WARNING: This post is about a rock concert and all of the general fun and debauchery that goes along with it. If you don't want to know, you can stop reading now. My guess is if you made it this far, you're going to keep going though. Secretly you are all rock fans.
So the third night in Paris, we went to see Metallica. For the record, we didn't make the trip to Paris just to see our favorite band--we were already planning the trip to Paris. The timing just happened to work out. I like to think of that as fate, or maybe good karma. We took a detour by the Hard Rock on the way to the concert so I could grab a shot glass for the collection. As soon as we stepped into the place, I knew we were among friends. A guy saw our shirts and asked if we were going to the show. He then proceeded to belt out Nothing Else Matters at the top of his lungs, complete with French accent. We ate a quick pre-show dinner there, and the entire time they were playing Metallica videos and music. People were singing and drumming on the bar. This was a great start to a fantastic evening. The concert was up in St. Denis at the Stade de France, which is the National Stadium of France. They play rugby there, as well as football (soccer). The place holds over 80,000 people. It was sold out, and it was packed. There were people everywhere, and it took us a little time to locate the box office. We had our tickets in hand, but we had to pick up wristbands for the pit. Tiffany and I had snakepit tickets, which means that we were in a little cut out section of the stage. Hands down these were the best tickets to have. We were super close to the band, but we didn't have to fight and push our way around with all of the general admission crowd. Before we went down into the crowd, we made a couple of other stops. First, we decided to go ahead and buy T-shirts beforehand. This was a little bit of a challenge, as the people at the booth spoke very little English. They certainly weren't mean about it. There was a lot of pointing and hand gesturing. I felt a little like I was in a game of charades where nobody was winning. The hardest part was explaining that I needed an XL shirt. She kept asking if I wanted small or medium. I realize they don't have that many fat people in Europe, but there was just no way a small or medium was going to work. They did have bigger shirts, and we ultimately got it figured out. The shirts were all updated versions of the Black Album designs from the 90s, which was appropriate since this tour was celebrating that album's 20th (technically 21st) anniversary. Next we hit the bathroom. It's always a good idea to go before the show. One, you don't want to miss anything, and two, you might not ever get back to where you want to be. The men and women (like many places in France) basically share a bathroom with a small partition separating the two sides. It's kind of different if that isn't what you are used to. After we emptied our bladders, we decided to fill them up again with some cold beverages. Here is an interesting concept that I would love some places in the US to adopt. They sell you an eco-friendly souvenir cup filled with beer for 8 Euros. After that, you can refill your cup for 2 Euros. The initial price seems steep, although not too bad for subsequent fills. I really just wanted the cup, so I just drank the one. Also, too much beer requires more trips to the aforementioned bathroom.
There were two opening bands before the main event. The first was a band called Gojira. They are a French heavy metal band, even though their name is clearly the Japanese word for Godzilla. Unfortunately we were still wandering around the stadium when they were playing, so we didn't really see this band. I have a feeling they were better than the second band, which was The Kills. We got down into the snakepit just as these guys started playing. They had about four people banging on these giant drums. There were two singers--one male, one female. I don't really know what kind of music this was, but it wasn't the kind of music I wanted to hear. It didn't really matter. We got to socialize a little with the people around us, and just take the whole thing in. We seemed to have quite an international crowd around us. In addition to the French fans in the snakepit, there were people from England, Germany, and Holland to name a few. My guess is we weren't the only Americans in the crowd.
It wasn't quite dark when Metallica went on about 9:30. They have an amazing amount of daylight in France. The show started as usual with Ennio Morricone's Ecstasy of Gold along with the video footage from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Then the band came out and put on one of the best shows I have seen in years. It was a full on rock show with new video, lasers, pyros, and a band that seems to have returned to their glory days. In what was a stark contrast to the last tour, the setlist consisted entirely of old songs. They played the entire Black album in reverse order. Everything else was older than that, with the exception of one song from the current EP. As I am generally a fan of their earlier stuff, the setlist was great as far as I was concerned. It was also nice to see some stuff that is rarely played, including three songs that made their debut on this tour. Being in the snakepit meant that at any given time we had band members on all sides of us. That may sound distracting or crazy, but there isn't anywhere I would have rather been in the whole stadium. I don't think they have had the snakepit at any shows since 1993, but I hope they keep it. This was my 19th Metallica show, and I would probably rank it in my personal Top 3. I am super excited about seeing them again in June, even though I don't get to fly to Europe this time.
Here is the full setlist:
Hit The Lights
Master Of Puppets
No Remorse
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Hell And Back
The Struggle Within
My Friend Of Misery
The God That Failed
Of Wolf And Man
Nothing Else Matters
Through The Never
Don't Tread On Me
Wherever I May Roam
The Unforgiven
Holier Than Thou
Sad But True
Enter Sandman
Battery
One
Seek And Destroy
I didn't get a ton of pictures. I am a lot more interested in watching the band. Also, it's hard to get good pictures of people that are moving around so much. The pictures at the bottom were taken after the show was over. The band came out and held up some flags that people had brought. The overhead shot of the snakepit was on Metallica's website. I stole it because you can see Tiffany (barely). She is the one wearing the white shirt holding her arms up to take a picture.
