Fans in Bulgaria were once again happy to see Metallica in live. This time, however, it was more than a special show. Metallica were part of the Sonisphere festival along with Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax. Here is Assya’s story of how she enjoyed everything – from the pre-show party of our local chapter Harvester of Sofia to the concert itself.

As in 2008 I was lucky enough to see Metallica personally and thank them for what they are doing for us, now it’s hard for me to find appropriate words to describe what happened on the 21st and 22nd of June.

Our pre-party came with thunder and a lot of rain on Monday 21st. We managed to surpass our wildest expectations for attendance. R.B.F. was full; our friends came from Bulgaria, Europe and even Russia. Hate Campaign with Bobz from Fyeld made a set of nine songs, songs that take your breath away and leave you with thirst for more. For the fan club, especially, they reshaped Harvester of Sorrow to Harvester of Sofia, one pretty great interpretation. The surprise however came with a fantastic medley, which covered most songs from the album Master of Puppets. I have not seen any of those live concert series in honor of MOP in 2006, but I admit my jaw dropped to the ground with the first chords of Orion….

The boys did not stop to show us how special we are. We were the first who heard and saw live for the first time ever two songs from Hate Campaign ¬ „Feed the Pain” and “Shallow Person”. Bobz again stood behind the microphone and they finished us with three of our favorite songs of Metallica.

After a brief pause the second band came on stage, which also arranged a setlist full of surprises. Not only they have covered few great groups, but also arranged a variety of vocals, which on a run from nowhere, climb the stage to make us scream our lungs out. Miro, Misho, Ilian and Bobz took turns behind the microphone and left us with thick voices. From Metallica, Slayer and Sepultura, through Pantera and Alice in chains … in the company of Gena The crocodile, who was a little shy and forced to get on the stage, the concert ended with two songs from Robb Flynn and company, which they sang together.
Absolute feast for the senses.

After the concert we saw smiles from ear to ear and everyone acknowledged that this was the best party of HOS (just for now …), the best warm-up for the upcoming concert. One by one people started to leave only to gain strength for the upcoming hard day. The night itself was full with lots of energy and portends great things. But none of us, no one was prepared for the surprises that Metallica themselves had prepared us.

On 22nd of June everything was on the side of Harvester of Sofia…A lot was spoken about Sofia rocks festival, we saw tones of  high quality photos and even we watched it several times… But what happened during the Metallica…. We made history!
Bulgaria and the Bulgarian fans have their own place of honor in the hearts of Metallica. We proved that we are true and dedicated fans. We make them feel at home and they appreciated that … As for us, for the local chapter – Harvester of Sofia, was also honored from the beginning. Although our banners were hidden behind a wall of photographers, they were noted by James and company. Nods for approval and congratulations for them we received from them several times. A set full of legendary songs, every word from every song echoed in the audience! The surprise came with Harvester of Sorrow, our so called hymn. Members of the HoS, who had won a meet and greet with the band before the concert, were asked to remind Lars that this song have never been played live in Bulgaria.
Nothing is impossible, he said…

The unique sound of the song covered the stadium and shook all over Sofia. Language of the mad….. James screamed into a microphone and the unbelievable happened. Most of us didn’t notice, someone just decided that they seem to hear, others did not understand that it happened…. but yes, our personal miracle, the greatest recognition by James, something that have never happened … anywhere and not once … At the end of the song before the final guitar riff from Hetfield to be transformed into the beautiful solo of Kirk in front of 45,000 people and millions more worldwide, Metallica have shown us that we are special. Quite clearly, James said „Harvester of Sofia “and melts the hearts of everyone who heard him!

No time to pull us together from the shock then came another one because … James stood in front of us with his new guitar adorned with the Bulgarian flag (again acknowledgment of Harvester of Sofia). And then he invited his colleagues on stage … and one after another they appeared…. Big Four on one stage!!!! … So we wrote the history. Only in Sofia, these giants played a piece together. A real privilege. Bulgaria received its own chapter in the history of Metallica. For all present this was a memorable and beautiful moment, and the song Am I Evil? will never be the same. After many friendly hugs, everything ended with a photo.

Then James invite us on stage, Vasil Levski stadium was illuminated and we all sang those three simple and familiar words “Seek and Destroy” … We were the fifth member of Metallica.

The only thing we could not do is throw the flag hard enough to reach the scene. However, two days later it was delivered personally to James.

Smiling and exhausted, happy and filled with many emotions, without words and caught up in excitement, calm and boiling with energy…. It was us after the thrash summer storm.  We made a few pictures of Harvester of Sofia and we wished to ourselves “see you soon” hopefully to repeat it again next year, at least once, somewhere abroad …. and why not here again.
Nothing is impossible, “said Lars, nothing is impossible!

Matt pulls up near my hall and Al and I scramble to his car. We listened to Sirius radio along the way and ended up hearing Broken, Beat and Scarred twice haha. Matt and I were mostly awake while Al passed out in the back. The rain was pretty bad as we were driving but it soon disappeared once we were halfway to C-Ville.

On the way to the venue we only stopped twice. Once to get something from Dairy Queen because we were all starving and again to get Al’s ticket for the show from someone on Craigslist. It worked out great. There was also a winery/beer shop where we stopped the second time, so Al and Matt went to go get some booze, haha.

Our shitstorm didn’t end there. The second we got to the venue, things didn’t bode well for us. Everything for parking was pre-paid. The non-prepayers like us had to wait until 5 o’clock until the fucking parking opened. But since we were GA, that was way too late. Instead we took TourCamper (Brad)’s advice and we parked at the Econolodge across the street from the venue. There I met Andrew (Bagman) who sold me my Metclub GA ticket. He parked at the Econolodge too.

We walk to the southeast entrance and there we meet the non-metclubbers and the regular metclubbers. In line I meet this adorable nine-year-old Lars fanatic. He and his grandma came up from Charlotte to see the band and it was his first time seeing Metallica ever. He wanted to get a stick that night and I told him what to do and where to go. As a game I teased him saying, “Alright, let’s put you to the test!” I then quizzed him on Metallifacts, Lars facts and then lyrics. He passed of course with flying colors. I was so excited for him and basically hugged him a lot while we were waiting for the doors to open, and he was a typical nine-year-old who was like, “OMG EW GIRLS!!” So cute! It’s interesting to note that so far I’ve been a magnet to kids. First the thirteen-year-old at Tampa, now the nine-year-old in Charlottesville. KIDS LOVE ME THIS IS RIDICULOUS.

Unfortunately there were assholes at this show too. Someone in the line made fun of me for wanting to protect a little kid, let alone give him advice about the stage. “He should defend himself or get the hell away from the barricade!,” the asshole says, and I’m like, “Are you crazy? He’s nine!” I tried to ignore him by hanging out with the grandma and Andrew more, and I could tell by some glares that people didn’t like this dude either. While waiting, I also met up with my friend Matt from the Motorhead show a few weeks ago who told me he was coming to this show. He showed up at 10AM waiting forever only to be told he was at the wrong entrance and because people were nice, they let him go up in front with Al and Matt. (From this point on, this Matt will be known as Virgin Matt.)

So to my annoyance, the security outside of the arena was a bunch of idiots. They mixed us together, non-metclub and metclub. Now I’m used to this because really at shows, no one knows what the fuck to do with us GA people because they receive instruction too late. But what scared me is that ten minutes before the doors open, we were still mixed. Usually they separate us in someway before the deadline but not only did they not do that, but they let us in 15 minutes late. I handled the thing well though. I went ahead and pulled out my super-slick-fast-get-the-fuck-out-of-my-way skills of handling crowds and was able to get through the people ahead of me, get my ticket scanned, get to the door and gallop my way down the stairs to the floor right to the left-hand side of the stage.

Usually I go for the right-hand side of where Lars’s kit initially starts. This time I went for the left-hand side. Traditionally the left hand side of the stage has crowd surfers, moshers and drunk people who always like to ruin your shit. That’s not to say the others sides don’t have that, but there’s something about the left side of the stage where they just pop out of the woodwork and it’s annoying as shit. However Matt convinced me to give it a try. I wanted a change of pace anyway. I had done corner rail next to the door and I loved it. I had done corner rail on the opposite side of the door too. I had done right hand side of the stage in front of a Hetfield mic more than once. It was time for something different.

I held the fort down for a good fifteen minutes by spreading my legs as far as they could go– almost doing the splits. My thighs were burning like shit but I held it together alright so me, Matt, Al, Andrew and the Virgin Matt could get the rail. I kept this position because I’m mostly all legs rather than arms, so when people came over trying to take the spot I was like, “I AM NOT MOVING, GET BEHIND ME OR BESIDES ME GOT IT?” Eventually Andrew came down and he saw me basically with my legs wide open and was like, “Yo I can help out now,” and I was like, THANK YOU JESUS CHRISTO, and I kept closing my legs as Virgin Matt showed up, then eventually Al and Matt. My legs were just killing me by the time 6:30PM rolled around, haha. I also saw the little kid with his grandma get the spot I told them to get: behind Lars’s kit right in the middle. I waved to them and they waved back. I hoped they had a good time at the show.

When Al and Matt showed up they recapped to me what happened to them before they showed up at the rail to relieve me. Matt and Al had bought non-metclub GA because tickets to this show for floor were practically sold out in minutes. This is because the venue was hella small and the floor was very compact. Now remember how Metclub and non-Metclub were mixed? Well the non-Metclubbers were pushed to the side and made to wait on the wall while the Metclubbers were able to get up. The security there tried to take the non-Metclubbers to the original spot where Virgin Matt was at– on the other side of the damn building. Al, in true Masshole form, totally blew up and said, “YOU ARE NOT MAKING US GO OVER THERE, YOU’RE THE ONES WHO SCREWED UP AND DIDN’T KNO WHAT TO DO.” So they thankfully let them stay there. Not the end of the story, unfortunately.

Fifteen minutes later, they are able to enter. Just as they are about to get their tickets scanned, a woman security guard looked at Matt’s ticket and said, “You don’t have a hole in your ticket, you can’t go in.” Matt has a printed ticketmaster ticket from the web. The security guard hours ago said he could get in easy, no problem. Now this woman was telling him no. He was trying to explain the situation to her without raising his voice until she insisted that she couldn’t let him because he didn’t have a hole in his ticket. Matt of course blows up saying, “ARE YOU SERIOUS? DO YOU KNOW WHAT WE WENT THROUGH?!” Matt didn’t curse, he works in customer service so he trained himself to stop cursing– he himself hates it when people curse at him. But the lady didn’t care. Her response: “ONE MORE OUTBURST AND YOU’RE GETTING THROWN OUT OF THE BUILDING.” But thankfully, the security guard, the same from before, goes up to Matt with a pen and pokes a hole through his ticket. “He can pass,” he said, and Matt is like, THANK GOD, and Al and him sprinted down the stairs and find me at the rail.

After that, we calmed the fuck down. Things were finally good. We were on the rail, we had our spots, we made it!! First up was Gojira and me and Al of course went psychotic for the French men of metal. My friend Matt had never seen or heard them before and needless to say, once he saw Oroborous, his eyes popped out of his head and his jaw dropped. He also was in awe of the drummer Mario. Total win. Gojira LOVED us to death and favored us all night. We were the only ones with signs, haha. Joe, the lead singer and guitarist, threw the devil horns at us all night. I also got a Gojira pick finally. I’m sad they are no longer on the tour but now Volbeat takes their spot and I can’t wait to see them at Madison Square Garden.

Next up is Lamb of Suck– erm, Lamb of God. This was their hometown show since they’re originally from Richmond, the capital of Virginia which is about an hour outside C-Ville. The crowd was INSANELY loud for them. Out of the entire tour, this is, was and probably will be their strongest crowd for them. Usually I fall asleep on the rail with them, have done so since I first saw them in Fresno where it was also a strong LOG support crowd. I headbang during the first song, then the second song, third song… by the end of the third I’m falling asleep again. Fuck my life. Also some stupid pit broke out behind us like we were expecting. Some idiots were drinking behind us who were just there for LOG and a bit of Metallica, and they were smashing Metallica all night. I was like, siiiigh here we go. But then security showed up and warned them all, “If you mosh one more time, we’re kicking you out.” So thank god that got stopped. After that, there wasn’t any pit-breaking or moshing.

Halfway through LOG’s set me, Al and Matt got completely bored on the rail. We tried to stay respectful and alive, and they pretty much downgraded to just respect, lol. Matt was staring into space, my eyes were getting droopy, and Al was serial yawning. It was pretty bad. To boot there was this annoying woman on Al’s back who just kept screaming “RANDY! RANDY! LOG!” over and over again and pressed all over him and screamed into his ear and I swear I was gonna punch her. I was also going to punch the asshole that was pushing onto Matt’s back with a huge cup of beer in his hand.

Speaking of asshole’s, remember the one who shit on me for wanting to protect the nine-year-old? Well the LOG drummer noticed how crazy he was going for them and he threw him a stick. And just as the asshole was gonna get it, Matt leaps his arm out and catches it mid-air before the asshole even touches it. The drummer was so impressed he basically gave Matt a hearty clap. Needless to say, the asshole didn’t get a stick after that, haha. The guy looked pissed but there was nothing he could do since he was too far down on the line and there was an obvious crush behind him. That’s karma, bitch!

Back to us on the rail. We’re falling asleep. It’s pretty damn horrible. We’re like *yawn* in classic Lars fashion. One of the guitarists, Willie, had noticed Matt’s catch and he came over to us during this one song I have no idea about the name. But he was surprised to see that we looked totally bored. My good friend Kady had said that Willie was the absolute coolest of LOG and that night proved it to me. Willie was not deterred by our obvious bordeom. He comes up to us and says, “HEY YOU!” while playing, and we’re all like, “Whaaaa.” He then mimicks sleep by putting his head on one of his hands and we’re like, “… *nod*” Then he hooks a thumb over his shoulder and says, “GO HOME THEN!” We then point to our respective Metallica Metclub shirts and shake our heads no. Willie goes, “Ahhh, respectable, it’s cool!” Then, for the rest of the song, Willie doesn’t leave. He stays in front of us and coaxes us to at least headbang. An absolutely charming dude! Hilarious too!! Randy the lead singer had passed us and Willie by, and he asked us, “Did you hear that?” and we said, “Nope!” and he said, “Same here!” LOL! What an awesome dude. After the song ended, he was like, “How was that?” Matt shouted, “GOOD, THANKS!” and Willie was like, “Alright!!” For the rest of LOG’s set we would always rock out in front of Willie, then settled down whenever anyone else came. I swear, I think if all of LOG had the attitude of Willie and would work Clubbers like us into their music rather than just making half-hearted attempts to getting the crowd into their stuff, then I think I would be more of an LOG fan.

Then it was time for the main event, the reason we drive two and a half hours (five hours for poor Matt): Metallica!! Show starts a few minutes after 9:10PM. I’m so glad I have Metclub friends because we just know ALL the cues and people just follow us, haha. We sung Ecstasy on top of our lungs, clapped along to Life’s intro, sung the intro of Life during the lasers… so fucking epic. There was no crush, no moshing, no crowd surfers. It was absolutely brilliant.

Needless to say I fell in LOVE being on the left-hand side of the stage and I think for both MSG shows I will do the same. Vegas I will do the opposite and start behind Lars’s kit (a couple clubbers and I want to make a rail-long banner for Metallica to take, since we know the regulars will be on the usual spot where Lars faces initially). San Jose I have no damn clue, haha. But I just LOVED being on the left-hand side of Lars’s kit. Right after the lights came on after Life, I held up my sign and sure enough, he found it! Pointed right at me and smiled wide. Then he just looked RIGHT at us, Matt me and Al, during End of the Line and sung with us too. We air-drummed along and I cannot express how amazing it was to share those moments with him. Right after End of the Line was Creeping Death, and nothing gave me such joy but air-drumming that song with my Lars-brother-in-arms Matt and Lars, singing the song on top of our lungs, and then all of us locking eyes with Lars and shouting with him, “MOTHEFUCKER DIE!” So amazing!! Fuel was an amazing song as well. I just LOVE the drums for that song. James gave us a lot of love to our corner too. Kirk did the epic fucking solo for Fuel in front of us, and then James came over and sang the last verse while the epic drums were playing flawlessly in the background. I was just murdered completely after these first four songs.

Because I’m a huge Metallinerd, I had checked the night before for the setlist so I could guesstimate on what songs were gonna be played tonight. When I saw Fade to Black on the list, I was so sad because I was certain they wouldn’t play it the next night. So no words can describe how overjoyed all three of us were when we heard that opening note from James who started RIGHT in front of us. Jesus Christ I think I was gonna die. I couldn’t believe it. Fade to Black, back-to-back nights?! FUCK YEAH! This version was just so flawless. Kirk nailed the solo, Lars nailed his double bass, James’s vocals were amazing, Rob was in front of us for majority of the song. Then during the end of the song, James likes to the sing the rhythm part and get the crowd to sing too. Matt, Al and I knew the cue and we started to sing it before James even came over. When he saw and heard we were singing it, he just broke out into this HUGE smile and came up in front of us and sang with us, smiling the whole time. We locked eyes and yeah, I’ll admit it, I cried. Fade to Black is just an amazing, beautiful, uplifting song and it was the part of the song where the solo rises and rises and rises until it reaches that beautiful high note, and I started to cry while looking at James straight into his bright blue eyes. It was breathtaking, euphoric and absolutely 100% cathartic. After all the shit in my life so far, I needed to hear this song so bad. After Fade ended, James said to us “GREAT SINGING!” with that big smile of his and he threw at me a Papa Het pick which I got. I wiped my tears away, calmed myself down and got into the rest of the show.

Prior to Broken Beat and Scarred, Lars fucks with the crowd. He goes over to the regulars in the middle of the rail and hangs out with them, gives them his drink. Then the song starts and we were air-druming like psychos, me, Al and Matt. It’s such a great song live. I sometimes fall in and out of love with it, but the second I hear it live, I’m like, “Okay now I remember why I love it,” lol! Then here comes another shocker of the night after BBS and before Cyanide. Lars shoots out of his kit, calms down for a bit, drinks his drink, then gets another drink and makes a beeline RIGHT for me. He shouts, “YOU WANT IT? YEAH, YOU WANT IT? HUH?!” and I’m like, “YES YES YES!!” He says, “Alright then!!” throws it and I caught it!! I FINALLY got to drink a Lars drink, lol! I’ve always wanted to share a drink with Lars and I finally got to!! It was very good too, cherry gatorade diluted by cold water and ice. Just what I needed on the rail because while there was no crush, me and Al and Matt were basically on top of each other going PSYCHOTIC all fucking night long, haha. We worked up quite a sweat!!

Cyanide comes and goes, where the three of us are all calming down a bit but still headbanging and rocking out. Then Sad but True which still kicks ass live. What makes it more fun to listen to is the added addition of me and Matt hopping when Lars hops while drumming the song. It’s so much fun. Lars actually saw us do that while he was doing it and he laughed so hard, haha! Up next was One, which is possibly my favorite Metallica song of all time. Usually when I’m rail, I always air-drum the song, Lars always finds me and we always air-drum it together while singing. It means the most to me out of every song that we do it during this one, but I figured since I wasn’t in my usual spot we wouldn’t be able to do this. I was right about this, he was focusing on someone on the right hand side of the stage, until the part of the song that I love the most. He looked through his high-hat (his kit had rotated to the side by this time) and found me and we sang and air-drummed together up to the Darkness riff. I was so stunned. I was like, “God I love you good sir.” LOL Made my fucking night. How little did I know how amazing this night was going to be…

So here comes the Nightmare/Judas Kiss slot. We’re thinking, okay Nightmare here it comes, or Judas Kiss, who knows. Then we hear it: the strange intro with the bells and the high notes. And all three of us LOOSE OUR SHIT. “IT’S MY APOCALYPSE!!” we SCREAM on top of our lungs. We couldn’t believe it!! While Judas Kiss is pretty cool, all three of us agree that Judas Kiss lacks the epic quality of Nightmare live and the sheer fierceness of My Apocalypse (we determined this through listening and watching live shows). God this was such a highlight of the goddamn show. MY FUCKING APOCALYPSE IS MEANT TO STAY IN THIS SETLIST. It’s so NATURALLY meant to be there. They just OWNED this song so hardcore. All three of us headbanged and James was laughing at how hardcore we were into the song. It was great! And Rob loved us too, he was like YEAH YEAH YEAAAH and ugh he whipped his hair around while doing the bass, so great to see up close and personal.

The Day starts after this and thank goodness because we needed the break, lol! My Apocalypse just layeth’d the smackdown on our candy asses, stomped mudholes there too and walked us dry. Happily! The Day was quite beautiful live as usual. Very well played. Then during the epic hang between The Day and Master of Puppets, Lars finds me again while he scans the crowd and points out to me with the drumstick. Another unthinkable thing happens. He KEEPS eye-contact with me as he leans over the cymbal he hits to start Master. His kit had already turned all the way around so his back is to me majority wise, but for the intro of Master with the kick drum and the cymbal, he’s looking right at me while we do the intro together. I got chills man, total chills. Another amazing moment. I could’ve died happy by this point! Master was absolutely amazing as it always is. I lost my shit during it, going into my death metal voice and just another fucking world really. Windmilled/headbanged like crazy. I love singing the middle part of the song. What a fucking rush. Blackened was another amazing song to hear live yet again, totally kicked my ass as well! All three of us air-drummed together and although Lars couldn’t see us, James, Kirk and Rob did and they LOL’d and rocked out in front of us! So awesome!

Nothing Else Matters comes after and Kirk starts in front of us. James epically screwed up the lyrics and all three of us cringed at that, but it didn’t matter, because an amazing moment was that James came RIGHT in front of us for the NEM solo and came to his knees in front of us too. It was so powerful to have this moment literally a foot away from my face. I was on such cloud nine with this show being so amazing that I even got into Sandman more than I have in the last couple years!! It kicked ass that the crowd was awesome throughout most of the show too, and totally lost it during Sandman. It’s typical for a crowd to lose it during Sandman but at this point I didn’t care. The show was SO awesome and I had Hetfield on his knees in front of me doing that epic riff hang that he does during Sandman to make it super amazing awesome. I was a happy person in general.

Then, one of the best things ever happened after Sandman ended and the guys walk around saying goodnight and thanks. Lars does his whole thank you stuff to the crowd above and to the crowd below on the floor. He comes to my side of the stage and he points right at me and I can hear him say, “Thank you so much, thank you!” and I say, “No, thank YOU!” and I blow him a few kisses, and he blows kisses back to me!! The awesome doesn’t stop there, haha. Because Lars was looking right at me, he bumps right into James! Before he can fall over, James catches him full body and asks if he’s okay and Lars is just all smiles. He then points to me and my sign, and then there and then I have a smiling James and Lars looking at me and my sign. The image is just STUCK in my head forever. James asks Lars what the last phrase of my sign says and Lars tells him “jeg elsker dig” means “I love you.” James laughs and he points to Lars and I’m like “YES!” and nod my head frantically. They both laugh and James lets Lars go. James then points to himself and I shake my head no, lol! He then pouts and says “BUT IT’S ALWAYS ME!” and I said “NOPE!” and point to Lars who is on the opposite side of the stage now. James then starts pointing between me and Lars frantically saying, “Okay so it’s between the two of you then!” and then points to himself and says, “Not for me right?!” and I said, “YEAH BUT I STILL LIKE YOU TOO!” and he laughed and said, “Haha awesome!!”

I’m pretty much on cloud nine here. The encore starts and I’m flipping my shit out about Stone Cold Crazy and Trapped Under Ice. My friend Matt had never heard Trapped before and his reaction was PERFECT. The second James said, “Do you have the album…” we were all expecting him to finish with “Kill Em All” but when he said “Ride the Lightning,” we just GASPED, and I turned to Matt and it was just the perfect expression of shock and awe and absolute happiness. His mouth was a perfect O, his eyes HUGE and BIG, and then the riff started, and we FLIPPED OUT. I love hearing this song live, they just own it so hardcore!

Seek then starts later and we were so happy man. We were SO into the song. I ended up catching a beach ball too and I was like, fuck yeah! What made my night was that the little nine-year-old boy I befriended in the metclub line… he got to count in Seek! See the picture here!! Lars found him, pulled him up and brought him on stage! What made me smile was that the little kid found me on stage and pointed the stick at me as a sign of thanks. I just about died. Seek was awesome, I got a beach ball, the whole thing… this is the best show EVER!! Tampa ruled but this one was just like, WOW!

Now let’s recap on this night so far for me: I got a Gojira pick, I got Gojira love, I got picked on by Willie of LOG, I got a Papa Het pick from James, I got a drink from Lars, I got a kick ass setlist (Creep, Fuel, Fade, My Apocalypse US debut, Blackened, Stone Cold Crazy, Trapped Under Ice), I had multiple times of Lars and I making eye-contact while singing and air-drumming together, I had Kirk love, Rob love, James love during Fade, James/Lars love specifically at ME and my sign that initially thought was stupid and wouldn’t be noticed at all… there is just nothing that can make this even better than what it is. Nothing at all.

It’s after Seek. The band starts giving out picks. Lars has come out of his pit area with the sticks. He walks around and gives out sticks to people on the opposite side of where I’m at. Then he goes to the side besides us and gives out sticks there. Then, he comes to my side of the stage. He walks up and down it, shouting at people, getting everyone riled up. He goes back to my area and he walks down again, looking at everyone in the face to find someone. I’m just going crazy cuz hey, it’s Lars! I’m getting crushed (finally lol) while people go frantic all around me.

Lars stops and meets my eye. He breaks out into a huge grin. My jaw drops. He points the stick at me and crouches down. “You ready?!” he shouts and I’m like, HOLY SHIT AGAIN?!?! LARS, WHAT??!? But I’m not about to pause, hell no! I reach my hand out and say, “FUCK YEAH!” and I’m a short shit and I try my hardest to reach but it’s still so far away. I eventually leap as far as I can and land RIGHT on the rail onto my stomach!! What I didn’t know was that some chick who wasn’t even there since the beginning and was taller than me put her hand on top of my own. Lars saw this and he actually batted her hand away with the stick!! My friend Matt then took the girl’s hand and yanked her the fuck away from me! Matt and Al then both grab my wrist and jerk it up in front of Lars, bringing me practically off the ground and Lars grins wide and for the first time ever… the drumstick lands right into my hands right from Lars. Drumstick #1 was given to me in a bag. Drumstick #2 was thrown to me and I missed (because I was shaking so hard). And now, Drumstick #3 was finally given to me into my hand. I looked up at Lars and I met his eye and shouted, “THANK YOU LARS!” And then, the fucker, he just smiled and winked at me. Lars goes off his merry way to give out more sticks and I’m left shaking at the rail with a black-tapped drumstick and Al and Matt looking at me going like, “You bitch we hate you,” LOL!!

The show ends and we finally step away from the rail, shaking from head to toe, covered in sweat. We leave the arena and head to the car. I say goodbye to Virgin Matt, who got a beachball yay!, and Andrew who I could not thank enough for giving me that GA ticket that I so needed. He’s such an awesome dude and I’m so glad I am now friends with him. We head on over to IHOP for some eats and time to wind down from the show. It took us three hours to get back to my place in DC thanks to the stupid weather and really dark roads, but we made it back safe and sound. Sirius also hilarious played Trapped Under Ice no more than five minutes after we left IHOP, what awesome luck!! We got back at 4AM, dropped Al off at his apartment, then I let Matt crash on my therapeutic mattress in my living room while I took about three hours to wind down finally, haha. Charlottesville Magnetic was all-in-all an amazing success and I’m glad I got to meet new Clubbers as well as hang out with old ones like Matt, break virgin cherries and have my moments with Lars and the others. Another memorable show for another memorable tour this is shaping up to be. I love going to shows with friends and making friends along the way. It just makes all the difference in the world. And I love the Metclub for giving me this opportunity.

Next upon TrinOnTour – The Fuck My Life Leg: MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, NIGHTS 1 AND 2!! Catch ya’ll later!

Again, I didn’t take photos at the rail, but my friend Al did! Here are the photos taken from the rail. The rest will be in another post. Enjoy everyone!

Ruse, Burgas, Pleven, and even the Netherlands, friends from everywhere. Throughout the evening, against the background of the video from Cliff `em` All we herd all songs from Kill `em` All, Ride The Lightning and Master of Puppets, as specialties were Orion, (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth and of course, To Live is To Die. The beauty in the music of Cliff again made us feel special and feel his presence, because, although twenty-three years he is not in this world, part of him lives in every one of us. One unforgettable evening, which brought together the Bulgarian Metallica family? Family, which already is planning the next Metallica vacation.

English is not my native language, you’ll find more than a mistake, of course..

This is my report of the greatest day of my life (at least musically speaking), July 22nd, 2009.

I was one of the 19 lucky fans who were selected to film the 5 shows in Copenhagen on the European Tour 2009 for the upcoming (Fall 2010) Fan Can 6.
If you’re one of the people mentioned here and you think I’ve written something wrong, please let me know at fancan6@gmail.com.

1st day – July, 21st

I arrive at the Karstrup Airport at about 7.20pm and I go to the Forum to meet some fellow MetClub members.
I meet 8 great guys (two of them, Matt from Australia and Mark from Germany, are there to film all the 5 shows) and we go to drink something, first in a nice irish Pub and then in another place, where a guy is playing an acoustic show. He sees us all dressed with Metallica shirts and decides to tribute them playing a nice version of Nothing Else Matters.
Around 2am they close the pub and I go to sleep. My hostel is the City Public Hostel, very nice one, I’m staying in a big room with…66 guests!

Me with some of the guys (Thanx to Lasse for this pic)

2nd day – July, 22nd (Day of the show)

Today is the big day!!
I wake up quite early (just before 8am) and I go for a walk in the city. I pass in front of the great banner “Metallica, thanks Copenaghen…….”, the Tivoli and the Hard Rock Caf? which is not open yet.

The meeting is outside the Forum at Noon: at 11am I’m there. I meet the other filmers and then Erik and Kat come out to pick us up.

Erik (in the picture below) is Swedish, he mainly helps Jeff. I talk a bit with him about his life in tour with Metallica.

Kat comes from London and she deals with the MetStore among the other things.

We go in the backstage and here I can see how many people work around a Metallica show!
There’s a space for the kitchen and the tables, rooms for LOG and Mastodon, the Tuning Room and the private area for Metallica and their families.

We meet Jeff (Metallica webmaster and factotum) and Vicky (MetClub president, photo below), along with Dennis and Filip. They’re awesome! Really handy and nice, they answer every question we ask them and they want to know everything about us. They give us the WORKING pass, now we can go wherever we want, except for the private area, obviously.

We cheat until 2pm and we talk about anything, past, present and future of Metallica, about MetOnTour and all the other sites managed by Jeff.
Now it’s time for the lunch and we take whatever we want from the catering service, very good!

In the meantime John Behrens arrives. He is the responsible of the cams and he has worked in the past with Metallica (S&M among the others) and a lot of other bands. He tells us few nice stories, like his friendship with Smashing Pumpkins, begun in a river of alcohol.

Now it’s time to try the camera, it’s a Canon HF11 HD, very light and handy, with a very sensible zoom. They explain us few tricks to use it, without trying to influence our way to film.
Jeff assigns the roles, 4 of us are in the pit (between the front row and the stage), 2 are on the balcony and 1 is among the people: I’m in the pit, great!

We go down to practise around the stage.

I enter the guitar area near the stage and I touch my favourite James’ guitar, the Ken Lawrence Explorer. As a guitar player I can say it was some kind of a magic moment.

Around 4pm Rob goes onstage and practises for more than half an hour. I’m there looking at him who’s playing for an audience of…7 people!

I go upstairs to take something to drink and when I return down I almost die: I come across James who’s just arrived. He goes onstage talking with Zach and Rob: now I can only imagine my face in that moment.

At about 5.15pm it’s Meet&Greet time. Jeff comes to pick me and other 2 filmers up and we go with about 15 winners of the M&G lottery.

The first is Rob, really in a hurry: he has an interview with Dainis, one of us filmers. He tells me he was searching “some good sounds” onstage before.

Then it’s Kirk’s moment, he’s very nice but fast too. Just few words with him.

Few minutes and Lars arrives, he’s the fun made person. He stays there a lot of time, dancing on a Mastodon’s song, joking and smiling.
I tell him that I’m really proud to be in his hometown to film the show and he answers that he’s sure I’ll do a good job.
He laughs when I say him I want to visit the house where he lived (“the fertility clinic”). Then, seeing that he has a necklace similar to the one he lost in Madrid, I ask him if he has found it and he tells me that unfortunately that one is gone.
Lars is great, that’s all!

James kept us waiting a bit, but fuck, he’s James!!
He recognizes the t-shirt I’m wearing (ZonaMetallica Italian Local Chapter) and he asks me if I were in Rome or Milan. He seems really happy, talking a lot and making strange faces in the photos. The man really has a strong handshake!

After the M&G, we go back for the dinner. We’re beginning in less than a hour! John is there with the empty cameras and the setlist of the concert, to let us know particular moments like moving coffins or pyros.

At the beginning of Heavy Metal Thunder John tells us to go around the stage filming the crowd. It’s incredible, they are all shouting and for one time in my life I’m on the other side!!
We meet at a corner of the stage to begin the recordings. Lights go down and Ecstasy begins. I’m excited as hell!!!
Show begins: Life, Line, Creep and all the others. During the concert someone throw me something hot, hope it was only water.
Kirk and Rob are sweating a lot and I have a shower eheh.

The show is great, the band is in perfect shape. It seems that they are still becoming better and better as the years pass by.
During Seek there are a lot of beach balls coming from everywhere and I try to film the better I can, although I’m hit by balls and called by the people in the front row who want the picks fallen on the ground.

The concert is finished and I give the camera back to John. We go upstairs again and we have a sit, talking with Vicky and all the others. They give us a mountain of picks and we divide them.
I take a photo with John and the other filmers.

Sadly it’s time to say goodbye to the great crew members, I really hope to meet tham again.

I go to the fridge to take another coke and I meet James who is searching for an icecream, really cool!
Going down I meet Rob too and talk with him again for few seconds before he goes.

It’s time to return to the hostel, I’m for sure one of the happiest people on the planet tonight! Thank you Metallica, thank you MetClub!

3rd day – July, 23rd

I wake up early, have a shower and go out, it’s raining.
I go to a station and I take a train to Gentofte, I want to see the house which once was Lars’. Now it’s a sperm bank.

I arrive in Gentofte and I discover that I’m not on the right way, the street (Lundevangsvej, 12) is in Hellerup. Have to go back then.
The house is not far from the Hellerup station, I take some photos there and I come across few doubtful glances from the people who see me taking photos at a fertility clinic.

I take the train again and I go visiting the Kastellet, a nice park where the famous Little Mermaid of Copenhagen is located.

Finally I go to Christiania, a city in the city, all alternative and free.

Around 3pm I meet 3 Danish friends known the first night and we go for a Carlsberg and to see the most populated area of the city.

In this zone there’s the hotel where Metallica members are staying, it’s not what you can call a “bad place” to stay.

It’s 7.40pm when I fly back to Italy.

I’d like to spend few very brief lines to talk about the amazing people I had the pleasure to know.

I’ll begin from the clubbers I met the first night. You guys totally rock! Thank you for the nice time, for the Carlsberg and the Danish shot.
I hope to meet you again at some show and I hope you’ll be on the dvd.

Now, the filmers. I really enjoyed staying with you, thank you for all the speeches and for being part of this day.

Special mention must go to the Metallica crew.
Jeff, Vicky (really the most adorable woman in the world), Erik, Kat, Dennis, Filip, John and the others are so cool, that’s all. It would take an entire site to describe them properly. Metallica is the greatest band in the world and for sure they have the greatest crew too!

On July 22nd a dream bigger than the ones I had came true, thank you! ‘Tallica for life!

We then made a bee line for the PUYA party. PUYA stands for Party Up Your Ass. It was an event organized by Metclubbers and it was taking place in the lower level of the Hard Rock Cafe. There were 75 of us all together. It was INSANE and INTENSE. Me and Al were the very late arrivals because we left the airport at 6:40 and arrived at 7:50, and the party started at 7:30. We ended up getting there around 8:50 because of how long it took getting ready and taking our stuff to the airport.

The second I walk in there, I’m IMMEDIATELY bombarded with hugs and photos everywhere. All of my friends from touring were there! It was a big ass reunion. Vic immediately tackled me and I was so blindsided, I was like OMG WTF WHO IS HUGGING ME AND SWINGING ME AROUND LIKE CRAZY AAAHHH, and then I was like, It has to be Vic, and VIOLA, it was Vic! LOL. Nice one.

The pre-show party consisted of drinking one too many long island ice teas, some tall vodka shots, eating AMAZING steak let me tell you om nom nom, and chatting up with all of my friends that I have missed so much, and introducing Al to everyone of them. “Hi everyone, this is Al, he’s not my boyfriend, he’s a n00b, etc etc etc” God I embarrassed him I think. Haha.

Here are some pictures from the event:

I’m nuts.

Can I ever take a serious picture?

Me at my table.

Me and my buddies. God I miss them all already.

After that we all had to go upstairs. Our party had to end at 10PM, so we left and went upstairs. We enjoyed the live band there for a few minutes, then we all decided to go back to our rooms. We had invaded the entire seventh floor. About 80% of the rooms there were all dedicated to us. Because we had just one too many drinks that night… insanity ensued as we walked through the mall that connected the Cafe to our hotel.

We all quoted Jim Breuer’s famous comedy about Lars and his FOOKING NAPSACK, and we all were just shouting random YEAHs and OOOs and HEY HEY HEY HEY in Hetfield voices. It was HILARIOUS. Matt and Al and a few others who know Lars is my favorite were just breaking out the jams with Lars one-liners in dead-on Lars impersonations and I was dying so bad.

Video of that should be out because Al was filming, so we will enjoy that on a later date. Lemme tell you folks, you have no idea how much fun that was.

