The band Metallica was born in 1981: the year I graduated high school. Their first known video of a live performance happened in the city that made them famous, San Francisco, on March 19th, 1983, at The Stone. A tiny club that became legendary but is now, sadly, gone. Just a month earlier the band made the move out of L.A. to S.F. and they have never looked back. I remember seeing the name “Metallica” numerous times in our Pink Paper (the weekly newspaper insert we combed faithfully to find live shows in the bay area). A little research shows that between Sept. 1982 and Nov. 1983, Metallica played The Stone 6 times, The Old Waldorf a few times and Mabuhay Gardens a few times and even the Kabuki Theater. All small venues. Metallica was everywhere and INVENTING the metal scene in SF. It must have been very exciting for music fans in the area. I wouldn’t know. I had no idea what was going on and I wasted a million opportunities to witness ‘baby’ Metallica for myself.
BASS tickets The Stone March 19th , 1983 courtesy of https://www.metallipromo.com/
I was an active concert goer in 1983 but my list included bands like Journey, Van Halen, Men at Work, Hall & Oates, Bob Segar, Greg Kihn, Billy Joel or Huey Lewis & The News. Neither Metallica nor even Ozzy at that time held any interest for me. I had yet to discover the power of heavy metal. KISS or Van Halen were about as heavy as I got. I knowingly passed on this band ‘Metallica’ that I kept seeing in the Pink Paper. Metallica released album after mind-blowing album that I never heard and, thus, never knew how powerful they were.
The first Metallica song I ever heard, like a million others, was “Enter Sandman” from The Black Album. It was 1991 and, by this time, Metallica was a veteran band with 4 albums and countless concerts under their belt. What many old-school fans, like the guys sweating it up at The Stone in 1983, thought was the END of Metallica with The Black Album was just the beginning for me. It was a slow beginning, however. My real Metallica obsession would not happen for another 6 years, after I was forced to pay attention.
Contest Winner
It was at this time in my life when I worked in a place where I could listen to the radio all day with no bosses around. I worked in the downtown SF Financial district. One morning a contest came on 107.7 The Bone, giving away tickets to a special Metallica show. If you were the 10th(?) caller and answered the question, you won the tickets. It was a comical contest called, “Name the pussy song” where the DJ would play a line from a mellow (non-rocking) song and if you could finish the lyric, you won.
After speed dialing the number a few times, I got through as the correct caller and was ON THE AIR! The song was “Baby, I Love Your Way” by Peter Frampton. One of my all time, all times! It was very easy for me to finish the lyric with ”….I want to be with you night and day”. However, in order to win the tickets, I had to exclaim, on air, ”My name is …..and I am a pussy!” I did not mind saying that at all, considering! So the special Metallica show ended up being the first San Francisco Symphony & Metallica collaboration concert (S & M)!
Anticipation
Since I won the tickets while at work, I took my co-worker Jimmy R. with me. He was a little bigger Metallica fan than I was. It was held on Wednesday, April 21st, 1999 at the 3500 seat Berkeley Community Theater. My contest-winning tickets were in the last row of the floor. A mere 27 rows from the stage. Behind our row was a big camera on a track running left and right. On the resulting video of that concert, I am sure I can pick out the back of my big head as this camera rolled by behind me. The theater was loaded up with cameras ready to record the event. The old theater took on a new look as design images were projected on the side walls.
I was excited to hear metal with a symphony accompaniment and to see Metallica live for the first time. By 1999, I knew a few more Metallica songs from the albums ‘Load’ and ‘Reload’ but I was mostly unaware of the classic Metallica songs that would become later staples in my life. I was also unaware of the atmosphere at a Metallica show. I was attending this show with very little Metallica to reference.
The crowd inside the theater was quite mixed. There were the obvious Metallica fans, of course, but there were also a large number of “grown ups” with their families. The reason for this was that a number of tickets were reserved for S.F. Symphony season ticket holders as this was an official Symphony event also. The combination of personalities was copasetic, for the most part, but we did witness a hilarious exchange between the two camps. More on that later..
Wait, Is there an opening movie?
The time finally came for the concert to start as the lights dimmed in the small theater. First the entire SF Symphony takes the stage, followed by the conductor Michael Kamen. Kamen looks like a mad scientist with his wild gray hair. He taps the stand and, with the wave of his wand, he launches the award-winning symphony into “The Ecstasy of Gold” (an instrumental from the 1966 spaghetti-western movie ‘The Good, the Bad , and the Ugly’). As I learned later, this is Metallica’s walk out song. At this moment, I’m a little confused. I’m unfamiliar with this song and it sounds like a western movie soundtrack, so strange. Meanwhile the Metallica fans around me are losing their minds with anticipation. The sheer power of that orchestra was filling the theater!
