A lot has happened in the world of Metallica since they graced our shores back in 2004. They have appeared on The Simpsons. They have toured for the 20th anniversary of Master of Puppets, playing the entire album start to finish. They have released a new album to critical acclaim and widespread positivity. They have done escape tours, US tours and European tours. But they have not come to Australia. Over the years it had hinted at a possible tour of Australia, but nothing was ever set in stone or taken too seriously until an official announcement. This official announcement was made towards the end of April this year. It was greeted with shock, excitement, emotion and a steely resolve that this would be a tour I would never forget.

After the memorable success of our previous adventure in 2004, taking in 3 Big Day Outs and three arena shows, the Tango to my Cash, Sam, and I decided that we indeed had to do it again and then some. It was easy for us to commit to doing every Metallica show on the next tour. We even got as deluded to say we would goto New Zealand and Japan. But those ideas changed when the realities of life appeared. So we focussed on what we could do. What we were going to do. What was our fate.

The announcement of a tour to Australia was read and double-read to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I scoured each bit of information. They were to start the tour on October 18 in Brisbane and end on November 18 in Melbourne. All up there were eight shows were announced over the month long period. It didn’t take a genius to gather the four horseman of awesome would announce extra gigs. Me and Sam debated wether it would be more in each city or only the east coast. Regardless, I took a day off work and sat myself down in front of my computer on the morning of 04 May. I had printed out and stuck on the wall the MetClub presale codes that Sam and I were given. I had everything organised. And I was waiting until the noon release of the presale access.

By about 12:05 I had purchased eight tickets for the first show in Melbourne. And within that 5 minutes, problems had already started to appear. The main issues were with Ticketek not quite understanding exactly the process for a MetClub presale. I have to say that the efforts of the MetClub staff over in the USA whilst this was going on were the only things keeping me from having a stroke. So there I was after all this waiting and waiting, and I only had the eight tickets. What happened next was a chain-smoking ordeal of the highest order. I sat. I refreshed. I waited. I cursed. I hoped. I prayed. And then it happened – Ticketek pulled its greedy fat finger out of its fat arse.

By three o’clock that afternoon I had secured tickets to every single show Metallica had announced. I was going to be seeing them in Brisbane then Perth and back across to Sydney, over to Adelaide and then back home in Melbourne. It had happened after all of these years. Six long fucking years. Which reminds me of what James said in ‘04 when I got to meet him. He promised us it would not be another six years, but unfortunately it was. But who gives a fuck about dwelling on that? I HAD TICKETS TO EVERY SINGLE FUCKING METALLICA SHOW IN AUSTRALIA. Well, so I thought.

As we predicted (woohoo), Metallica announced further shows (fuck yeah!) in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. I was at work when this happened. Unfortunately Ticketek had fucked up AGAIN and was now demanding VISA cards. So I had to go home. Once home I got the next batch of tickets. YES! I was going to see Metallica 8 times! EVERY SHOW! Again, so I thought. A few days later a third show was added to the east coast and extra ones for Perth and Adelaide! Like competitors in the Amazing Race, Sam and I were faced with a road block – a choice between two tasks, each with their own pros and cons. Did we go to all of the newly announced shows? You know that reality thing I mentioned earlier? Well it came back and reminded us that it was simply not going to be affordable. So we ended up getting tickets to the third shows in Sydney and Melbourne. Oh and I forgot to mention that my little bro is coming with us to all Sydney and Melbourne shows.

So as of right now I have purchased nearly $5000 worth of tickets – not all mine, mind you. I ‘only’ bought ten for myself. Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane x 2, Sydney x 3 and Melbourne x 3. And it feels awesome. I wrote up some memories from the 2004 trip – it was a week and a half in the life of a Metallica fan. This year, its going to be close to a month of madness in the life of a Metallica fan.

And I would not have it any other fucking way. No life ’till leather!

I fucking love the reunions you have when you re-encounter a past musical inspiration. It is like catching up with a close friend for the first time in ages; you feel comforted and excited at the reconnection. A short while ago I had such an encounter. It was a dark and stormy – no, it wasn’t. Was just some average Sunday but with an event during the night time that has stuck with me since. Ok, yes, its only been a couple of weeks but get stuffed. I loved the event and I loved the after shocks; the feelings rippling back into me each day.

You see it was on this dark and stormy night-no, there I go again. It was on this Sunday night that I made my way to a close mate’s place prior to heading to see Devin Townsend and his latest motley selection of musicians that form his project. Everything about the pre-show was awesome. The company, the humungo pizza, the cider and the conversations. It is like I could be away from these close friends for years and when I do finally catch up, its as if we spoke the day before. Technically we had done so this weekend but that ruins my story, so get stuffed.

The reason for our meeting was to head to Billboards (like mini Hi Fi Bar) as a group to catch an artist we share an appreciation, admiration and an attachment to. We hung around in the venue and had a beer as the support act finished. Then we were slammed in the faces and ears by Ziltoid radio. This formed part of the lead up to Devin’s appearance on stage to blow our minds. It was kind of surreal hearing that Barbie Girl song blasted at 9-11 x 100 decibels – especially to a sea of black tshirts. Needless to say it was hilarious, and when Devin kicked into the title track off his latest record Addicted, I knew this would be something special.

For close to two hours Devin, with unmatched intensity, banged out a setlist to remember. I was personally stoked to the shithouse that he played Deadhead from a record titled Accelerated Evolution as I have always dug that song. He played some gear from Ziltoid; this was fantastic because it reminded me that the album was actually fucking awesome. After a brief break for what would have been copious amounts of drugs, but now that he is clean I wonder if it was tea? – Devin reappeared and played some less full on material. It was a great way to end what was a superb live performance. That dude is fucking intense and incredibly talented.

Sure, some may say “well of course he is talented he worked with Vai” but get stuffed. Devin has an equal level of complex song writing skills like Vai, however Devin is unique. He can belt you with some fast, heavy metal riffing for one song and then offer the complete opposite on the next track. Since then my MP3 player has been chocked full of Devin’s material. Ah it is so awesome having these experiences and is the reason why I need to goto more live shows.

The best thing about this gig was catching up with some really close friends of mine, including Devin Townsend.