The Best Thanksgiving Ever

As some of you know, Thanksgiving 2009 featured heavy-metal legends Metallica, my favorite band, playing at the MTS Centre to a sold-out crowd of almost 16,000 people.

After careful deliberation, I have determined that this was the best concert I have ever seen. To prove my unbiased opinion, here are a few reasons why:

-Metallica puts their stage smack-dab in the centre of the arena, making every seat in the place that much better and that much closer to the action. Everyone in the arena could feel the heat on their faces during some of the pyro.

-Metallica is great with the crowd, as lead singer James Hetfield constantly talks to them between songs and each band member also has interactions during the show from time to time. They managed to give away at least 50 guitar picks at the end of the show, and they would all throw their drinks into the crowd to give the fans surprising souvenirs

-As for myself, this is the first concert where I sang the entire time. I felt my voice slowly start to go during the 4th of 18 songs during the night. The voice was a little rough Tuesday morning, but it was most definitely worth it.

-Another first: The first time I heard a band play new stuff and virtually everyone stayed and sang the lyrics. Metallica's new album "Death Magnetic" has been out for over a year now, which is a big reason for the love from the crowd, and has featured the band writing songs that remind us of the Metallica from 1986. After the St.Anger debacle in 2004, the fans have warmed up to this material.

(Side Note: I'll rank it their 3rd best album ever)

-So to wrap it up, a majority of the concerts I have attended have featured a show that is one of these two things:

1)The band is up there just for the music and there is not really any pyro or light show happening (I am not saying this is bad at all, just telling you what I see)

2)The band(usually a huge one) brings the light show and the pyro to the stage, yet they barely interact with the fans. They play their show and get the hell of the stage and on to the next city.

(Eg. Eric Clapton said 2 words during his entire Winnipeg show back in March 2007......"Thank You".......that's it)

Metallica was the first band I have seen that didn't fit one of these two circumstances.

What a show.

Here's a little audio: