplash, Blackened or Damage Inc. I love The Outlaw Torn, but it was five minutes too long. (This was discussed after the show and you are STILL wrong on this one, Caren. The Outlaw Torn owned. Load FTW – Beez).
Things picked up – finally – again from Master Of Puppets and Fight Fire With Fire, but then they all but busted out the stools and sat down for Nothing Else Matters. I wasn’t short on toilet breaks. Which is probably a good thing given how much I drank…
Fuck waiting for a bus with 20,000 other people. I got dragged backstage for the party in Machine Head’s dressing room. There was much laughter, tomfoolery, friends catching up, metal blasting from the iPod… all a typical night after the show in the Machine Head world. Yes, Adam and Robb are getting along and sorting themselves out. Hurrah. Phil Demmel noted that I was in their dressing room – very observant, Phil, well done – rather than at the Hammer-sponsored after show party… which is where we piled up to next en mass. There was more drinking, more laughing, more tomfoolery, Lars Ulrich, Biff Byford from Saxon, all of Machine Head and crew, plenty of hangers on were present. Shortly after the party returned to Machine Head’s dressing room one of the entourage got a call from Bullet For My Valentine’s Jay – who were in town playing a show that evening – saying they’re partying at their hotel and that the invitation was open to all.
We all piled onto Machine Head’s tour bus to the cries of ‘who the fuck are all these people?’ from Adam Duce. Took forever to get to the hotel. But fortunately we had lots of beer to pass the time. It was Machine Head’s last show in the UK – and their manager’s birthday who had flown in especially – so all were up for a quality night out. They had a day off to travel to Holland on Sunday anyway so there was no excuse… All of Bullet were there, support band Fightstar and a few members of Funeral For A Friend who all share the same management. Lars and Kirk Tallica were also present and very much incorrect.
Fuck knows when the bar finally closed, but by the time I got home it was daylight. Always a sign of a top night out 
. My Abiding and final memory of the evening: Phil Demmel’s legs sticking out of an open taxi window having dived head first through it.
Needless to say, I haven’t stopped grinning three days later!
METALLICA SET LIST
That Was Just Your Life
The End Of The Line
Harvester Of Sorrow
…And Justice for All
One
Broken, Beat And Scarred
My Apocalypse
Sad But True
The Outlaw Torn
The Judas Kiss
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Fight Fire With Fire
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
- – - – - – - -
Overkill
Hit The Lights
Seek and Destroy
Sonisphere will be headlined by Metallica and Linkin Park and will take place on August 1st – 2nd at Knebworth. Also on the bill will be Nine Inch Nails, Bullet For My Valentine, Avenged Sevenfold, Machine Head, Lamb Of God, Alice In Chains, Mastodon, Anthrax, Airbourne, Thin Lizzy, Killing Joke and The Sword.
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I was 99% sure that I saw Biff in the crowd!
that does sound like a top night out! now why wasn’t i invited? lol
fucking awesome night though
The outlaw torn absolutely owned!
How you can say Halo doesn’t ring your bell is fucking ‘blasphemy’ (excuse the pun). And you take a toilet break. The message it brings can’t be ignored- didn’t you notice the absolute fucking enormous effort Robb Flynn was putting in to get the message across-you’ll be saying you take a crap during Aesthetics of Hate next (conspicuous by its absence on Saturday)
Vazzer, did you actually read what I said?
Yeah come on Caren – where was the invite ? I was one of the shallow who disowned Load and the otehr one so Outlaw torn i didnt know. Did loose the crowd through it but it sounded like a good track, definatley improved as it went on.
I havent stopped listening to death magnetic since and That was just your life was just quality.
Don’t get me wrong, James. As a stand alone track I LOVE The Outlaw Torn. It’s a very emotional song and a highlight of that era. It just dragged its heels on the night. I don’t want to knock Metallica at all. They can do no wrong. It was the set list choice. Whereas I was in the mood for speed and intensity we got mid-paced. I was disappointed, especially after Machine Head fucking slayed it!
PS invite must have got lost in the post.
yes Caren you said ‘Halo is usually my toilet break song for MH-top tune but its never really rung my bell live’. You can’t have been at Hammersmith Apollo last December ‘cos they did it there and it rung everyone’s bell- unless I’ve misinterpreted your idea of a toilet break?
Yes, Vazzer. MY toilet break song. Never really rang MY bell live. You went on about blasphemy and not understanding its message earlier. It’s not blasphemous, it just means in my opinion it doesn’t measure up to an Imperium, or Clenching, or Davidian. And now you’re saying I couldn’t possibly have been at Hammersmith just because I occasionally need toilet breaks at gigs? Really? I didn’t take any toilet breaks at any of the three Hammersmith shows. Or both nights in Paris on the Slipknot tour. Or in Tampere, Finland. I didn’t even take a toilet break at The O2. So it appears you didn’t actually read what I said and have assumed it was ‘I think Halo is rubbish and has no meaning’ when all I really said was ‘if I ever need to take a toilet break during a Machine Head set, I’d rather do it during Halo than 90% of their other songs’.
Taking time out when MH are on is total disrespect. Who needs a drink when they’re on stage- so who needs a toilet break? On principal- no-one who acknowledges the profound message of Halo should be absent during its playing!
I wasn’t.
What a gig. Still have it in my head. Thats a good sign !
London loves you Metallica !
They shouldn’t be absent Ever!