My First Concert (Metallica), 2003, by Brian Vartanian

From MemoryArchive

Who: Brian Vartanian
What: Metallica Concert
When: July 4th 2003
Where: Pontiac Silver Dome

My First Concert

Ever since I was in 8th grade I have really loved the band Metallica. I was introduced to them by a few friends of mine. I had previously had a disliking for music of this genre, but listening to Metallica sparked something inside me. My whole taste in music went through a shift. I was listening to all sorts of new bands and music. I really feel like they changed who I am today and my whole life. You could say I have a passion for them. I was just going into my freshmen year in high school, when me and a few friends heard about Metallica going on tour. I had never been to a concert before. I was nervous at the thought of going to a heavy metal concert since I had never been to one before. My friends still insisted that I go. Tickets went on sale in February of 2003, we had originally planned on buying our tickets at Ticket Master inside Lakeside Mall. We got to Ticket Master the day the tickets went on sale, and were surprised to find a sign on the window saying the ticket machine had broken and they were closed. We started to panic. We needed to find someway to get tickets. Our only choice was to buy them on line, but this meant that we needed a parent to give us a credit card. My friend Donnie's mom agreed to buy us the tickets after a long negotiation, so long as his older sister and her boyfriend came with us. We had no objection to this since Donnie's sister, Alisha, was pretty cool. And so the plans were set, we were going to see Metallica on July 4th, 2003!

Around June of that year, I realized there was a problem with the scheduling of the concert. My parents had planned a vacation to Daytona Beach. They had planned the trip to go from June 28 until July 6. I did not realize the dates until we were actually in Florida. I was so angry at myself for not realizing the problem before hand. I begged and pleaded with my parents to leave early, but they did not want to. Luckily, when we went to Orlando towards the end of the trip, my baby brother became ill and we had to leave early, this was July 1. I couldn’t have been happier.

On the day of the concert, we arrived four hours prior to the doors' opening. It was almost noon, and the temperature had already reached about 80 degrees. It was incredibly hot. We had to stand in line in the beating sun for 2 more hours. I eventually got so parched that I had to go to an ambulance and ask them for water. When the doors opened we ran inside and got all the way to the front of the stage. We were extremely close to the front of the stage. There was no way to get any closer to the stage without crossing the barrier. As more and more people started coming in we became hotter and hotter, and we got more crowded. We took turns running back to get water. By the time the show started we were drenched in sweat. There were about 75,000 people loaded into the Pontiac Silver Dome, and the heat was only rising.

We watched the first band, Mudvayne, for their whole set. I had only heard a few of Mudvayne's songs before this, but it was incredible. They were the first band I had ever witnessed live before. After Mudvayne, the Deftones came out and we weren't too interested in them, because the guy was screaming like a little girl, which didn't even sound close to their album. So we went back for another round of water. We pushed our way back to the very front to see my second favorite band, Linkin Park. I can't even describe the excitement I was feeling as I was seeing some of my idols in person for the first time. As they started performing, people in the crowd started moshing. Moshing is hard to describe with words. A mosh pit is basically a circle where people go in and jump around, push and shove each other. It's not violent either, they are actually a lot more friendly than you would think from seeing one. After that set Donnie and I went to the water stand to get refreshments only to find they were OUT of water. We were stunned, they had no water. So we did however get some Powerade, and went back to the stage. Limp Bizkit came out and things started getting crazy. Mosh pits were getting huge. In fact Fred Durst, the lead singer of limp Bizkit, demanded that we make a pit 75 feet wide. Until I saw them live, I didn't like Limp Bizkit. But their show was so intense and hardcore I fell in love with them. The temperature was getting in excess of 110 degrees and people were fainting, they had a hose or 2 spraying the crowed, and were trying to hand out little cups of water from the stage. About halfway into Limp Bizkit's set, they brought out a board for him to stand on over the crowd, and he had some water he was splashing on the crowd. I was only a few feet away from this, when I see a guy jump up and grab Fred's hat. I heard a lot of cheers, and then saw the body guards come running. The biggest of them grabbed the guy, and SMASHED his face in. I'm talking broken face, they had to take him away on a stretcher. I will never forget that! Soon after Limp Bizkit finished their concert and we had another intermission.

Soon after Limp Bizkit finished their concert and we had another intermission. Metallica was coming out soon and the heat was making me sick. So I went back to the mile long line for drinks and waited so that I would be cooled down for Metallica. As I left, Donnie's sister made sure that I met her in a spot she had chosen, if I got lost after the concert. As I got to the front of the line, I heard they were sold out of everything but beer. I made my way to the table and asked for a powerade and she said they had nothing but beer. So I asked for a beer and they had no choice but to give me one since people were already passing out, I got 2 beers and sat down and drank them. About a half an hour to an hour later, it was time. I ran up to the stage, starting to feel the alcohol. I couldn't find any of my friends but I planned on just going to the spot at the end to find them. I was ecstatic, the crowed was going wild. Girls were undressing, people were getting high, mosh pits were everywhere. Then I heard what I had been waiting for, “The Ecstasy of Gold”. This was the intro that Metallica used before they came on stage, it's actually from "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." I have never felt so alive before. People now started pushing forward to get as close as possible to the stage. It was such a sensation, to hear the songs I had been listening too day in and day out for 2 years life. To be able to see people that I held as idols in my head, there and in person. Even with all my excitement, I began to feel sick from the alcohol so I had to go sit down for a little bit. I choose a nice cold spot over a sewer on the very side of the arena. Then I heard my favorite Metallica song, “One”, and I jumped up and sprinted towards the center of the audience, I got as close as I could, which wasn't that far away, but it wasn't that close. On the last song they blew off some fireworks to celebrate independence day, and it was over.

After the concert, I went to the spot where we were all supposed to meet, and waited for them. Ten minutes went by, then twenty, then thirty. I started getting worried. Almost everyone had left, and the Silver Dome people were kicking the rest of us out. When one of them came up to me and told me to leave, i said “No I'm waiting for my friends”, he picked me up, and put me on the stairs and told me to get out. The only thing I could think of doing was to find a pay phone, call Donnie's mom and ask her to call Alisha. Donnie's mom, luckily, told me they were waiting in the car, so I made my way out to the parking lot, and found them. They yelled at me for getting lost, and then we went home. I will never forget that night for the rest of my life.