Metallica triumphs in Bilbao playing big

Euskaraz irakurri: Metallica jaun eta jabe Bilbon, handira jokatuta

Finally, after a week of uncertainty after a positive in the band’s environment, July 3 arrived and Metallica landed in San Mamésnot without a last-minute surprise: Weezer, the second largest group on the bill, could not arrive on time from Paris, where they had played the night before, and Rivers Cuomo’s group suspended the concert with their material already displayed in the stadium Bilbao.

The news of Weezer’s withdrawal was known by those attending the concert through a message on the stage screens, just three hours before the scheduled time for the start of his concert, and the faces of more than one and one fan of the group author of “Blue Album” were a poem, of course. Although it was not announced on the aforementioned screen but by mail, the organization returned the amount of the ticket to those who claimed it before 10:00 p.m.

Before that mishap, the group in charge of breaking the ice was Coyote Girl eta Tornado Boywho, albeit as a result of the circumstances (they replaced the interesting Californian punk group The Regrettes at the last minute, forced to abandon their European tour due to many cases of covid in their team), embodied the Basque presence of Bilbao Bizkaia Rock Day.

Despite the contrast between the formal minimalism of the Gipuzkoan duo and the mammoth stage on which they had to break the fire in front of a few hundred spectators with “Eguzkiari itxoiten”, Koldo Soret and Úrsula Strong gave a good concert, filling the huge void of distortion, syncopated guitars and piercing drum beats.

Coyote Girl eta Tornado Boy

43 minutes of dense and desert rhythms, in which the duo enjoyed and made the early risers of the afternoon enjoy themselves. You can’t ask for more at that time and in those circumstances, and surely some of you were left wanting to see them soon in a room.

Nothing But Thieves

After the Gipuzkoan duo, it was the turn of Nothing But Thieves, who were preparing with a somewhat suspicious calm for those of us who were already inside San Mamés by then. During that time, at 5:15 p.m., it became known that Weezer would be out and the schedules would be modified.

Already in their new schedule, Nothing But Thieves offered an hour of alternative rock more powerful than we imagined based on their hit “Sorry”, which last night sounded somewhat washed out, with grunge touches and synthesizer supports.

Nothing But Thieves

Conor Mason’s voice was the highlight of the concert by the quintet from Essex, England, which presented their latest album “Moral panic” (2020) and the complementary subsequent EP “Moral panic II” (great creators of titles do not seem).

Class Showoff by The Hellacopters

The Hellacopters

After a wait that the programming adjustments made tedious, it was the turn of The Hellacopters. The Swedes had everything against them: early hours, an audience not too motivated by their performance, a very bad sound and even intermittent rain… But all of these were not enough obstacles for the background, the class, the themes, the charisma and the attitude of Nicke Andersson, Dregen and company.

The Hellacopters, published in April eyes of oblivionfirst studio album since their meeting in 2016, a remarkable album, which is surely not up to their great works but has flashes of very good work and great songs like “Reap A Hurricane”, “So sorry I Could Die ” or “Eyes of Oblivion”, which slipped into the Swedes’ repertoire yesterday afternoon and do not pale before their classics.

Andresson and Dregen (The Hellacopters)

Neither the flat drum sound, which instead of projecting the spirited classic rock and roll of The Hellacopters to the stadium, held it back and tamed it, nor the intermittent sound of the keyboard completely blurred the great concert of Andresson and Dregen (with the leg injured), who shook heads and drew smiles with gems like “Carry Me Home” and “By The Grace of God.”

Metallica win by KO

Ten minutes after the scheduled time, with people already piling up on the dance floor, the pre-concert liturgy of the Californian quartet began, namely: “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘N’ Roll)” AC/DC’s over the speakers, total darkness, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” on the screens and Ennio Morricone’s “The Ecstasy of Gold” blaring. Okay, they’re older; okay, the world is shit; Okay, stadium concerts are uncomfortable… But which of the 45,000 spectators last night didn’t get goosebumps at that moment?

Metallica, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Rob Trujillo, took to the front of the stage last night, blending almost with the crowd in the front rows, with a winning quartet. And it is sure that life is easier when your business card is made up of “Whiplash”, “Creeping death”, “Enter sandman” (he has returned to the beginning of the Show after years relegated to the final part) and “Harvester of sorrow”.

Metallica

The staging presaged that it was going to be a concert of maximums, of powerful blows and few subtleties. The sound was good on the track from the beginning, apart from the fact that Hammett’s guitar had little volume in some parts of the concert and some drum rhythms (“Creeping Death”, “One”…) were a bit run over at times . Without wanting to take any credit away from Ulrich, who revolutionized and has marked the style of drumming in metal for 40 years, his interpretation left some emotion floating in the air as to where, when and how some of them were going to end. breaks Of battery.

“Wherever I May Roam” put the concert at cruising speed, with the audience singing the guitar melody of the round song, but “No leaf clover”, from the quartet’s second symphonic album (you have to give visibility to record releases, I understand), and “Dirty Window”, song of the St Anger which is as uninspired and disjointed live as it is on the album (although the concert has the advantage of sparing you the junk production of the drums on that album), they were a clear brake.

Nothing they can’t fix, however, the ballad “Nothing else matters” (I think the number of mobiles on high exceeded the number of attendees at times) and, of course, “For Whom the Bell Tolls”.

The quartet passed through San Mamés with an overwhelming attitude, with a more relaxed Kirk Hammett and protagonist than in other times, with a remarkable performance (also some flaws in details, especially in the clean parts and arpeggios, but let’s take off the critic’s monocle ), a Rob Trujillo perhaps in the background but plenty of skill and a full-blown James Hetfield, long since become a myth and demonstrating as always a right hand, a factory of historic riffs, prodigious on rhythm guitar. The voice also responded to Hetfield during the two-hour concert, beyond a bit of logical suffering when dealing with songs from forty years ago, in the case of “Metal Militia”, which opened the encore.

Metallica

The final stretch of the concert, shined with “One” and its pyrotechnic display and brought one of the surprises of the day. At the end of “Master of Puppets”, chosen to put the finishing touch to the concert, the quartet was left without outside sound to the stupor of the public and the group’s astonishment.

In short, nothing that cannot be solved with attitude. Metallica took up the song again (just as it wasn’t too much to ask that they play it in its entirety again) and offered the end of it to applause, and an emotional farewell where, after a “Gora Euskadi” by Trujillo, Ulrich promised to return soon.

In total, Metallica offered two hours of overwhelming show, a master class in mastery of the stage, where everything happened all the time on all sides; It was a show, of course, more focused on endorsement than discovery, more attached to euphoria (the disguise of disaffection, which Biznaga sings) than to reflection.

And it is that a stadium concert does not seem like a place for flourishes. Recently, we have seen, for example, how the Rolling Stones gained punch on their latest tour with the addition of Steve Jordan on drums in place of the late Charlie Watts. Metallica are aware of this, and they offer a concert in which the laser lights shine more than the execution of the sixteenth note of bass drum in “One”; It is understandable, although the pyrotechnics always end up going out.

Metallica

It is clear that Metallica are no longer the band that played as fast as they could in California garages in the 80s emulating British bands, they are not the band that had the metal world at their feet in the 90s. They are something else, as we and we are; and luckily, that already happened.

That’s why it’s absurd to compare last night’s concert with that, our night to remember twenty or thirty years ago. This is about enjoying it now, screaming and remembering those moments when you were accompanied by the screams of “Creeping Death”, the TDK tape with “Ride the Lightning” on one side and Motorhead’s “Overkill” on the other or the video for “The Unforgiven” at your grandmother’s house.

But, let us not forget, it is also about looking ahead, and building the moments that will accompany the riffs of Metallica and those who have signed up to the creation thanks to the doors opened by them. It’s about continuing, creating and moving forward. And for that it is not bad to have some certainties; Metallica, as its motto “Birth. School. Metallica. Death”, could be one of them.