Metallica, O2 Arena, London

The sound during the opening act Kvelertak I thought was terrible, particularly at the start, it did improve but I wasn’t really into them at all. No idea why the singer was rocking an owl head at the start.

This was my first time seeing Metallica outside of a festival settings. I thought the old stuff was great, the new stuff not so great. The show production itself was very good indeed. The additions of the drones during Moth into Flame looked great, even if one did fly off into the crowd. The video cubes were also another great addition.

Came away from the show wonder just how many guitar pics they use on a tour. I’ve never seen a band throw as many into a crowd, they must have thrown a thousand or more into the crowd at the end.

A few odd things happened at this show.

• Every beer I ordered the barrel needed to be changed, we were the first into the venue…
• The card readers at the bar then refused every card as they hadn’t been set up, again I was the first to use them…
• The food I ordered I was told would take 15 minutes to make, so we waited, 20 minutes pass, then 25 still no food. 35 minutes after I ordered I’m told they don’t have what I ordered!
• While having a piss I heard someone saying sorry for pissing on the guy next to him!
• Dude behind me was off his face and was constantly spilling his pint down my back, eventually the whole thing ended up over myself and the guy next to me.
• The bloke behind Kristina didn’t like the fact we were standing at a rock concert and asked us to sit. Having explained that she can’t see anything because people in front of her are standing, he then proclaimed that I was clearly a “fucking bell-end”, I thanked him and continued to stand, because that’s what bell-ends do at rock concerts.
• A good job I did, because pissed bloke falls on top of me, had I been sat he’d have gone 3 or 4 rows forward…
• Pissed bloke and I are getting on quite well, almost on first name terms. Wait he has no beer, has he just puked on me?…
• The tube ride home is also interesting. There’s another pissed dude who sits over from us, he randomly starts pissing himself laughing and decided that I’m a fucking legend…

It’s time for bed I think.