The show simply ROCKED!
The opening act "The Sword" was not bad. They were like an early Metallica. The next act sucked, Lamb of God IMO. Was not impressed at all.
When Metallica took the stage it was pitch black to a laser show. The pulsing heart on the begining of That Was Just Your Life went on to the pre-recorded intro. Then it was the guys jamming it out. It was awesome live! After that song it was immediately into End of the Line and then Creeping Death. They played The Day That Never Comes, Broken, Beat, and Scared, as with Cyanide. The songs played in total were from Kill Em All, Ride the Lightning, MOP, Justice, Black Album, Garage Inc, and then Death Magnetic.
The energy was AMAZING!!! Lars was fast as ever. The void and awkward stage of Jason toward the end and after he was gone. They filled the backing vocal with Rob and also some effects, James is doing less singing and more screaming, and jamming with everyone else over hanging out with Lars. It looked, and felt, like it was the late 80s to early 90s again.
James asked the crowd "How many people are seeing Metallica for the first time?" 75% of the sold out Key Arena raised their hands and it blew them away.
He also stated to a person in the standing front row by the gate "Little man, how old are you?", "Eight?", "You must have the coolest parents in the world. Did you drive here?".
And lastly, have no doubts about it, the new stuff will be apart of their set lists in the future as they recognize that the Load, Re-Load, and St Anger stuff did not stick the wall. Death Magnetic is sticking and the fans are digging it. Id hate to point the finger at Jason, but, his departure has brought about alot of change in the band that is for the better. You might mention St Anger but that was in the midst of turmoil where they needed a break to clear their heads and reestablish themselves post Jason. They went head on but you could tell that they wanted to cross back over to who they were. And it showed in the live shows.But the Rob mix was a good one.