Then we all went to the bar there at our hotel, proceeded to drink some more, and we all sang Metallica while drinking. That was fun too! We just chatted, relaxed, drank, and I hit my limit, so I stopped drinking and started drinking water. By this point people were REALLY drunk. One of my friends was stripping, another one was grinding, people were tripping over themselves, so us semi-sober or sober folk were helping the totally-not-sober folk up to their rooms. THAT is also on video and I’ll have to show that later… hilarity ensued.

After all that, around 1AM, Al and I retired to our room, and we took a shower one after the other. I was first, finished fast, and just CRASHED into bed. We had a big day ahead of us, and dammit, we had to get our sleep!! Little did I know just how chaotic and intense and insane and emotional on all fronts, bad and good, was tomorrow going to bring…

Saturday morning I woke up at 9:00AM. Me and Al got ready and headed downstairs for some breakfast. We met up with a few clubbers down there, chatted, then we ate. I had a belgian waffle. OM NOM NOM.

Afterwards we decided to head out and get some food! I met some clubbers there too, and we all took the shuttle to the Museum. It was free that day, and we decided to get there early before the rush. It wasn’t all that great really. It was pretty decent. No Metallica exhibit. But that was fine.

I met up with more clubbers inside and we chatted and talked and chatted some more. Al and I then went downstairs to get some gear to take with us. I bought my family two mugs from the RNR HOF. Al got his first vinyl ever, the Justice album, a RNR HOF denim jacket, and Cliff Em All.

While in line, I met and chatted someone who attended the 150-person House of Blues bash with Metallica the night before. He talked to me about the old days, and was surprised to see that someone as young as me knew so much about old shit! He was name dropping the people who showed up, like people from Exodus, Les Claypool, Ron McGovney, Johnny and Marsha Z, even Phil Towle was there! People like that, all from the past, present, and future… so we had a great discussion about the old days and what happened last night. He gave all of his old photos to Lars who took them happily. He was spewing off all of these old stories, and Lars was like, DUDE I REMEMBER THAT!! Then the guy showed me pictures of the night before, and I was floored. I couldn’t believe I got to share this experience with him. He was going to be on the floor that night as an honored guest, along with a bunch of other people. Nice guy too.

Afterwards we went back to the hotel. I text a few people, Al breaks out Cliff Em All, and I check my email and shit. Then I get a great status update on Facebook: my friend Allen FINALLY arrived in Ohio! So I text him, he hauls his ass over to our room, and we go out to the Ritz to stalk And to eat some lunch!

It wasn’t very expensive, really. It was even a bit cheaper than the Hard Rock Cafe that we wanted to go to. We were SO underdressed though, we felt so bad, LOL. Allen didn’t even take off his cap. The turkey sandwich was delicious! And their burgers looked great too.

Oh and we ran into some guy named Flea. We didn’t bother him. We said hello. Nice guy. Recognized the blue hair. Al totally didn’t see him. I win.

So we ate, and we relaxed. Chatted it up, talked about the Vegas show in the future, how excited we were for that…

However, something bad was coming in the horizon.

A bit of some background. Months ago, someone named Tracy promised me tickets to the RNR HOF. I thought it was too good to be true. But I trusted her. I had known her in my two years being in the Club, since I bought it myself in ’07. I figured she wouldn’t fuck me over. And my earlier tour where I relied on my clubber friends had proved to me the Club had some good people.

Things were a bit iffy though when I came to Cleveland. At the party, she was very distant, and very isolated from us all. She seemed off. But I figured it was because she was worried about the whole party, making sure it was okay, that people were eating, etc. Thing it got worse, when I had texted her during the day, asking her what’s up, and she texted back saying, “Personal crisis… I’ll talk to you later.” I figured it might have been something with her mom, so I didn’t push it. But then she texted back, “Okay, later we can talk. … I’m sorry I hurt you.” Warning klaxons went off. But again… I didn’t do anything. Thought oh well she’s probably losing it because she’s got her problems.

So, during the meal, I got a phone call from my friend Jigsaw on the boards, real name Chris. He’s a great guy, love him to death. Him and I have been iffy all these months leading up to the event, wondering if this was too good to be true. But he figured hey I paid, this should totally happen…

And, well, what he said to me on the phone turned my blood cold.

“Tracy texted me. She said she doesn’t have the tickets.”

My heart sank. My stomach heaved. My mind was gone.

Tracy, the person I had set up buying the tickets from about months in advance, when the Hall had actually ANNOUNCED that the guys were in it… didn’t have the tickets Jigsaw paid for.

I didn’t mention it to anyone at the table. I figured this would be dealt with later, in a private matter.

How little did I know…

We all headed back to the hotel. The Ritz wasn’t far from the hotel as I said before, so it was a fun walk. We got to the bar, and there I found Tracy. She was with these other people. Tony was there too. Tony is another good friend of mine.

She looked distraught and gone. I tried to talk with her, and she gave me this look, and I said, “What?” all cheery and she said, “What?” back like she was looking at me for the first time.

So then it finally came out. She was the one who asked me, “So where did you get the tickets from?” And I said, “From you. We agreed on this.” And she said, “Oh, nope, not really, we discussed it but never finalized.” And… and nothing in this world can ever explain how I felt in that moment. It was like… like everything just shut down in me completely. Al didn’t understand, he wasn’t really paying attention. It wasn’t until later, when I said to Allen, “Well I’ll be at the simulcast then,” that Al wondered what was up, and then I told him.

We had no tickets. We had nothing. We showed up from Washington DC, him originally from Boston, me from California, and we had absolutely nothing at all. And what’s worse? We weren’t alone.

I met up with Loiselle from the boards, chapter head of the Michigan Metclub chapter, and other people. There were NINE all together, including a girl who came from FRANKFURT GERMANY, and we were all told by Tracy that she didn’t have any tickets. She gave them simulcast tickets. I didn’t get anything.

Needless to say after that we were heartbroken and pissed off. Loiselle and the others had shown up that day just for the ceremony, and that was it. We were pissed and sad and fed-up. I was in tears because I couldn’t believe someone could deceive me that way. My best friend Al tried to calm me down but I was just hysterical. We went to the Museum to try and find scalpers to buy tickets from, and then we gave up on that, so we decided, OH FUCK IT, let’s go get some beers after… but we ended up giving up finding a bar and just went to get food and ice cream, lol. So there were 13, 14 of us all together in the food court eating our food and ice cream and just trying to feel better about this.

Al and I got simulcast tickets when we were at the museum. It would’ve been enough for him, but I was just… distraught and pissed-off and angry at myself. I should’ve known better. I should’ve KNOWN and trusted my instincts. How could I have been so fucking stupid? How could I have done that? How could SHE deceive me like that? How did this happen? Why did I let this happen? Why did I ignore my instincts? Why didn’t I demand the proof ahead of time instead of seeing the ticket later?

These questions didn’t leave me at all the rest of the hours. Al and I hanged out with Chris and his girl Tiffany, chatted and relaxed, and I started to feel a bit better. I decided, well fuck it. I’m going to dress up, and make myself beautiful, and I’m going to the goddamn simulcast gorgeous and dolled up. Fuck her, fuck this, fuck everything. I bought this dress, and I’m going to fucking wear it!

Later on Al and I went upstairs to meet with Loiselle and the others. There he told us that Ticketmaster is going to drop 150 tickets soon for the RNR Hall of Fame. He ordered us to get dressed ASAP and to get our shit together, so that we could get tickets.

Needless to say, we hauled fucking ass. LOL.

I put on My Apocalypse, and got done by the time the song ended. I had to do my hair though so that was taking awhile. Then I got a call from my friend Vic.

“So what’s this about you not going to the Hall?” and I told her why, and she said, “Do you still need tickets?”

I double-took. I couldn’t breathe. I was like, “Say that again?” and she said, “Do you still need tickets?” Immediately I’m like, “YES I DO.” And she calmly said, “Well good, Heather has an extra pair. We’ll give them to you and Al. They will be at Will Call. Heather will pick them up with you two. That good?”

“Of course,” I said, and I promised to come over and visit within a minute or two because I have to do my hair, so that was it.

I got off the phone. I turned to Al.

And we just did at the same time, on top of our lungs:

YES!!! YESSS! FUCK!!! YESSSSSS!!!!

Let me tell you. I was resigned to going to the simulcast. The simulcast by the way was going to be basically the event broadcasted in the museum not far from the Public Hall. It was going to be shown on all five levels, from the lower level to the fourth level. I was so ready to just do that…

And then? To get that confirmation, to get those tickets, I mean… just… I cried, because I could. No mascara was on yet, lol.

But yeah. We had the tickets. We had the spot. We made it. We were going to the RNR HOF.

… NOW I HAD TO GET READY WITHIN 10 MINUTES, FUCK!!!!!

Now before I go on with the rest of this review, I just need to stress on here how big the scam thing was.

She didn’t just screw me over. She screwed over twenty people. It’s a gigantic issue over on the Metclub boards. I just want to emphasize here how monumentally distraught I felt when she lied to us, all of us, every single fucking one of us, and just how… how fucking distraught I was by it. I was in tears. I was crying. I couldn’t believe I could trust someone like that, when I knew from the START right to the END that there was something NOT RIGHT about her. I KNEW she was shady. I KNEW she wasn’t trustworthy. I KNEW she had something going on. I have TOTALLY beaten myself up over ths, over and over and over. How could I DO something like that? How could SHE do something like that?

