Awesome pics! Most of mine were screwed up by the lights.

Did not realize that was Rob's son. The kid was awesome.

Frok said:

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So the train from the medical center wasn't the greatest idea. The line was so long after the show that I ended up walking back to the medical center and I'm pretty sure that was faster.

It was also still 82 degrees at midnight.

Show was awesome though so worth it.

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Yeah, I thought taking the rail might save us from sitting in garage traffic on North Stadium Drive. In hindsight, I would probably rather have been sitting in the car w/ air conditioning than walking down Greenbriar to get on the train at a later stop.

I splurged for VIP parking. Close to the stadium. Took about 30 minutes to get out of Blue Lot, but we were home to League City by 12:30AM. The AC sitting in the lot was glorious. Pro move - we had a cooler full of water bottles in the car. I always do this for concerts.

You go for a lot of post Midnight strolls in Houston these days?

Ha. Not so bad.

We parked at a friend's place on Buffalo Speedway and walked. The most dangerous part of the walk was the humidity.

tx4guns said:

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I splurged for VIP parking. Close to the stadium. Took about 30 minutes to get out of Blue Lot, but we were home to League City by 12:30AM. The AC sitting in the lot was glorious. Pro move - we had a cooler full of water bottles in the car. I always do this for concerts.

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30 mins? Damn. We had VIP parking too, although didn't realize it til we got there but it was well worth it. Stayed til the end and we were on the loop heading home maybe 2-3 min after getting in the car.

Great show. Other than a little lull in the middle with the couple new songs, pretty solid all the way through. Playing La Grange was a fun bonus.

TXAG 05 said:

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tx4guns said:

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I splurged for VIP parking. Close to the stadium. Took about 30 minutes to get out of Blue Lot, but we were home to League City by 12:30AM. The AC sitting in the lot was glorious. Pro move - we had a cooler full of water bottles in the car. I always do this for concerts.

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30 mins? Damn. We had VIP parking too, although didn't realize it til we got there but it was well worth it. Stayed til the end and we were on the loop heading home maybe 2-3 min after getting in the car.

Great show. Other than a little lull in the middle with the couple new songs, pretty solid all the way through. Playing La Grange was a fun bonus.

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La Grange was cool but was played on a tele which was interesting.

Ducks4brkfast said:

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TXAG 05 said:

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tx4guns said:

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I splurged for VIP parking. Close to the stadium. Took about 30 minutes to get out of Blue Lot, but we were home to League City by 12:30AM. The AC sitting in the lot was glorious. Pro move - we had a cooler full of water bottles in the car. I always do this for concerts.

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30 mins? Damn. We had VIP parking too, although didn't realize it til we got there but it was well worth it. Stayed til the end and we were on the loop heading home maybe 2-3 min after getting in the car.

Great show. Other than a little lull in the middle with the couple new songs, pretty solid all the way through. Playing La Grange was a fun bonus.

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La Grange was cool but was played on a tele which was interesting.

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why would that make it interesting?

Cause Kirk had a '59 Les Paul sitting there.

That is was going to be smart and booked Alto there and back. Gave myself enough time after the show to make sure we could get out and to where they could pick us up.
Requested a ride for 1140. Showed pickup time at 1143, perfect. Then it kept getting later and later. Driver had another customer ahead of us and the app never moved me to another driver. Didn't get in our ride until 1245.
Next time going to either buy parking there or hire a private car.

Awesome pics. Were those taken with an iPhone?

Lol Mr. anti-iPhone would never.

Park inside the Dome.

$$$$$ covered parking $$$$$$

S24 Ultra on 50MP setting. I hate anything Apple.

I thought it was an awesome show. I was a little nervous til about the halfway point because we didn't know any of the songs. My catalog of Metallica music only goes to about 1997 and that's the stuff I like, but they've obviously made a lot of music since then. But once they got to Fuel, from that point on we knew the songs, and it was all the ones my daughter wanted. She got all her favorites: Fuel, Seek & Destroy, One, and Enter Sandman.

And I was blown away by how decent and orderly it all was. There was some interesting people watching to be had, and lots of folks who's best days were decades behind them but still dressed like they were 19. But overall, everyone was nice, getting in and out was easy, at least compared to Rodeo which is about the extent of my concert and large venue attendance experience these days. And we did the blue lot VIP parking like someone else mentioned, parked by the dome. Not a bad walk in and out, and from the time we got in the car to the time we hit the highway was maybe 5-10 minutes. The show ended at 11, and we were home in Sugar Land before midnight.

