|
|
That's actually ME! |
| Tubing the Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin has always been on top of my summer list in the Northland. It only takes one tube to float a 16 gallon keg and some beer bongs are long enough to hang from the trees! |
 |
|
I have also caught Pearl Jam and Elton John lately. Click the Metallica picture to enter the Metallica Web ring- a list of over 100 cool Metallica sites!! |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
(but the picture is from Hawaii) |
| Disc Golf is one of my favorite pass times!! This awesome sport is played with Discs (souped up frisbees) on a course similar to a golf course. This is a picture of the course in Houston Texas, taken just as I was about to sink a put. Click on it to go to the PDGA home page (Professional Disc Golf Association) and find courses near you! |
 |
| South Park is by far my favorite TV show and the reason I stay home every Wednesday! A weekly event, South Park always brings friends over to the house for a community style viewing. |  |
The Venue..
The Ampitheater was cool I guess but better suited to a band without so many fans. Click on the link to check out the layout of the place and take a view from different sections of the seats. The sound was loud, but I've heard louder and the lights lost a little of their kick because outside light elements were also affecting the stage area. A big plus was the overhang that covered the reserved seating area, fireworks shot off it's roof were enough to light up the sky over all of us in the lawn section. I don't know who decided to put an Ampitheater 7 miles from the interstate accessible by only one 2-lane road, but getting there was pretty rough.
The Warm Ups...
After battling traffic to get in, we missed Days of the New and arrived during Jerry Cantrell's set. he played a combination of his new solo stuff and mixed in some old Alice in Chains (much to my delight). I did manage to hear "I Cut You In", the best one of the new stuff I've heard so far as well as "No Excuses", "Them Bones" and a cover of a Pink Floyd tune I don't recall the name of but it went "The lunatic is in my head..." I'm sure you've heard it. Anyhow, Jerry and Company sounded pretty damn good, even without Lane on some of the old Alice stuff, but didn't move around all that much and the crowd didn't go overboard by themselves getting into it. Bottom line, good sound, bad vibe. Hopefully each night they'll improve as the tour continues.
Metallica
The show started with a rip-roaring
version of "Helpless" from the Garage Days Re-visited disc. A total
shocker to this Metallica Live veteran that's guessed the opening track
the last 4 or 5 times I've seen 'em. The drums- crisp, the bass-
thumpin', the guitar sounding perfectly tuned and beautifully engineered
and Jaymz screamin out with balls and precision as the crowd came to their
feet in a hurry. This was my first concert in South Florida since
moving down in October of 97 and I must say that most shows in the midwest
start with a massive condensing of bodies as close to the stage as possible,
this one started with cheers, screams and headbanging, but no mad frenzy.
Bummer. But as the band played on, mosh pits broke out in front,
behind and all over the general admission area. "The Thing That Should
Not Be" was great, a song that I never really appreciated until I heard
them play it live years ago. It was a rare track heard live and that
set the tone for a different kind of Metallica show. A blasting
"Master of Puppets" continued to increase the size of the mosh pit and
I couldn't resist. If I had any doubts about Metallica's Florida
fans, in the mosh pit I came to appreciate those that gave their all to
make the mosh a great one. Shirtless, sweaty and having a blast,
everyone in the pit meant business. Male and female, from 15 to 40
years old, the crowd in the pit was a lot like the crowd at the concert.
It is obvious that Metallica's appeal is not specific to age or gender
because the variety of the fans was like a mixed bag of everything.
Some didn't speak english, some were close to 50 and some were born around
the time I first heard Kill 'em All on Megaforce records back in the early
80's. The band seemed to please everybody all the time with hits
like "Creeping Death" from way back when to more recent faves like "Sad
But True", "Until It Sleeps", "King Nothing" and a blistering rendition
of "Fuel". Mellow tunes included "Nothing Else Matters", "One" and
"Low Man's Lyric". Before Low Man's, Jaymz announced "we're gonna
fuck around for a bit" and the band followed up the song with unplug-ish
versions of "The Four Horsemen" (my all time favorite) and "Last Caress".
WOW!! Boy do those songs sound awesome played to this new vibe.
Old favorites, now immortalized forever for all of us that grew up writing
their lyrics on our trapper keepers and jamming out to them in basement
bands around the world. The hair on my arms stood on end as the notes
thumped out of the guitars. The boyz sat assembled around Larz''
smaller drum set on chairs, it created a pretty intimate feeling with the
audience. Complete with two encores including the durable "Wherever
I May Roam" and "Enter Sandman" plus fireworks blasting off overhead, the
boyz brought the house down!! I was like a 9 year old at christmas
time as one track after another catapulted me into a frenzy. Jasun's
Bass Solo had rockabilly rhythms that got the crowd clapping. He
also offered back up vocals so viciously that as he growled them out, you
could see the drewl spew out of his mouth on the big screens creating a
very eerie effect against the background lighting. The band spent
just shy of 3 hours on stage and did a great job thanking the fans and
throwing out stuff to the crowd. I've been surprised at past
Metallica shows by the stage blowing apart, the lighting, the trading of
instruments... this time it was the music- how they broke out old tunes
I never thought I'd hear live and how they re-did some classics- that made
it truly the concert event of the summer! See 'em soon near you or
just wish you had- you don't want to miss this Metallica tour.
Official
Tour Shirt
Til the next Metallica show...
Al!
"These guys are all such great
musicians by themselves, but they play together so well that when the four
of them perform something happens that you just can't describe" -Steve
Stansil, 94.9 ZETA of South Florida
HOME SELF PICS FRIENDS FAMILY Key West Pics!<--new! 6/99-->St. Pete Pics