And yet… yet it happened. I let it happen, because I thought, well hey she wouldn’t fuck me over, it’s the Metclub, no one would fuck other clubbers… and it happened, and it just… it just ruined me. I didn’t even want to be apart of the Club anymore. I was like, I’ll let it go out and never renew, fuck this…

I don’t think no one will ever understand what it was like having that bomb dropped on me three hours before the most anticipated event in Metallica’s history. To think for four months yeah I’ll have it… and then realize no, I won’t have it, it’s gone, taken away, a lie, a total fucking lie…

And then it was like… a total miracle. A total fucking miracle. My friend Vic saved my ass. Heather saved my ass. Iz saved my ass. All of my friends who I met through touring, who I would trust with my life… when I thought all was lost and gone, they saved my ass. They saved the day. They were there for us. They were there for me. Nothing in this world can ever explain just how joyous and happy and elated and relieved and… and STUNNED I was. How WE were.

I’m just going to put it out there: thank you so much for the metclub. For my friends. You guys truly are the best bunch of people anyone can ever ask for. One bad person will never ruin what I experienced in the Hall that night, watching them accept that award, live and in front of my eyes.

And now, that is what I will talk about now… what I felt, what I saw, and what I think from that whole event. What I came for. What I waited for.

And now for a moment of hilarity: I was so hauling ass. People were all ready to go and whatever. Me? I was going NUTS. I would leave the room and then go, SHIT I FORGOT MY CELL. Then I’d go back, then to the elevator, and then go, SHIT I FORGOT MY MONEY. Do the same thing, and then go, SHIT I FORGOT TO TURN OFF THE HOT ROLLERS. Then I’d do the same thing, and then go, SHIT I FORGOT MY COAT! And then one more time, and then, SHIT I FORGOT MY SHOES!!!!! It was pretty hilarious watching some girl run back and forth between the elevator and her hotel room so many fucking times, lol.

I head downstairs, and everyone is ALL smiles. Those who were screwed out of money, well, we got our tickets, motherfucker! YEAH!! I was so happy I had to order a Midori Apple Sour. OM NOM NOM. Had my fruity drink, got myself all good, was flinging myself everywhere and showing off my sexy dress and my hair and my bod, and then we were OFF to the show!!

Everyone dressed up and ready to go.

We took the shuttle to the place, and we got dropped off at the wrong area: the backstage area of the Public Hall. That’s okay considering we met Ronnie Wood, haha.

We eventually were taken to the right entrance. Then Heather picked up our tickets at will call… and that is when I finally allowed myself to relax and be happy. We were getting in. We were going to get in. And it was once the tickets were scanned and we got inside that I finally allowed myself to be happy.

Our seats were great. Upper level, overlooking the stage, and looking down right where the guys were.

Table three and table four in the first column of tables belonged to Metallica.

The event was fantastic. I highly enjoyed Little Anthony and the Imperials. A fantastic performance. Run DMC has a good speech. The other performances were alright. I twittered during the moments I got bored… and watched the guys on the floor when I was REALLY bored. Jason Newsted, thank you for your spaziness during the performances that sucked. You entertained me.

And then Metallica’s turn.

Flea did an amazing job. No question about it. Everything he said was so true. It was like I was up there doing the speech myself. It was beautiful and moving and hilarious and real. Flea nailed it.
Up on stage the guys were such a unified front. Hugs and kisses were thrown everywhere. No ill will was shown between Jason and the others. It was like Metallica had transformed into Iron Maiden! Haha.

Ray Burton starts us off. I’m immediately moved. He reminded me so much of his son. I could see Cliff in him. I was besides myself with his honest words.
Jason coming up next was amazing. We ALL supported him, every single one of us. My friend who shouted I LOVE YOU JASON and Jason acknowledged her… that really made her happy. Jason was clearly moved by our support. I was extremely loud for him.

Rob coming up next was a welcomed breather. Seriously. If he did something emotional as fuck for his speech I would’ve been crying way earlier. But he was so honest and real, so calm and soothing. Very Rob. Very him.

Kirk’s turn. Oh man. The quiver in his speech as he talked about his family, his brother and his mom, really got to me. Seeing his BROTHER cry on screen got to me. He was so emotional, and so nervous. I loved it. What a great speech.

And then comes Lars.

If anyone went fucking crazy for that speech, it was me. It wasn’t heard on the broadcast, but the first person to yell YEAH LAAAAAAARS was me. Lars’s speech was the second best of the night. I adored it. He just “riffed” it. I loved that. So him. Acknowledging us and pointing to us, in every direction, was fantastic. I was going nuts up in the balcony. You could see me cuz the light was in our direction. We weren’t in darkness.

His speech was so honest and real and very him. But the point where it really got to me, and it got to Lars obviously, and everyone else in the room, was him talking to his father. The love and respect and honor Lars has for his father was conveyed so, so well in front of everyone. I don’t think the broadcast did well in showing the TEARS that were THICK in Torben’s eyes. Nor did the broadcast catch Torben wiping at his face after Lars finished his speech. I also found it so touching that James and Jason immediately went for Lars, Jason catching his hand and James hugging him, then Kirk and Rob giving him hugs after while James went up to the mic. It was so emotional. You could feel everyone around me, even the ones who weren’t the fans, feel the emotion coming from Lars to his father.

And then comes James.

James tore me up and spit me out. What the hell. His speech was like Lars’s: very much him, very much real, and very much honest. People were going crazy for him, and cheering, and laughing, and yelling. When James brought up how bands have fallen, you know that silence? That you hear in the broadcast? It was magical. You could hear a pin drop. NO ONE was talking. I wasn’t even BREATHING.
“Dare to fail — I DARE YOU to fail” was the best line of the night. Because of the tone of voice. It just changed. It’s like he was commanding you to fail, because then you can reach your dreams. Broadcast didn’t catch his voice well like live did. It just chilled me completely. Hetfield owned in that one sentence. In one fucking sentence.

And then, my favorite part of all night. The one part where I totally lost it. What many are saying was their favorite… The Hug™.

When James said, “I wanna thank Lars… for calling me…” I said YEAAAAH on the broadcast, because it was like, YES. Because without that phone call, that one phone call… there would be no Metallica. And you can hear me so audibly too. Hell yes.

And then, James finishing that line, with Lars in the background, looking so emotional, and happy, and that smile so authentic, “And include each other in our dreams of being… in the greatest heavy metal band… in the world. Thank you.”

Lars’s smile just lit up. I swear. It just. It lit up. Nothing can describe it. And James’s smile in return.

And then The Hug™.

The second James brought Lars up from the ground and swung him around, I lost it. That was it. That was the last straw. Like, yep, okay, you fuckers won, I am crying, thanks a lot dicks, I have mascara going down my cheeks, assholes, ugh, I love you all, but I hate you, argh.

Hilariously, the other clubbers saw me crying and were like HA I KNEW IT. Thanks.

But that Hug… that was like, everything said that couldn’t be said with words. The love they have for each other, and have been for each other through the years, the turmoil and tribulations they both have been through, the shit each other have put the other through, the need they have for each other, the trust they have in each other, the anger and disputes and near falling out that nearly destroyed not just the band but their twenty year relationship together and the newfound love and trust in each other and in their lives that saved their relationship and brought their relationship to an understanding no one in this world can ever understand or even hope to achieve themselves… all of that? All of that shit? All of it was symbolized in one beautiful, long, emotional, sweet embrace. And that is why I cried. Because without Lars, there wouldn’t have been a Metallica. And without Lars, James never would’ve reached the stars and made his dreams come true. This was James saying what words couldn’t. And it brought tears to my eyes, and everyone else’s in the room.

And what can I say about the performances that already haven’t been said? Standard Tuning of Master of Puppets and Enter Sandman. Jason on vox and bass. Rob on vox and bass. Kirk on vox and guitar. James on vox and guitar. Lars completely and utterly SPOT ON with his drumming. It was a performance like no other. Nothing could match it. Nothing will match it. This will never be seen again. And I loved every single minute of it.

The finale was fantastic. James sounded AMAZING with his vocals. I couldn’t fathom seeing all these stars on one stage, with my favorite band ever. It was mind-boggling. Still is even now.

Afterwards, we all went back to the hotel, and we proceeded to get drunk! LOL. The Metallica road crew came out, and we all sat around the bar and drank and drank and drank, told stories, chatted up, things like that. It was a shit ton of fun. Later I went upstairs to play some Guitar Hero on Hard. That was fun too!

Then it was all over. I went to bed, woke up three hours later, got my crap together and headed out. It was all over. I couldn’t believe it. But the events of Saturday wouldn’t leave me forever. I experienced something beautiful and amazing and one-of-a-kind. It was almost taken away from me, but thanks to some wonderful people like Iz and Vic, everything switched from “fuck this” to “HOLY SHIT.” As I learned Saturday, and I will take with me in the future: one bad seed really doesn’t ruin shit when you’ve got a whole acre of fucking awesome people.

It was a sold out show, I think. There were people sitting all the way up in the rafters. I was down on the rail. I fought security to let me bring in that damn banner, and I was DETERMINED to NOT leave home with that banner in my possession. As the roadies were setting up, I saw Zach Harmon and got his attention. I yelled “Zach, check out my banner!” He nodded and I added “Make sure you tell Metallica, I don’t want to leave here with it!” And he said something to the effect of “Give it to Lars, he loves that kind of stuff!”

I met a girl named Jillian and her friend, a dude whose name I can’t remember. She was a cool girl, and she helped hold the banner, which the dick security guards would not let me hold over the rail. Actually the security guards were decent, just their supervisors were assholes. They were literally the biggest pricks I’ve ever dealt with at ANY show, EVER. Every time one of the guys passed by, we’d hold up the banner so they could see it. We held it up for Kirk, and he nodded in approval, even waved at us for a brief moment!