I wasn't sure if it was going to be a good idea taking an 11 year old girl to that concert, but she wanted to go so badly. She had the best time, and now that I've done it I'd do it again without hesitation seeing how everyone was. Pantera got a little vulgar as you would expect, same with Metallica, but I'm not a prude and don't care about the language like some people do. The one thing I was really surprised by was how much pot smoking was going on in there. She didn't know what it was, she just kept telling me she smelled something burning so I told her it was the smoke machines. But it was heavy, and actual joints smoked, not just vapes. And no one was making any attempt to hide it. The guys 2 or 3 rows in front of us did it all night and never do much as had security tell them to put it away.

Quote:

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As for the pot smoking, that's pretty standard at any rock show.

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I really didn't see much. Saw one guy light up a joint and that was it. In fact, was telling family members yesterday how different it was from concerts back in the day. The absence of giant clouds was kind of nice.

Jugstore Cowboy said:

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Quote:

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As for the pot smoking, that's pretty standard at any rock show.

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I really didn't see much. Saw one guy light up a joint and that was it. In fact, was telling family members yesterday how different it was from concerts back in the day. The absence of giant clouds was kind of nice.

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I remember the first time I saw Metallica in 2003, the whole stadium smelled like pot and we all were standing on the stadium seats to see the band. This time I saw one guy vaping and my section sat for the entire show until Sandman

Strongest pot smell at any concert I have attended was the Pink Floyd show at Rice Stadium in '94 before the thunderstorm rolled in.

I didn't think it could be that bad at an outdoor venue, but that smoke was thick.

TXAG 05 said:

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You didn't know the songs at the beginning? They started off with Creeping Death, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ride the Lightning, and Memory Remains. All pretty big "older" songs.

As for the pot smoking, that's pretty standard at any rock show.

It was cool seeing a lot of younger kids there, gives me hope for the future that there are a lot of kids out there that like good music instead of emo crap and other stuff like that.

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Yeah, I knew some, wasn't going to go through every song and point out the release date and whether I did or didn't know it, just it wasn't the best opening batch of songs through probably the first 10 or so songs, IMO. I don't know creeping death, don't like ride the lightning, know memory remains and bell tolls, and while both are good, the others around it til they got to Fuel wasn't my cup of tea. But people around me were loving it, so they weren't wrong in the list. Most importantly to me though, my daughter didn't know them, because her experience with them is through the songs I have so they were losing her for the first hour or so. But more than made up for it with the hits to close it out.

I like Metallica, I'm not a super fan and have every album they've ever released. I know the hits and the fast heavy hitting stuff.

maroon barchetta said:

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Strongest pot smell at any concert I have attended was the Pink Floyd show at Rice Stadium in '94 before the thunderstorm rolled in.

I didn't think it could be that bad at an outdoor venue, but that smoke was thick.

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For me it was Soundgarden at Bayou Music Center in 2013. It felt close to being in a hot box. Some idiot at work hurt himself in the shop and failed the drug test which pissed the division president off. He made the entire office do a drug test the day after I went to the concert. I legit thought I was going to test positive and get fired.

ccolley68 said:

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TXAG 05 said:

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You didn't know the songs at the beginning? They started off with Creeping Death, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ride the Lightning, and Memory Remains. All pretty big "older" songs.

As for the pot smoking, that's pretty standard at any rock show.

It was cool seeing a lot of younger kids there, gives me hope for the future that there are a lot of kids out there that like good music instead of emo crap and other stuff like that.

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Yeah, I knew some, wasn't going to go through every song and point out the release date and whether I did or didn't know it, just it wasn't the best opening batch of songs through probably the first 10 or so songs, IMO. I don't know creeping death, don't like ride the lightning, know memory remains and bell tolls, and while both are good, the others around it til they got to Fuel wasn't my cup of tea. But people around me were loving it, so they weren't wrong in the list. Most importantly to me though, my daughter didn't know them, because her experience with them is through the songs I have so they were losing her for the first hour or so. But more than made up for it with the hits to close it out.

I like Metallica, I'm not a super fan and have every album they've ever released. I know the hits and the fast heavy hitting stuff.

