News Flash: music critics suck
· 08/17/2004 12:15 PM by Steve Gigl
Some people shouldn’t review heavy metal concerts. Chris Riemenschneider is apparently one of them. I’d love to say it was a systemic conspiracy against my (hence: good) music, but let’s face it, it’s more likely that most reviewers don’t find heavy metal and hard rock to be the least bit interesting, and they certainly don’t take it at all seriously. (Not that I’m certain that they should take it seriously, mind you.)
To put it succinctly: to most music critics, all hard rock bands are “Spinal Tap.” Meanwhile, most music critics seem to work overtime letting everyone know that they can appreciate hip-hop and rap, genres which would seem to have many of the same problems—taking themselves too seriously, advocating violence, and misogynistic tendencies, to name a few—that often get leveled at heavy metal and hard rock.
OK, enough babbling. Let’s play, shall we?
Playing to a sellout and absolutely rabid crowd of 18,963, the veteran metal band—which teetered on a breakup a couple of years ago—was back on track and maybe even better than ever on stage.
“Absolutely rabid.” Aren’t you glad that the Star Tribune works so hard to fight stereotypes?
From one who has been to many metal concerts, let me just say that the Metallica crowd is getting older, cleaner, and less “rabid” every time I go see them. Not that there aren’t a number of drunk, stoned, and otherwise irritating characters around, but their numbers are slowly dwindling.
The two-hour, 20-minute set didn’t match the spectacle of last summer’s Metrodome concert in front of 40,000 people. But the relative intimacy of its in-the-round stage mixed with the current hubbub over that documentary, “Some Kind of Monster,” made this concert far more memorable.
Actually true, except that most of the fans didn’t give a rat’s ass about “spectacle” at the ‘dome, they were trying hard to see and hear their bands through the terrible acoustics.
Perhaps to demonstrate that they’re pals again, Hetfield stood closely behind Ulrich during the climax of Monday’s opening song, “Blackened.” Musically, the band wasn’t exactly as tight. A few flubs were noticeable in “Fade to Black” and “Sad But True.” Not that the heavy-drinking and hard-sweating crowd noticed—or cared.
Helloooo, stereotype #2. Can you smell the condescension?
Yes, many of us noticed, just as we noticed the out-of-tune harmonies in Godsmack’s vocals (and the occasional flat singing from Sully). When you are enough of a fan of a band to be able to sing along with all of their songs (as about 3/4 of these crowds usually are), you’re going to notice when a beat is missed, or the song sounds wrong. But maybe we—not to mention the people around us who also had that “did you hear that?” look on their faces when the 3 or 4 obvious mistakes happened—just weren’t as drunk as we should have been.
Disclosure: caffeine was the only drug I used yesterday, apart from an Aleve after the show to relieve a “you need to sleep” headache and leg aches from standing in one place for so long. Ditto for my wife.
What’s missing in this account is the humor with which Metallica has always treated their screwups on stage, not to mention how well they played considering this was the first show after a 6-week break. That last bit kinda changes the perspective on the occasional screwup, doesn’t it?
Another perspective: James and Kirk were 99% accurate during complex guitar parts on songs like “Blackened” and “One” while they were practically standing in different zip codes (opposite sides of the huge, rotating stage), while for most bands it would require the guitarists to be standing in front of each other to get the timing right. (And, indeed, years ago they used to do exactly that.) I suppose Lars had his share of missed beats (or, to be fair, missed sixteenths of beats) too, but he wouldn’t be Lars if he didn’t, right?
Lastly, why would it be unusual for James to stand near Lars’ drumset during the end of a song? They’ve only been doing that for, oh, 20 years or so, at first to make sure the ritard at the end of a lot of their songs (at least live) is timed right, and now mostly because they’re screwing around. I highly doubt he was trying to send any secret messages of brotherly love to the crowd. We’d be too drunk to notice anyway, wouldn’t we? Not to mention too homophobic to even allow ourselves to consider a phrase like “brotherly love,” as long as we’re going with stereotypes here.
What the concert was rich in was sheer energy and vigor. It felt more in line with Metallica’s punk roots than heavy metal’s virtuosic virtues. Perhaps new bassist Rob Trujillo (ex-Suicidal Tendencies) deserved some credit for that. He roamed the stage bent over like an ape about to pounce on someone, and he played with equal heaviness.
“Punk roots?” Was the “New Wave of British Heavy Metal” considered punk? Sorry, you lost some credibility there, Chris. And yes, Rob is an outstanding bass player (they could’ve turned him up just a bit more most of the time, though), and I guess he actually does have punk roots, considering Suicidal’s music. It’s definitely a good thing they found another bassist with the same kind of infectious energy that Jason Newsted had.
Credit Hetfield, too. His recent stint in rehab and obvious personal growth gives new meaning to the band’s dark, cathartic lyrics—you know, all that “Darkness imprisoning me” stuff.
“Did you bring some anger tonight?” he asked before “Frantic,” one of only two songs played from last year’s disappointing “St. Anger” album. “Because if you did, then leave it right here.”
First of all, I’m about 75% sure that he paraphrased the hell out of Hetfield there (I’ve already pre-ordered the live CD from that show, so hopefully in a few weeks I’ll know for sure), but one thing that Mr. Riemenschneider fails to notice is what hasn’t changed: the stage show hasn’t changed much going back at least to the first ones I saw in the early 90s, let alone to pre-rehab times. The only real difference, aside from the different mix of songs, is that James isn’t drinking beer on stage and he’s not swearing very much between songs.
As the band tore through such old favorites as “Enter Sandman” and “One”—and especially really old favorites “Creeping Death” and the finale “Seek and Destroy”—whatever anger was present gave way to pure, giddy delight. Sounds like the ending of a good movie, huh?
Opening act Godsmack has played arenas on its own, so it was no surprise the Boston boys went over better than most openers, offering such hits as “Keep Away” and “I’m Doing the Best I Ever Did.” What was surprising: They made their roadies drag along a second, full-size drum kit just so frontman Sully Erna could show off in one instrumental jam. That’s the kind of stuff that sends bands to therapist’s couches.
Sheesh, that’s nothing new, Sully’s been playing drums on their tours since their first major-label album. Not always a full drum set, mind you, but I somehow think the Metallica tour budget can handle the extra stagehands it might take to unpack and set up a [cue minor chord: “dum dum DUMMMMM”] second drum set. [GASP!] Useless fact stuck in my brain that I might as well use here: Sully also played drums during the recording of the first album because they hadn’t found a drummer yet (and he is very good).
Oh, and the song is called “Whatever,” not “I’m Doing the Best I Ever Did.” (And why wouldn’t you have at least assumed that the end of the chorus—“now go away”—would be the title, not the lead-in?). UPDATE: That mistake has since been corrected.
I’d add some more comments about the concert, but I think I’ll save it for my own review. Suffice it to say that, if you are a fan of something and want a credible review, a source like Blogcritics (where you usually get a fan’s perspective) is much more reliable than your local newspaper.
UPDATE: As usual, the PiPress does a better job. Ross Raihala makes a few overstatements, but mostly in the name of style and humor. [Example: pyro at the concert was anything but random; the whole point is to tie the explosions and fireballs to musical cues. Nitpicking, I know…]
Category: Music
Scope:
Conversation of the century
Experiment
Really?
The third row of doom
