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What 11 Metallica Shows Taught One Fan About Time, Family, and Change

Stephen Scarrow

On Metallica, Mortality, and Symmetry

Back in April I saw my eleventh Metallica concert. I don’t emphasize eleventh because it’s a remarkable achievement (there are many Metallica fans who’ve seen far more shows than me). I emphasize it because prior to the show, I sat down, wrote down all of their concerts I’d seen, and added them up.

Until this recent show, I’d been content to lose track. There was that show in Ionia, Michigan in 1994, Copps Coliseum in Hamilton (what year was that?, on the Load tour), the two-show weekend takeover in Chicago in 2024… I didn’t know how many, I just knew it was “a lot”. But it was for this show, seeing them in Syracuse, NY, that I felt compelled to keep count. Is it because I felt this show might be my last? Perhaps.

Eleven, a fitting number. This time around, I brought my son to his first show — at the age of 11. Metallica is touring their 11th studio album, 72 Seasons.

There’s a film premiering called “Metallica Saved My Life”. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that Metallica saved my life. But they’ve certainly marked my life. An indelible imprint. Like pencil lines on the door frame as kids grow older, Metallica have grown with me, and been there every step of the way since I was in Grade 8.

Seeing Metallica in concert has become a measure of my mortality. How are they doing? How am I doing? Metallica shows have always been incredible, fist-pumping, yell-as-loud-as-you-can good. They’re increasingly a spectacle… or you could say, an ordeal. Gone are the days of the hockey arena shows; it’s become football stadiums, craning necks, massive line-ups at the merch stands, traffic. I felt this seeing them at Rogers Centre in Toronto in 2017, the first time the sheer scale of the show created a wall vs. the ‘connection’ of previous shows. As I recently turned 47… have I seen Metallica enough? Maybe I’ll never know. The band still has the chops, but will they know when to call it quits? Will there be an eventual ‘farewell tour’? Will they, like the Rolling Stones, be touring into their 80’s?, do we even want them to?

My love affair with Metallica, like many people, started with the song “One” from their masterpiece …And Justice For All. Credit the heavy video rotation on MTV (or in Canada, MuchMusic). Hearing the song for the first time, it just clicked — sending shock waves through my young musical brain, unlike anything I’d heard before. The distorted guitars, the pummeling drums, the snarling vocals — all wrapped in infectious, unforgettable melody. I duplicated the cassette off a friend, sketched out the album artwork for a DIY sleeve, and played the cassette until it wore out. Then, replacing that with CD, the CD never left my Discman. Each note, each riff, each transition between songs — became part of me.

It’s one of the few albums for which I’ve purchased a full-on Deluxe Edition — on the 30th anniversary of the album in 2018. It’s in a fancy box in my living room. I don’t play the album much anymore — only when that rare mood strikes to feel its force again.

The song “One”, so foundational in my interest in the band, the very basis of the eleven shows — was also the song we left partway through at the Syracuse show. As the show was rounding its final turn and James Hetfield played the opening notes of the song, my son, tapped out after a long day and all the excitement, was ready to head back to the hotel. He didn’t know enough songs. And that’s OK, another Metallica show — another season of life.

My concert history with the band had come full circle. My Dad joined me, too, at my first Metallica concert. That show was in 1991 — going back 34 years — at a smoke-filled and electric Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Metallica was on top of the rock world with the Black Album. James Hetfield now talks about the Metallica “family”. And I guess it’s true, it’s been a life experience so important to me, so much part of my mortality, that it’s time for the next generation, however massive the band’s become. My son loves the T-Shirt he got at the show, despite the hour-long wait in line.

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