| At approximately
7.30 pm Corrosion of Conformity storm the stage and they play for about
40 minutes. The set is storming, they create loads of energy down at the
front. They play some old classics as well as a great deal from their
new album "wiseblood". They seem to be even more intense now than
at the start of the tour. They play really well and are an excellent
band to open for Metallica.
8.30 pm approx - the
house lights are still on when Metallica appear, running around the perimeter
of the stage slapping fans hands who happen to be near the front. They
suddenly launch straight into 'so what' and the energy vibe in the place
is massive. Everyone is going wild. Halfway through the song the house lights
are turned off. They then kick straight into 'Creeping Death' and the
way they play this song on this tour is probably the best I've heard it.
During their set they play allot of the old classics such as Whiplash,
Kill/Ride medley, Fade, Sanitarium and Puppets. All of them are really
intense. The vibe is really loose with the band regularly coming off the
stage to play right in front of the fans, which is cool. Some of the new
songs included in the set are Ain't My Bitch, Until it Sleeps, Wasting
my Hate and King Nothing. The whole performance was excellent, the
ending was good, although it is always more convincing the first time
that you see it happen. The show at Manchester was not the best on the
tour, I think that honour should go to the Birmingham gig on the 5th,
but it was still a really good show.
The set list was well
worked out with the majority of the songs staying on there, but a few
minor alterations to the list here and there was a nice touch and a good
idea in my opinion. This was a truly crushing performance from Metallica
- let's hope that they return soon!
We turned up at this
gig without tickets and ended up with some crap seats near the back of
the arena. Before we went into the show we tried to exchange the tickets
for standing with the touts but they did not have any. They did say
however that if we pay £10 they would try and get us to the standing
area. We were pretty convinced that they were being the lying cheating
scum that they are (touts) but we gave them £10 on the very very off
chance they would be able to do something. Surprise surprise they didn't,
anyway, we tried to get to the standing area when we were inside but
could not get through the security which was very tight. We took our
seats and waited for the show to start. We watched the security to see
if they became slacker during the show, but they were checking tickets
when people returned from getting drinks etc, so we thought it unlikely
we would get to the standing area. We moved down the seating area to
some seats about half way down. Then some one came out of the crowd in
the standing section injured, and when the security were sorting him out
we made a dash for it, and slipped into the crowd through the security
and got to the second row very quickly and enjoyed the rest of the show
from there.
This Show report was originally
written for the Beholders Of Justice Local Chapter fanzine by myself
back in 1996. |
