Monday, December 15, 2008

Rolling with Metallica

OK, so this post isn't as epic as the teaser title sounds but hey it was a great time. Read on and somewhere toward the end I will try to weave some BJJ relevance into my story.

So at some point during the week, I get this text message from Dr. Evil which basically read "My kid wont be able to go to the Metallica concert with me on Friday night, do you want to go?". It took all of 45 seconds for that to process thru my internal mental computer.

Being a lifelong metalhead, its a shameful admission that I must make here to explain why this is such a big deal. I have never seen Metallica in concert before. I survived Jr. High and High School buried deeply in Master of Puppets and And Justice for All. Being a fan for so long and never seeing the band in concert when I live this close to LA is inexcusable. And today, while I have probably the most eclectic musical taste of anyone I know, I still consider myself a huge fan even after that dark time of disappointment called the 90's and early 0's in which the boys in the band gave us nothing worth listening to.

Now, how is this BJJ relevant? Why does it belong in my blog? Well, first off I think that of any this was a good reason to miss training on a Friday night. Secondly, how often do we really get to know the folks we roll with away from the mats? I know many of you out there might have a different experience than I do, but for me its pretty much; go to the gym, see the guys, catch up, roll, laugh a bit, go home....repeat.

Being able to hang out with a teammate outside of the gym was an interesting adventure. Interestingly, we only talked about BJJ for maybe a combined total of 15-20 minutes. Not too bad. Here's proof that BJJ can bring folks together with common interests and they don't have to only have BJJ to talk about.

One last note on relevance; what better to listen to when getting ready to train? Ok that might be a stretch, but hey the show was awesome. So thanks to the Doc, see you on the mats.

Here are the show Details:
Metallica
Citizens Business Bank Arena
Ontario, CA

Here's the set list (A good mix of old and new):

That Was Just Your Life
The End Of The Line
Ride The Lightning
For Whom The Bell Tolls
One
Broken, Beat And Scarred
Cyanide
Sad But True
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
All Nightmare Long
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Blackened
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
- - - - - - - -
Stone Cold Crazy
Whiplash
Seek and Destroy

2 comments:

Sir. Fobos said...

Ok, I must apologise for saying how much I hated you last week for seeing Metallica while I was stuck at home watching Nick at Night. I was unaware that this was your FIRST Metallica concert... ever. And you live in the LA area??? Dude, if I'd have known that you have been denied the full experience of a Metallica show, then I wouldn't have been so hard on you. But DUDE, this is your first one? OK OK, I won't rag on you anymore. I hope Metallica blew your eardrums out. They have been putting out such horrible SHIT in the past decade that I used to tell myself that they all died in a tragic plane crash and that some shit band took on the name of Metallica and put out shit albums in their name.
Finally, Metallica put out something decent with Death Magnetic... it's about time because I haven't 'bumped' anything Metallica in my car since the Black Album. I usually have Master of Puppets cranking before I hit the mats; the *chunk* in Disposable Heroes always gets me ready to roll. Anyway, I'm glad that you and the Doc spent a special night together with the boy's in black.
Metallica Says, "SEE YA!!!"

Anonymous said...

It's funny that you wrote this. I just mentioned in my blog that I had a chance to talk to some of the guys I train with more in-depth because my back was feeling out of whack. The class is an hour and a half so I am usually to beat to talk afterward.