The members of Metallica begin to slowly take their places scattered among the orchestra as their appearance raises the crowd energy. They play an original called “The Call of Ktulu”. Another instrumental. For the first time we hear what Metallica sounds like playing live alongside a symphony! A sonic explosion of violins, horns, drums and guitars. The song lasted nine minutes and built into a frenzied pace before ending abruptly. There were about 3 nano seconds between the end of that song and the start of the next. The crowd reaction was immediate when the first chord of the next song was hit. There was no way I could fully comprehended what I just witnessed during that opening explosion. However, It was during this next song that I remember seeing the light! Or should I say the LIGHTNING!
Now I Get It
The now familiar “Master of Puppets” opening guitar riff was boosted by a whole symphony’s horn section. What I thought was an already enthusiastic start to a concert, stepped up to a whole other level. First off, I was really digging this song even though I had never heard it before. A few things became immediately obvious: this song is a fan favorite and Metallica fan’s love to sing along!! In all the excitement of watching the love flow between fans and band, I could not for the life of me, understand what James Hetfield was singing or what the crowd was singing back to him.
There was this ONE word that was repeated twice back and forth. People pumped their fists as they repeated it. I had to join in and just make up with my own lyrics to scream. It felt GREAT! By the next time I attended a Metallica show, I KNEW what they were saying: MASTER ………………. M A S T E R!
The passion with which these fans responded to the song was mind-blowing. I did see the light. I started to understand the huge appeal of this band. Metallica was not a run-of-the-mill trash metal band. Their power was infectious. Their songs were full of emotion. I won’t spend anymore time explaining the impact of the rest of this concert. It is available on video everywhere as a historical document. Suffice to say, I continued to be swept up in the fury of Metallica, the orchestra and their fans throughout the night. The energy level and musicianship were of the highest quality. By the time I heard the encore, “Enter Sandman”, I was exhausted. I got very used to this feeling at the end of every Metallica show I attended for then on.
Can’t we all just get along
The afore mentioned funny moment happened during a particularly frenzied point of the show. There were many such points in this show. The scene perfectly demonstrated how unique the event was. A family of seemingly SF Symphony season ticket holders were sitting behind a few very happy Metallica fans. Mom and Dad thought it would be fun to take their teenage daughter and a friend to go see this rock band play with the symphony. They all got dressed up and took their seats behind the two buddies who probably had a few drinks in them. When the show started the Metallica fanboys jumped out of their seats and got swept up. I don’t blame them, I did too. Well Dad was ok with it for awhile but at some point, he tapped Metal dude #1 on the shoulder and asked him to sit down. The guy barely acknowledged him. Mom and Dad were both flabbergasted. Sissy and her friend could not even see and had frowns on their little faces! That’s when Dad tried his luck with Metal dude #2, asking him to sit down. This prompted guy #1 to spin around and shout “METALLICAAAA!” while using both hands to flips two very angry birds at Dad. Conversation over. Rock ON, my dudes!
The Maestro
The conductor for the night was no slouch. Michael Kamen was an American composer and musician, arranger of, mostly, film scores. His resume is quite long as a conductor and as a
musician. Kamen worked with many people in popular music also, including Queen, David Bowie, Roger Waters, Aerosmith and Metallica on the strings-heavy song, “Nothing Else Matters”. He was the perfect fit for this collaboration. Check out his impressive career. Sadly Kamen passed away from a heart attack in 2003 at the age of 55 after a battle with multiple sclerosis. RIP Maestro.
My Encore
Metallica has been a favorite from that day forward. I have grown into a deep-dive kind of fan and cannot wait for the next Metallica offering. The live Metallica shows I’ve attended have been many, including special ones like the 40th Anniversary show and the All-Within-My-Hands charity acoustic show. I celebrate being a family member for over 20 years and my life is fuller because of it. I grew up a little that night in 1999 Berkeley, even though I was already an adult. While I may have missed the perfect opportunity for early boarding on the good ship Metallica, I was very lucky to be ‘pussy’ enough back in then to witness a historical event and to be handed on a silver METAL platter, the gift of Metallica.
BONUS: The only song CREATED for this S&M project was “No Leaf Clover”. It is perhaps the most perfect metal/symphony song ever written. IMO
BONUS#2: An article written leading up to the historic collaboration between Metallica and the SF Symphony.