1. Bread, wine, and cheese all taste better in France.
2. If you attempt to speak French, even poorly, most people will be nice and help you.
3. Everything is much further than you think it is, especially if you are walking.
4. Every old building in Paris has at least a couple hundred stairs to the most interesting part.
5. The public transportation is better and easier to use than any other major city I have ever been to.
6. Some French people do smell bad, but so do some Americans.
7. Rock concerts are better in Europe.
We had a fantastic time in Paris. For starters, any time I can have a few days off is a good time as far as I'm concerned. After the lengthy flight overseas, we were able to take the train directly from the airport to our hotel. We spent most of the first afternoon just wandering the streets around the Champs Elysees. We climbed to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. We also walked along the river by the Eiffel Tower and basically just enjoyed being in the city. The weather was wonderful the entire time we were there. We had a little rain, but it was hardly cold at all. I didn't wear a jacket for one second of this trip.
Friday, we took the train out to Versailles. We spent the better part of the day out there. We took a tour of the main Chateau, which included access to several rooms not open to the public. It was totally worth taking the tour as opposed to just wandering around aimlessly trying to figure out what stuff is. We did plenty of aimless wandering when we were temporarily lost in the gardens. We saw the private quarters of Louis XV, as well as Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. We spent nearly the entire day there, and although we were tired from all of the walking, it was probably my favorite thing we did the entire trip. We spent the evening at the Louvre, mostly hitting the highlights. I would love to go back and spend some more time there when I have more time and am less exhausted. The place was crazy packed, especially in rooms with famous pieces. There was a bigger mosh pit around the Mona Lisa than at any rock concert I have ever been to.
Saturday included a trip to L'Hôtel national des Invalides which houses a military museum. The highlight here is the tomb of Napoleon. I have never in my life seen anything quite so elaborate. His remains are in a giant six layer casket that fills an entire room under a giant dome. It is quite impressive, if not a little bit strange. After that, we spent some time at the Paris Opera House before heading up to the Stade de France for the Metallica show. I will cover that somewhere else to spare those of you who don't care, but it was awesome.
Our last day was spent mostly around Montmartre. We climbed up the hill to the Sacré-Cœur. It's a beautiful church, and it was only 300 more steps to the top of the dome, which seemed like a good idea at the time. There was a nice view of the city from there, but I realized on this trip that I am completely out of shape. We ate lunch and drank wine outside at a little cafe, which made the trip worth it. Afterwards, we stopped at every tourist trap along the way so that Tiffany could get her fill of Paris souvenirs. By the way, souvenir is a French word.
After the long flight home on Monday, I have spent the last two days doing as little as possible. I have gotten some reading done, and I have caught up on Jimmy Fallon. Tomorrow I have to go back to work. I'm not super excited about it, but I guess you have to work occasionally if you want to continue to make trips to Europe. Maybe this will be my year to win the lottery.
I'm sorry. It's been over a month since my last confesstion. It's weird too, because this website looks completely different than it did last time. I guess I will just wing it and see what happens. Quite often, I upload the pictures first, which usually inspires (reminds) me to write about something. I'm not going to do that this time, and I'll tell you why. About a week ago, I came home to a dead computer. One could argue that a computer was never really alive in the first place, but as a huge fan of the Terminator franchise, I will disagree with you. I still think Judgment Day is coming. Before I get too carried away, I didn't lose much from this massive hardware failure, except for a lot of time. I am a responsible individual who occasionally makes a backup of important things. All of the pictures I have taken since my last backup are still on my camera. I am currently typing this from my laptop. I can't reach the camera from here, and I am pretty comfortable in this chair, so the pictures will have to come later. Yesterday I came home from work to find that the refrigerator door was open. It's possible that I didn't close it after I finished with breakfast. It's also possible that my innocent looking two-year old opened it. After interviewing all possible suspects, I believe it to be the cat's fault. The good news here is that we got to clean out the fridge, which should be done once in a while anyway. The bad news is that we had to make new dinner plans, as well as make a trip to the store to replace a few items. It wasn't the way I intended to start my vacation, but that's life. Tiffany and I are leaving tomorrow for Paris. I am so excited to have a few days off. Perhaps in a future blog I will discuss whatever it is we actually do, but for now all I can tell you is what we have planned. Friday morning we booked a tour (en Anglais) of the Palace of Versailles. I think this is going to be good stuff. Who doesn't want to see how French royalty lived? Seriously, I think it is going to be cool. The only other thing on our agenda is the Metallica concert on Saturday night. In addition to our front of stage pit tickets, we found out last week that we won Snake Pit passes through the Metallica Club. I will snag a picture off the internet so you know what I'm talking about, but basically we will be as close as we could possibly get. They are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Black album on this tour, and the snake pit was a part of the stage back then. I missed that tour, as I was only 13 and lived under the dictatorship of my parents. We are super excited to be attending this show. It is a sold out show at the Stade de France, which is the national football (soccer) stadium. It holds 80,000 people, which is the second largest concert I have ever been to. This will be my 19th Metallica show, but my first one on another continent. Other than that, we have no real plans. I know are going to spend some time at the Louvre, and probably some other touristy places. Is it weird that I want to go into a McDonalds and order a Royale with Cheese? Some of you know what I'm talking about, and the rest of you never will. My guess is that a McDonalds hamburger tastes like crap no matter what language you order it in. They do have free wi-fi, so I may abuse that a little.
OK, I just got the pictures uploaded. The first picture is from Easter. The rest of them are from the Murray family reunion at Lake Brownwood. The reunion was fun as always. We all ate too much. Ethan spent his time blowing bubbles, flying his toy plane, and throwing rocks into the lake. Kids are so easily entertained. Oh, and I found a good picture of the snake pit from Prague. Enjoy, and I will talk to you when I get back.
