Crabbe Mountain, Central Hainesville, New Brunswick circa 1985;
Lawrence Rhinelander invites me into his VW Beetle to smoke a 'J'. Before we spark up, he pops in this cassette into his cars tape deck and cranks it.
"Ever heard of these guys?" - The band is frantic, the music is as heavy as Motorhead mashed with Venom and some other bands of the era. I'm hearing lyrics like, "Strapped in the electric chair", "Shouting gun on they run, through the endless grey, On they fight For their right, yes but who's to say"... This albums is amazing.
My first listen to Metallica. I didn't even know that Lawrence was a 'Metalhead'....
I had got into Metal around 1983/1984. mostly introduced to many of the bands I love through a family friend, whom I delivered papers to their house on Alexandria St. Mike Belyea loaned me so many albums. He was the first to feed me Metal, albeit my older Brother Scott had a brief stint listening to Metal maybe around 1983/'84 and I had got a couple of the albums he had bought.
I remember getting 'Master of Puppets' and my Mom's boyfriend, Ian Barry had a 'ghettoblaster', a pretty sleek one that I'd borrow when I wasn't pissing Mom off with the stereo and ancient amplifier I had in my room.
The opening track to Master of Puppets is of course 'Battery', that starts out with some pacifying acoustic guitar. I remember Ian coming in and hearing the beginning and going, "Hey, this is nice stuff"... Probably a bit of a shock to him considering what I was normally listening to. I warned him that the soothing sounds wouldn't last long. 'Battery' kicks in to over drive and he promptly left the room.
In 1988/'89, the 'Damaged Justice Tour' came to Moncton, New Brunswick. As openers they had Queensryche (while other lucky places got to see Faith No More). Queensryche was out promoting their 'Operation Mindcrime" album and being an opening band, the PA equipment (and those running it) did not give them any justice... Ha Justice? Get it? 'Damaged Justice Tour'? Bwaah!
Mike Fields, Grant Forsythe, John Robinson, Mark Wall, Marc Vienneau and I all piled into Mike's beater car, it was January or February, we'd all been partying the night before at night 1 of Peter Rowan's 'Maritime Independent Music Festival' - A three day indie music extravaganza held at the Capital Exhibit Center on the FREX grounds. Grant's band 'Neighbourhood Watch' and my band 'K.G. Wolfe' were both playing Sunday for the festival's 'Metal/Punk' day.
So, right after the Friday night shows ended, we took off to Moncton, driving through the night, I remember the bottom of Mike's car was rusted out and every time we'd hit a bump, we'd hear this loud scraping sound.
When we got to the Moncton coliseum, just around daybreak, a couple of us got out of the car and got down on the cold ground on the side where we had heard this 'scraping' noise coming from and could see Mark Wall's red sweatpants through the bottom of the car. It looked like a long pieces of steel was the only thing holding up the drivers seat from becoming one with the road.
We drove around the coliseum parking lot for a while, doing foolish teen craziness like hanging on to the open car door as we sped across the pavement, sliding along on just our sneakers on the ice and snow that blanketed the arena's cement.
We then decided we needed food. So we went to Moncton's McDonald's and I can't quite remember how it happened, but Mark V and I were in the car and Fields ended up putting his boot right through the window, showering us with glass. This was gonna be quite the day.
Between that incident and the evening was a blur, probably due to sleep deprivation, but I do remember standing in line to get in, the crowd pushing against the door. The cops and the security on the inside bracing themselves for whatever was about to happen... We were close to the front and someone in another line next to us managed to bust the window to the door with their foot or something, the cops inside, clambering to arrest the perps...
Once inside, the concert started began. I can't remember who else was on the bill aside from Queensryche, but at that time, I LOVED that 'Mindcrime' album. In my opinion to this day, it's the best album they ever released, it was a shame to see them sound so bad that night. The crowd, more aggressive Metalheads, certainly didn't appreciated the progressive cohesiveness that the band was at the time. Again, the sound work over job they got as an 'opener' didn't help.
We were mostly all together when Metallica took the stage and at some point in the mayhem we were all separated.
That show was a killer, wicked show. Metallica giving the performance they'd been known for. They had the big 'Doris - Lady Justice' statue that was built throughout the show only to be toppled during the peak of 'And Justice For All'...
At the end of the show, it took some time for all of us to find each other and when we did, one was missing.
Word had it that during the concert, Mike Fields had been crowd surfing and several times had gone over the barrier into the loving arms of the security guys, who'd pick you up, and then throw you to the left. The last time someone saw Fields go over the barrier, he was pushed to the Right....
We didn't know it, but what had happened when Fields got pushed to the right was that instead of a loving security guard, there was a cop, who grabbed Fields and whisked him off not to be seen again.
So, we gathered that Fields must be in jail. Arrested for what? Crowd surfing? Nuh uh, that didn't jive at all.
Somewhere during the evening or perhaps the day, we'd run into a couple of other friends from Fredericton/Oromocto, they had a hotel room, so we'd all gone there after the show (and perhaps before the show). We were all kinda freaked out over whatever had happened to Fields. Grant decided to take charge and the only option we had was to go to the Moncton police station to see if we could find Mike. He was our drive there, I'm not certain if Mark Wall had his car keys or if Mike had them, but it was his car and we'd be stuck in Moncton without him.
So Grant and I, maybe a couple other set out to get Mike outa the clink. When we got to the police station, it was decided that Grant would go in and querry about Fields. The rest of us punks probably were not adult enough to face the cops. So, in went Grant and after some time, he emerged with Fields.
So, Mike had a story and it wasn't a good one. That last time that Fields had gone over the barrier, he'd been pushed into the direction of that cop and that cop proceeded to grab Mike in a half-nelson and pretty much carry him off the coliseum floor, his feet barely touching the ground. He was taken into a hallway and then tossed into a paddy wagon that was filled with drugged out, violent, drunken concerto-goers. There he remained until the end of the concert and then they were trucked off to the Moncton jail.
Mike HAD been arrested, but what was the charge you might ask? Well, that must have been something that the cops were asking themselves at one point as well.
That night and most days, Fields was wearing a denim jacket vest with artwork on it that he had done himself. If you don't know Mike Fields, then you don't know that he's one of THE most amazing artists this area has ever produced. On the back of his denim jacket, he' done some artwork paying homage to one of his favorite Hardcore bands of the time, M.D.C.
Now 'M.D.C.' stood for at the time, Millions of Dead Cops (and one other album, 'Millions of Dead Children)... The denim jacket Mike was wearing said, 'M.D.C. - Millions of Dead Cops - Use Cops as fertilizer'... So, that didn't go over too well with the local constabulary, but it wasn't enough to charge his with any crime. So in the end, they charged Mike with carrying a prohibited weapon... What? What weapon? Well, the cops dug deep for this charge! The "weapon" was a ring. