This weekend was a blast! As expected, the Metallica concert on Saturday night was awesome, and we came away deaf and happy. Carrie thought Godsmack were good, but she didn't really get into Metallica, which wasn't a surprise (she was a good sport, though).

We arrived close to the concert start time, working our way past the bible thumpers outside (who branded everyone sinners--they're obviously not Metallica fans!) and through security. We walked around three-quarters of the stadium before we found our seats, and Godsmack (the supporting act) were onto their third song by then.

If we missed the fans wearing Metallica t-shirts before (not bloody likely!), there was certainly no shortage of them in the stadium itself. I've never seen so many black t-shirts (Metallica t-shirts, or otherwise) in my life! It was a veritable sea of black, punctuated by images of grinning skulls and cigarette lighters held aloft.

The stage was round, setup in the centre of the arena, and surrounded by fans on all sides, some of whom were moshing and beating the crap out of each other. The great thing about this layout was that every seat at the All State Arena had a good view of the stage.

Godsmack were excellent, and in addition to playing their usual stuff, they had a duelling drum part where two guys on separate drum kits tried to outdo each other, flinging their sticks in the air and catching them. Their frontman thanked the fans and directed some biting remarks at people who dared to remain seated, reminding them that they weren't sitting at home on their couches watching MTV!

By the time Metallica came on, I was suitably deaf and the music didn't seem so loud anymore...

Before Metallica came on (during the intermission following Godsmack's set), there was some flashing of boobs around the arena, and lots of cheering. I missed it from my vantage point, but then I wasn't really looking too hard. Ahem... The cops came down near our area at one point and it looked like they were going to arrest someone for flashing, but they ended up confiscating an offensive banner from some jokers near the front (dunno what was on it).

On the video screens there was a trailer for the new Metallica documentary, Some Kind of Monster, which looked interesting (it was filmed during the band's recent turbulent times). Apparently the band recorded the commentary for the forthcoming DVD release while they were in Chicago, not long before Friday night's concert.

At last Metallica hit the stage, introduced by film clips from a Clint Eastwood Western on the video screens (a desert scene filled with grave markers -- anyone recognize it?) and greeted to thunderous applause and cheering.

They played a kickarse set, and they also had a few surprises including solo pieces by Kirk Hammett and their new bass guy, Robert Trujillo. This new guy is frickin' incredible! He easily played as good as, if not better than Jason Newstead (the bass player who left the other year), and did the band proud. He got every song just right (to my ear, anyway) and played an incredible bass solo, including an interesting guitar hand slapping technique.

No metal concert would be complete without pyrotechnics, and this one had plenty :) Huge bursts of flames shot out from the corners of the stage for a couple of songs, making me wonder if any of the band members have gotten singed eyebrows yet :)

Partway through the concert, the lights dimmed and the scaffolding lowered down, followed by battlefield sounds and samples from the Stanley Kubrick movie, Full Metal Jacket. There were also blinding, deafening explosions (which were overused on one particular song later on in the set). No kidding, the explosions were so loud they felt like they'd burst my eardrums! They were used during Godsmack's set, but far more sparingly.

The fans couldn't get enough of Metallica, even after two hours! Chants of "We want more!" echoed around the stadium, and Metallica delivered exactly that, returning for a couple of encores!

For those interested, the setlist for the evening can be found on Metallica's website or elsewhere, no doubt (look for the Chicago show on August 28th). They played a few songs from the new album, including Frantic and St. Anger, as well as a good selection from their earlier albums, sampling heavily from Master of Puppets and The Black Album.

If you're even remotely into heavy metal -- especially Metallica -- I highly recommend you check them out when they're in town. You won't be disappointed >BD

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No Carn, write! journal entry would be complete without mentioning at least a few scraps about my writing progress, or lack thereof.

I'm fully up-to-date with my crit group critiques, so I should be able to post crits soon after the stories are posted rather than not getting to them until the end of the week.

This weekend brought three rejections -- which was everything I had out to market! After some market research and submission preparation, I sent all three stories on their way again.

Now if only I could write some new material and finish editing about half a dozen neglected stories...

2004 Stats:

2004 Word count:	22,016
Stories written:	8
Total submissions:	25
Total acceptances:	0
Total rejections:	24
Waiting for response:	3
Books read:	9
Fiction Mags/Chapbooks read:	17