Metallica Live in Jakarta : It’s National Metal Day!

That was probably the most energetic and powerful concert I’ve ever been to! It makes other concerts in 2013 seems tiny!

On Sunday , August 25^th 2013, after 20 years finally Metallica revisited Indonesia. As part of their 2013 Asia Tour, Metallica made a return to Jakarta after their first coming in Lebak Bulus stadium, April 1993, on which was chaotic but memorable to some of their fans.

Half of 20,000 festival class tickets were sold within few days after the ticket box opened. About 54,000 tickets were quoted on sale,more than half capacity of Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) Stadium. People dressed in black, mostly wearing metal band t-shirts, were packing the venue since 2 pm. They came from all over the country to celebrate the ‘National Metal Day’ that day. A huge stage was ready, no exaggerating, it was approximately a 60 m x 8 m stage, 20 m in height, with no less than 200,000 W powered sound system. Massive it is.

As opening acts, Seringai kicked-off with their tunes, such as ‘Serigala Militia’ and ‘AkselerasiMaksimal’. They also had Raisa leading a massive choir singing ‘Indonesia Raya’. To have them opened the show, we are proud Indonesian.

After a playback ofEnnio Morricone’s instrumental song, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammet, Lars Ulrich and Robert Trujillo hit the stage with a bang and all of sudden screams were exploded to the open-air. It was thrilling, within minutes they started with the first track of their very first studio album – Kill ‘Em All. Thousands of fists were punched to the air shouting “We never want to stop again!HIT THE LIGHTS! HIT THE LIGHTS! HIT THE LIGHTS!” Warming-up the start, one of their greatest hits ‘Master of Puppets’ from the same titled album burned the stage, you can hear people burning their lives faster “Obey your MASTER!! MASTER!!”

Hetfield greeted the crowd for the first time “Jakarta! I can’t believe it’s 20 years already! And you’re still with us. It’s a great feeling to be here and still be treated like a family” then it continued with Hammet’s solo, who wants to argue this man’s fingering skill? He played John William’s Star Wars Main Title theme medley with Imperial March (Darth Vader’s theme) and everybody was quiet yet amused.

‘Fuel’ and ‘Ride The Lightning’ speeds up after, then Hetfield said “Jakarta, do you feel it?? I know you see it, I know you hear it. But DO YOU FEEL IT? Now here, I know you know every word of the song… CYANIDE!” and the crowd exploded in shouts once more. Lars Ulrich never seems aged, the energy, the speeding beat in constant power that he had never lost even in one single song!A lot more songs were thrown including ‘Welcome Home (Sanitarium)’, ‘One’, ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ and ‘Blackened’.

Now Hammet back to solo again,intro of an anthem where people started waving their lighters in the air, hundreds of yellow little fiery light brought James Hetfieldsinging the intro “So close no matter how far, couldn’t be much more from the heart, forever trust in who we are…” AND, yes after all the euphoria that night… NOTHING ELSE MATTERS! The set was ended by something people were craving for, after 2 hours of playing, this is the time for ‘Enter Sandman’ to top the list. Crowd in the tribune were now standing, headbanging and thumping, more than 50,000 people were jumping like human wave “EXIT LIGHT! INTO NIGHT!” a song from their 1991 Black album, a song that defined a generation.

Two songs were flashed for the encore; ‘Creeping Death’ and ‘Fight Fire With Fire’, Trujillo went acrobatic with his bass, kneeled down while playing and rolled-back on the stage floor as if he’s not 48. People cheered on him. We didn’t want the encore to be over. But Hetfield gave a funny gimmicks signing that the time’s up, then he played with the crowds, putting his strap on and off as if he’s going to play again. “So Jakarta, do you still have energy left? Alright, we’re going to give you one from Kill ‘Em All. I’ll give you a clue, but you’re gonna help us on this, you gotta sing with us. The clue is.. It is three words” people were randomly guessing, and Hetfield said “it’s.. Seek.. And..?” the crowd shout with their fists on the air “DESTROY!!!” then Hetfield started striking the riffs and the last song of Metallica’s setlist that night has deafened our ears and drained our voices. Ended with Hetfield shouting “THANK YOU JAKARTA, WE LOVE YOU, WE’RE GOING TO SEE YOU AGAIN SOON”.

I bet it’s not too much to expect, just as James Hetfield said to the crowd “You are the fifth member of Metallica!”. (Ditha Thakis / Photos : Metallica.com and Blood Brothers Ent.)