whilst waiting for the nasi to tanak, i sunk into the sofa to watch a band which, for some reason after being a fan since 1985, i’ve not really listened to/watched for a while. MTV2 was airing a series of different live acts that have played the rock am ring festival at nürburgring, one of which was the ‘tallica. since the disappointment that was st. anger, together with the filem keaiban agung that was some kind of monster, i lost interest in the band. i left the fan club as, apart from utter disillusionment, it felt rather pointless as the band looked really desperate trying to rehash their glory days as one of the big four of thrash (bukan trash ye?).


a fair-weathered fan, you say? maybe, but like the jilted wife waiting for the shite husband to come to his senses, it was just too long to wait for something decent to come out from these bay area guys. the last show i saw was in ’03 at earls court. a fantastic show it was, but it was painfully obvious that there was a realisation in the metallica camp that they had better play the old tunes. just like that megadeth gig in notts i went to after risk came out. between ’03 and now, i stumbled upon youtube vids of them playing badly to their own material, merely reaffirming my lack of interest.

however, like a meeting with the ex long gone (i’ll stop with the references now), i felt the interest rekindled last night. the gig on telly was a summary of their escape from the studio tour in 2006. apart from that pathetic outro solo to fade to black (c’mon, kirk!), they sounded good. het looked pleasantly smiley (worryingly, though) throughout. lars didn’t sound like he was trying to hard, either. the set was, like the others of recent years post-st. anger, still a rehash but i missed listening to them. gone is that intensity that you’d see from the live shit binge & purge DVDs, or even cunning stunts. the ‘tallica may have grown older and sound a little more streamlined, but if you guys decide to play arena dates once again for death magnetic, i won’t miss it for the world.

[vids from the ’06 gig. youtube has the recent 2008 ‘tallica show from rock am ring – carik je]