Now, I have a propensity for passing out. It’s something I’ve always been aware of and have to take precautions to avoid. At shows, dehydration, mixed with the lights and the noise, and the movement from the crowd make me violently ill. I have to keep myself hydrated, or else I’m done for. I tried to drink water steadily before the show, but it wasn’t enough. We tried to buy water inside the arena, but were unsuccessful. I took it easy, but four songs out, I felt myself getting clammy and my ears started ringing, and my head started spinning. I took a step back, and motioned to the security guards that I HAD to squat down on the ground to maintain myself. I kept one arm up on the rail to show everyone I was still ok. When I stood up, they handed me a plastic glass with about three sips of water in it, and I drank it down as fast as I could. I felt better after that. GUESS WHO’S WATER IT WAS? It was Kirk’s glass that one of the roadies grabbed off the stage. I could have cared less if it was dog’s water at that point, but now it’s pretty cool. So I ended up sharing a glass of water with Kirk. Unknowingly, but still pretty cool!
When James finished the concert went on stage in front of us and said something like “This is really cool!” And I cried out with a whole throat “For you!” He stopped, looked at me and said, “For me?” She looked shocked. He took it from me and very nicely he said “Thank you” and then continue to walk on stage with the banner.

Surely we can say that Metallica tour began with a blast. They have returned without a doubt

We head inside, and all of the middle section is taken. So I go to the corner rail like I did the night before and meet all the Machine Head fans from last night. And immediately I am informed that Robb Flynn was there, and most importantly, he was asking for me. “Dude, where’s that chick from last night?! She was so spazzy and cute!” I missed him by two minutes. Like, a minute, two minutes. A very, very short time frame. Got ridiculed the whole night cuz of it, and I couldn’t believe it.

I had a sign with me again this time, but it was only for Metallica. Well, fuck that! I made a makeshift one for Machine Head right here and then. This one said: “I REALLY FUCKING <3 Machine Fucking Head! FLYNN IS METAL!!” I just knew Robb would be looking for me in the corner, so I made sure during MH’s set to hold it high. Lo and behold, during Beautiful Morning like last night, he saw me. His face visibly brightened while he was singing and he pointed to me on the side of the stage as we sang along. At the last song, Davidian, he pointed to me and we sang along like crazy having eye-contact. And while I was windmilling like crazy at the rail, he pointed to me and shouted to the crowd, “THAT’S MY GIRL!!!” Right at the end of the show he gave me a wave and I waved back.

Metallica comes on. I switch the poster to the original side. It’s a poster I made for my tour in general. It said: TrinOnTour — THE FUCK SCHOOL LEG! And it had all the dates I did on there — Fresno, Oakland, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Boston, Uniondale, and both Newark shows — and it had the number of miles estimated that I did travelling: 7572 miles. I made that to show the band this is what I did for them on my first tour ever as a twenty-year-old still in school.

Each band member acknowledged me and I felt special. Kirk gave me a grin and a thumbs up. Rob gave me an ALRIIIIGHT and a air fist-punch. James nodded and grinned at me while he sang Nothing Else Matters. Lars and I made eye-contact during Creeping Death, where we sang along and air-drummed (yes, with the poster in my hand still), and then after Harvester of Sorrow he pointed to my sign. I blew him a kiss, and he patted his chest and pointed to me again saying, “Thank you!”

Right there and then I was happy with that. I couldn’t have asked for anything more! I got them to see the sign, and for me to thank them all for coming back to the States, kicking ass, and putting on an amazing show. I enjoyed the rest of the show where I was, singing along, rocking out. I saw Connie and baby Bryce on the side, who was the most adorable little almost-two-year-old you could ever see. The best thing I saw was him standing on the stairs of the Hammett/Ulrich pit with Connie watching him, and he had two drumsticks in his hand. And then he proceeded to watch his dad drum… and then he tried to drum with him. James saw this and he laughed REALLY hard because of it.

At the end of the show everyone scrambled for picks and beach balls. I was happy with nothing. I got a beach ball at Fresno, and a bunch of picks over the tours. I was happy with nothing but just thanking the band with my sign. Hilariously the band threw me picks! James gave me nod and he threw me a James black pick, but I let it go to the Air Force man besides me. It was the last time he was sure he was gonna see Metallica in the states before he was deployed, so he deserved it. Kirk threw me a jazz pick, and I let it go to the little kid besides me. Rob threw me a shit ton of bass picks, but I let them go to everyone else.

So here comes Lars. He only has one more drumstick left. He gave the second to last one to a friend of mine, Matt, on the rail that was facing his kit earlier. I get a hold on my poster as people go crazy around me trying to get his attention. Unlike the night before, where Lars didn’t come near my corner, he comes right in front of our corner, and crouches down besides the monitors. And he stares RIGHT at my posters and reads it from top to bottom. Cheekily, I gesture to it up and down with my hand and give him a shit-eating grin.

He and I make eye-contact. “What the FOCK, that many shows?!” I say, “Yep! I did it for you guys! Thank you!” Then he yells, “What, you want the stick?! YOU WANT IT?!” And I was like… according to my friend Kat, I put on the best Lars Ulrich I Don’t Give A Crap face and shrugged and said, “It’s up to you! I’m cool either way!” Well Lars laughed and he said, “Fuck it!” And he went over the monitors. By this point, I’m in shock. Even more than last night. He’s going to give me the drumstick?! AGAIN?! For the second night in a ROW?! Lars NEVER does that!! My friend Matt waited four years for another stick, and I get it in 24 hours!!

Lars crouches down to the very end of the stage, looks right square at me and he brandishes the drumstick. “You ready?!” he shouts, and I get out of my stupor finally to reach my hand out and say, “Yeah!!” He throws it, but it gets knocked out of my hand by all the crazy people around me. Lars IMMEDIATLEY yanks the shirt of the security guard next to him and yells, “Give it to her! Give it to Trin! She deserves it!!” The security guard smiles and says okay, and he picks it up and hands it to me. When I look up, Lars is patting his chest and pointing to me one more time, saying, “Thank YOU Trin!” And I blow him a kiss and grin like a goddamn fool.

I watch the band say their goodbyes to the crowd, then head out the door back to the backstage area. Lars winks at me when he leaves. Rob gives me an air punch fist. Kirk smiles. James grins at me. All in all, I’m pretty much a giggling happy mess by the end. I’m so happy I CAN’T cry. Then I find out in a text that Jeff put me and my poster on MetOnTour again, and I just have no words to describe how I felt in that moment.

I say goodbye to whatever clubbers I can find, then immediately find my friend Sarah waiting for me outside to the venue to take me to the bus stop to get back to New York City’s Port Authority, so I can go back home to school in Washington DC. And the entire time, all I can think of is just how fucking lucky I am, just how much I love Robb Flynn and Lars Ulrich, and how much I cannot wait for my next tour in the fall of 2009.

And to think. I thought Day One couldn’t be beat.

I was surrounded by Machine Head fans, so we were all excited and pumped for MH. Sword came on and they were good. I’m a fan of the bassist. Then MH came on and I lost my shit! I love this band so much. I had a sign specifically made for them that said this: “I fucking fuck <3 machine fucking head.” Robb Flynn saw it just after Hallowed Be Thy Name, and he read it aloud to the crowd. After that he saw me and pointed at me and we sang together during Beautiful Morning. Then for Davidian we sang together and looked at each other. RIGHT at the end of the show, he sees me again and he shoves the security guard away and makes a bee line RIGHT for me. Lo and behold, I have an armload of Robb Flynn in my arms, and he’s telling me I rock and he fucking loves me too, and I’m like, HOLY SHIT. We hug, then he gives me a kiss on the cheek, and I kiss him back, and he’s off.

Metallica comes on next. I’m psyched. I have possibly one of the most cheesiest signs of the night. It says: “Hi Lars, can I have a drumstick?” The sign is covered in heart stickers and drawn hearts, a scary guy ala 2004, a badly drawn drumstick, and a smiley face. To boot, there’s a blinking red Christmas ornament on it. I wanted the stick, but I did want to make Lars laugh his ass off seeing the poster. But I didn’t think he’d see it since I was so far away from him in the corner of the rail. Everyone around me LOVED the poster, and because of that, they all promised me if Lars came over and gave one of them the stick, they would hand it over to me. I was floored by their sincerity, and I said, “Well that’s okay, I don’t mind if you get it. I’m totally cool not getting it! I just want him to see the sign, that’s all.” I’m not a greedy person.

I have fun anyway at the rail, singing along. I pretty much lose my shit when Ride the Lightning comes on. I LOVE that song a lot. Justice was such a highlight. Third time hearing this song, and I’ve love to hear it more and more. Everyone around me was jumping up and down and having fun. It’s a fantastic show. Hetfield up in my face, Kirk pointing and laughing at my sign, and Rob smiling and looking straight dead at me.

Towards the end of Nothing Else Matters, I see the laundry woman come my way with a bag. She looks right at me, and she hands the bag over to me. “This is for you,” she says. I’m totally confused and she grins and says, “From Lars.” My jaw drops. It fucking drops. I am shaking and I stammer out a thank you to her as she walks away. Just as Nothing Else Matters ends and it goes into the epic hang just before Enter Sandman, I look inside and my heart seizes.

The drumstick he used for The Day, Master, and Battery. Holy fucking shit.

I bowed onto the rail and cried. I sobbed and cried and bawled. All the people around me were like WHAT IS IT, IS IT THE STICK, DID YOU GET IT. And when I lift my head and they see my tears, I get a massive group hug from everyone around me on the rail. I get hugs and kisses from strangers, I get laughs and cheers, I get smiles and hands ruffling my hair and soothing my back and gripping my shoulders and neck. Everyone so happy for me because I was so happy.

