Friday April 3, 2009
Making a big din
By DARYL GOH
With the newly-acquired London route, Air Asia X took the opportunity to crank up the volume with their first rock ‘n’ roll trip – a sold-out Metallica concert at the 02 Arena. Ear-plugs not included.
LET’S get it straight from the outset: Air Asia X and a sold-out Metallica concert in London have very little in common. Think again. The former is a low-cost, long haul carrier breaking all the rules in the commercial aviation world while the latter is possibly the biggest, baddest heavy metal band on the planet. But if you need “to make some serious noise and hit the masses with something edgy, exciting and loud,” as the airline’s CEO Azran Osman Rani aptly puts it, then a Metallica gig at the 02 Arena in London would be just what the sandman ordered.
Just as well, then. With Air Asia X making history by being the first Asian budget airline to fly to London on March 11, there was every reason for them to be amped up. This was quite a feat – flying cheap as chips to London.
Early last month we saw Duke of York Prince Andrew, a host of Tourism Malaysia corporate suits and local travel writers wheeled out on the Stansted Airport tarmac in London to celebrate the airline’s maiden flight from this new destination.
Along came the grey business column inches, stiff photo calls and mentions in the broad sheets about this Air Asia X coup. But this bit of corporate news probably didn’t register just as much with the rock ‘n’ roll bloggers, young upstarts and gung-ho traveller types on a mission to party around the world.
Time to make a statement. Move over, Prince Andrew. Make way for James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and RobTrujillo – who, essentially, are rock royalty in their own right.
Metallica, as we all know, will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the United States this weekend.
But let’s not get distracted here. This is more about Air Asia X, with their CEO in tow, lining up an unconventional trip to catch Metallica in concert at the 02 Arena last Saturday, and to do as Azran noted “the crazy weekend thing.” That’s right — fly 26 hours return to London to watch a gig and get home for work in KL the following Monday.
Jet-lag, be damned. This was the local entertainment media being put to the ultimate test, no sleep till London ... or should we say, the 02 Arena.
It was a mad dash like no other, to the Metallica gig. Our entourage hit rainy Stansted at 4pm, got chucked into a waiting van and we had to snake our way through the London weekend snarl to get to the meet-and-greet session with Metallica at 7pm.
Barely time to catch our breath, but with the 02 Arena heaving with over 19,000 metal fans and freaks, you just knew you had arrived at Metallica wonderland.
The opening treats of the evening were Texan stoner rock outfit The Sword and, of course, the mighty Machine Head, a scorching proposition of a band to burn your eyes out.
The 02 Arena was steadily loading up. You name it, they had it: overweight Bob the Builder types, spiky back-pack toting Goth metal fans and balding Californian yuppie expats looking to relive their six-pack frat party years.
All of the crowd, whether with their Scandinavian accents or east London-bred brashness, were up for a wild night and here to watch Metallica play the same venue, the third time in six months! Each concert was a sold-out affair.
Metallica may have made some bad albums for a while, but their fan-base hasn’t diminished at all. And how the faithful have been rewarded with last year’s return-to-form album Death Magnetic, which not only picked up two Grammy awards but is also filled with primal noise and big music made out of these now sober heads.
For this LA-based group that has been around for nearly 28 years, this sort of connectivity with the fans has long been a trade secret. The recent rehab years for Hetfield, the tell-all soap opera movie made by the band and the sluggish spell for Metallica look to be well and truly over.
The band might have been hammering a square peg into a round hole with their previous three albums, but with their new material, the veterans have come full circle – getting back to that sort of hot, tight and fast metal mayhem not heard since Reagan was in the White House.
“We’re here to kick your a**, and we hope you kick ours too,” shouts Hetfield as he hits the stage, which is built “in the round” style to accommodate more fans and allows for closer proximity for the pumped up masses.
Amid blinding laser lights, the frontman was in high spirits, stalking the stage with guitar in hand and creating an almighty ruckus from the start. Just three songs into the show, and there is already a steady wave of meathead fans ejected by bouncers for being overzealous in the mosh-pit area.
Classics like Harvester of Sorrow, ... And Justice for All and the pyromania-laden One, filled with a fountain of massive flames on stage, had the apocalyptic atmosphere going in the venue. This was the sound of bulging veins in full effect, and the crowd’s collective pulse went into overdrive.
Present day material was the preferred choice of the night with the setlist running through five cuts from the new album, especially The End of the Line and Judas Kiss which left fans hanging on to every sinister note.
It’s also good to know that with a career of 100 million albums sold, Metallica has laid to rest the smoke machine.
This concert was slick and well-orchestrated with 3m tall flames shooting up stageside while four giant Death Magnetic coffins lowered ominiously on cables from the venue’s ceiling making for an awesome sight.
The rest of the band, especially bassist Trujillo and guitarist Hammett twisted and jerked themselves around on stage, throwing rock star shapes and looking feral.
They milked it the most from the crowd hysteria when Sad But True, Master of Puppets and Enter Sandman were unleashed.
With eight mikes across the large stage, it was left to Hetfield to assume the ringmaster’s role, charging down the corners and engaging the rampant masses.
Ulrich, on the other hand, was intent on inflicting some serious damage on the drums.
After a two-hour assault on the senses, the band’s consistency and energy remained incredible and outstanding – right from the first track That Was Just Your Life to the blistering Seek and Destroy, the 18th and final salvo of the evening that nailed shut a great black night out for the fans.
Metallica made their goodbyes count, returning to the stage to throw guitar picks and kick giant black beach balls to each side of the stage. Hetfield reached for the mike and roared a big “thank you, London!” and promised to be back soon.
That would necessarily mean summer rock action and Metallica’s headlining slot at the inaugural Sonicsphere festival in Knebworth, England in early August. At least, we now have more lead time to pre-book those Air Asia X flights to London, ensuring the jet-lag is sorted out. But as for the whiplash ...
Browse www.airasia.com for the KL-London travel schedules.
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