Hopefully I have got this date right as it was missing from the archive calendar, but as I recall, Mr.Nut and I went to the Nassau Coliseum to see Metallica on this Friday night in February; the stage took up the center of the orchestra with general admission standing room around it. We were sitting midway up opposite to where the stage would have been set up under ordinary circumstances. At that time, Nassau Coliseum was the home of the New York Islanders hockey team and the short wall of the rink surrounding the orchestra floor, and a few security guards, were all there was in place to keep the seated fans from joining the general admission crowd on the floor up against the rectangular stage. Metallica was LOUD and throughout the show fired up fans were leaping over the wall and running passed mostly disinterested security guards standing there to ostensibly catch and release the interlopers. One of the two guards in front of us stood there stoically making no attempt to intervene; the second younger guard repeatedly, physically, and overzealously, tried to knock over the uninvited like bowling pins. Those who took the running start and stormed passed the guards toward the stage mostly made it and upgraded their experience by joining the faithful on the floor. It was not quite a mosh pit but there was a lot of testosterone in the air. At one point someone near the stage got in the face of former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted who, without missing a beat, punched the young man, nailing him squarely in the face; Newsted then spun around returning to the stage mid-song almost as if this had all been choreographed somehow. The band seemed to have a stadium sized volume in an arena setting making for an ear-splitting cacophony of sound and it was relentless. At the end of the concert when Mr. Nut, who is a big Ozzy fan and no stranger to the heavy metal music, said that Metallica scared him, it confirmed for me that we had witnessed an epic show.

Death Magnetic

Rock on!

GQ