I mean, getting the drumstick handed to you from Lars is just super fucking awesome. But for him to do that personally for me, put it into a bag and have the laundry assistant hand it over to me… yeah. I mean, that’s what just did me in. He did that for me, to make my day. I just… I couldn’t take it. Even NOW I can’t take it. I was just floored. I sang along and enjoyed the rest of the show, but I was just in tears the rest of the night. I couldn’t believe it.

I headed back with my friend Sarah to stay at her place in Clifton. We watched A Knight’s Tale while I recuperated from my amazing night. This was my friend Sarah’s first Metallica show as well, and she fell in love with the boys even more than ever because of it. I went to bed that night finally at 4:00AM thinking there was no way this show could be beat. A hug and kiss from Robb Flynn, a drumstick given personally to me by Lars, and getting up on MetOnTour with my flashing sign? How could that be beaten? I went to sleep that night the happiest I had ever been, thinking of how to repay back the guys when I arrived tomorrow…

The hall itself seemed exceptionally when I first saw it from afar, located right next to the Berlin wall. Tons of fans came from many different parts of Europe (and not only), were crowding around O2 waiting for this incredible event. There was a delay and they opened the doors at 19:30 pm when the nervous fans made their way to the entrances! Yavor, Bozhidar and Ivo were among the first rushed in the brand new hall while I was stuck between two fences. In front of the firs was a security guard telling me I should not pass, and behind me hundreds of fans were pushing to enter inside. I managed to get out of the trap and walked in the hall where for my great relief I was able quickly to find the others who were already at the rail in front of the stage. The stage itself was located in the middle of the room so everyone has a good vision!

We waited until the moment we heard that familiar “Ecstasy of gold” intro. Rob appeared first, after him James, Lars, Kirk and the feast began!
New songs hit us one after another … the voice of James was amazing and sounded exactly as it sounds in the album. Rob was doing a variety of faces while he pulls the bass strings and Lars hit the drums so hard that I felt that he would break them. I heard live songs, which I did not dream to hear even at my courageous dreams! I had a feeling that if I reach my hand I’ll touch Kirk`s guitar! During “Broken, Beat & Scarred” James recognized the flag of “Harvester of Sofia”, and he said, “I remember it!” It was a unique and precious moment…..

I felt like in meat-chopping machine, but this is the risk to be front of the stage! An infinite madness…. After Cyanide we could not hold on against the insane German fans and Ivo pulled me out of the crowd in which certainly I would not survive if I was alone!

The surprises from Metallica did not stop…. Master of puppets sounded majestically, but not as at Bulgarian land! The four of them looked very happy and I think that they truly enjoyed the show. In the moment they turned on the house lights to see who is singing and who are not, giant beach balls started falling from the top. This was quite distracting for the audience during the last three songs. One hit Rob on the head, other broke down one of the microphones and we saw James in the light of football player. At beginning of “Seek & Destroy” there was another attempt of one ball over James’s mic and he missed part of the song with a wide smile! Last performance for the evening…. Guitar picks, drums sticks and countless deserved applause! А great emotion, which is very difficult to describe with words.
Sweaty, exhausted but very happy we came out the hall where we met the German ice wind! It was terrible cold. Everything ended too fast, like it was only a blink of an eye…
The next morning we managed to make some sight seeing in the beautiful but chilly Berlin.
We left by the same bus.
I personally did not want to leave… I wish I could go to London for the celebration at September 15!
But … Here I am back in Sofia, thrilled in anticipation for another dose of the drug called Metallica live….

At 6 o’clock in the evening we had a meeting with the members of the Italian chapter of the Metclub – Zonametallica, who fulfilled their promise and take us to the pre show party organized by them. Club Rock `n` Roll is outside Milan and we traveled with cars around 30 minutes to there. We met one of the chapterheads – Mario, and a lot of the members of ZM, very nice and very friendly, we received great hospitality.

The singer of the tribute band SaD – Mattia, had a lot of similarities with James from the beginning of the 90`s – his vision and the faces that he was doing. They played ten songs and I must say that they were very great. After SaD`s performance the winners of the raffle organized by ZonaMetallica were announced. Of course, among them was a representative of HOS – Maria, who won several awards and unleashed her incredible luck. The next morning we found out that Maria won two tickets for the show and Meet and Greet. Events were turning out really great – three people from Harvester of Sofia at Meet & Greet in Milan.

After resting in the hostel we made it to the venue – Datch Forum. The guys from ZM have already occupied the entrance from 11 o’clock in the morning. With a blue sky and no clouds it was too hot. Thus, nearly three hours later, they opened the doors and let us in groups of several people – safety measures. After more then four hours bask in the sun, running to the front row was a sip of fresh air. Shortly after rushing at the stairs we clung to the fence at the short side of the stage where James and Rob changed their guitars.

I was glad that Mastodon and Lamb of God had really short sets because I didn’t like them and the awful sound made things worse. In the middle of the Lamb of God performance one of the lucky winners – Rado, found us and he was with a big smile at his face after he met God a.k.a James.

With the beginning of Ecstasy the long waited madness was released and I put all of the energy that was left in me. During the first two songs we have seen lasers that reflected in the glow of the guitars and they looked truly amazing. The crowd was louder than the speakers during The Memory Remains; we could make a BBQ at the fires of One, and hardly recognized My apocalypse because of the sound. In the middle of Sad but True guards took me out to the medics. I collapsed for few seconds, and thanks to the quick reaction of Ivo I was safe. Two bottles of water were enough to get me back in the crowd, but at a greater distance from the scene where the sound was better. I found the other two lucky friends.

The end of the set was а surprise for me and I was very pleased with both songs before Seek – Die my darling and Trapped under ice. Of course the venue was illuminated during the last song and balls began to fall right next to us. I got on one and started to swell it (which is not an easy thing, believe me) and at the end of Seek and Destroy we took a dive into the sea of people for guitar picks, which is twice as difficult. When Metallica went of the stage, we found our friend of HoS happy and one of them with a drumstick from Lars. Exhausted but extremely happy we left the arena… I was almost happy, a little bit sad and slightly angry at myself… Fatigue led us to sleep immediately, which was good because at the morning we had to get up very, very early to continue our journey to Rome.

At 5:30 o’clock on Tuesday morning we got up to prepare for our upcoming trip, which had planned to lead us in Rome at noon. The train was stopping at most of the stations, but in Bologna retained more than usual. Passengers began lively to debate about what happens, in the beginning we do not pay attention, because they are really noisy Italians but after several minutes all of them began to collect their baggage chaotically and leave the train. We cast a glance at each other and followed them; the train we had was cancelled and we immediately had to get on the next train for Rome. Successfully, after eight hours of travel we arrived in Rome at the Termini station.

Our apartment was very close to the station with a beautiful view and balcony with many flowers. We took some fresh air and a beer and got out for a walk. I needed to get out of my head the romantic idea of Rome. Everywhere was dirty, crowded and swarm of tourists who could barely walk past each other in the narrow streets. Once we saw the fountain Trevi and the Bulgarian church we continued to the square, but at the first street we sat down to have dinner.

However, we had to meet Tanya and our friends from ZonaMetallica. And then at the square Navona we met Zack (Rob`s bass tech) and Vicky (she works for Metallica too). Of course we were very polite and we congratulated them and wished them a great evening. After our brief meeting in the Abbey Theatre for a moment we lost our way to the apartment, but quickly found the right direction.

We spent the morning of June 24 in gathering our forces for the forthcoming concert. We hoped that if we go again around 3 o’clock at the afternoon we can be right in front of the entrance but this time some people had came at 4 o’clock in the morning, Therefore we decided to line up at the queue so we could continue getting sun tan. After less than an hour the crowd became thicken. 10 minutes seemed like hours under the burning sun in front of the entrances of Palalottomatica. For two hours the crowd crawled to the doors. At some point I saw that around me there were more than five people whose tickets are for the stands, and they waited to enter parterre.

Few minutes after 6 o’clock they let us go, and I found myself in the competition for places in the first row. We were at the same side of the stage like in Milan. We talked to one of the guards about the banner of Harvester of Sofia and whether there is a problem to hold it during the concert. At the same time Zack, who was taking some photosof the guitars, saw our banner and with a big smile of his face he nodded in approval. After several minutes Zack came to me and I he gave me few guitar picks in my hand. I grinned from ear to ear and put the priceless treasure in the bag. The venue itself seemed smaller and the stage was a “ground support” set-up. We survived trough the support acts and during Lamb Of God’s performance I have a cup Coke and some chocolate. Tonight should not be a repetition of the incident in Milan.

The beginning of the set was the same, during Creep I listened to the crowd, the voice of the audience led war with the speakers and the powerful “Die, Die, Die …” won. The songs overflowed from heavy into slow and from old into new and build the image of Metallica, full of energy and positive emotions. They gave and received back from the audience, one fadeless circle.

No Leaf Clover caught me unprepared and I was crazy from happiness at the beginning of the intro. The specialty of the evening was undoubtedly Dyers Eve, a song that does not leave us even to take a breath. Personally for me, Kirk`s solo before Noting else Matters once again proved to be a feast for the senses. James as always left the audience to sing the song and the result once again was unbelievable. The finesse of the NEM was converted into the energy of Enter Sandman and exploded with awesome pyro effects at the beginning. Stone Cold Crazy and Phantom Lord were a great ending for the evening along with the usual Seek and Destroy. We all had smiles on our faces, just as James was predicted at the beginning of the concert.

We left to our apartment whit a night bus that went right along the illuminated and majestic Coliseum. He gave us the beginning of our tourist walk of June 25. In Rome everything is in colossal size and makes you feel insignificant and small and wherever you look there is something to see and what to enjoy. All the spared time for Rome is never enough.
On July 26th at the morning we went to the airport “Leonardo da Vinci and at the afternoon and landed in the dark gray Sofia already craving for more concerts.