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Those first 3 are some of their biggest hits from the 80s. But I don't believe they were ever radio mainstays at the time.

maroon barchetta said:

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Strongest pot smell at any concert I have attended was the Pink Floyd show at Rice Stadium in '94 before the thunderstorm rolled in.

I didn't think it could be that bad at an outdoor venue, but that smoke was thick.

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You were there?

That was a fun night.

Jugstore Cowboy said:

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maroon barchetta said:

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Strongest pot smell at any concert I have attended was the Pink Floyd show at Rice Stadium in '94 before the thunderstorm rolled in.

I didn't think it could be that bad at an outdoor venue, but that smoke was thick.

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You were there?

That was a fun night.

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15th row on the floor on Richard Wright's side.

If that had happened today, they would cancel the show due to the lightning.

ccolley68 said:

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TXAG 05 said:

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You didn't know the songs at the beginning? They started off with Creeping Death, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ride the Lightning, and Memory Remains. All pretty big "older" songs.

As for the pot smoking, that's pretty standard at any rock show.

It was cool seeing a lot of younger kids there, gives me hope for the future that there are a lot of kids out there that like good music instead of emo crap and other stuff like that.

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Yeah, I knew some, wasn't going to go through every song and point out the release date and whether I did or didn't know it, just it wasn't the best opening batch of songs through probably the first 10 or so songs, IMO. I don't know creeping death, don't like ride the lightning, know memory remains and bell tolls, and while both are good, the others around it til they got to Fuel wasn't my cup of tea. But people around me were loving it, so they weren't wrong in the list. Most importantly to me though, my daughter didn't know them, because her experience with them is through the songs I have so they were losing her for the first hour or so. But more than made up for it with the hits to close it out.

I like Metallica, I'm not a super fan and have every album they've ever released. I know the hits and the fast heavy hitting stuff.

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Bro... get your daughter onto "Kill 'Em All", "Ride the Lightning" and "Master of Puppets" post haste. Then get her onto Megadeth.

Last time I saw Metallica in 2015, they opened with "Fuel" and that set the pace at 100 mph right from the start.

That was my first trip to NRG (been to the Astrodome a bunch in the 70s/80s/90s) and I will say that the parking situation was a mess, especially leaving. I see people on here talking about buying VIP parking. I would have done that but I didn't see any way to purchase it ahead of time.

This was also my first concert with a mobility challenged buddy so the wheelchair seating, elevators, etc. was a whole new experience.

Every single interaction we had with parking staff, stadium staff, even concession vendors was positive.

Everybody was super helpful. For example, even directing us to a better elevator after the show because the one closest to the parking was backed up (with a lot of people that aren't disabled - her words, not mine).

Every interaction we had with fans was positive. I think $16 beers on top of $175 tickets, plus the age of the fans, had a lot to do with that. I only saw two hotheads getting agro in the parking lot leaving the stadium.

Leaving the stadium parking lot sucked and that was squarely on Houston PD from what I could tell. But, once we finally got out, we were on 610 and on our way quickly until traffic backed up at Westheimer which was funny at 1am.

Trying to find food after the show was a challenge and wound up being the oldest and whitest customers shopping the Halal food truck scene at Chimney Rock and Westheimer. Seriously though, the birria ramen was awesome. Especially for $12 as compared to stadium nachos that started at $16 for cheese poured over corn chips and those pretzels that looked like somebody baked them last year.

Setlist was good. I knew all the songs except the ones off the new album.

I loved the Houston personalization they put into the show. The old concert tickets, the ZZ Top tribute.

It was my 4th time to see Metallica (1994 - South Park Meadows in Austin, 1997 - front row at Frank Erwin Center in Austin, 2015 - Rock in Rio, Las Vegas) and I thought all around, this was the best show overall.

The Rock in Rio, Las Vegas one was a better setup with respect to screens, etc.

The only thing that confused me during the entire concert was that 80% of the floor GA fans were stuffed into the south side of the floor while most of the north side of the floor was empty. I guess there was no way to move from the south side to the north side on for GA tix.

HollywoodBQ said:

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The only thing that confused me during the entire concert was that 80% of the floor GA fans were stuffed into the south side of the floor while most of the north side of the floor was empty. I guess there was no way to move from the south side to the north side on for GA tix.

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yeah, that was strange. we were in 119 so looked right over the empty side. I'm not sure how they had so much open space for a "sold out" show.

Correct. They had access to the north side blocked off during sets. Impossible to enter or leave. Charlie Foxtrot.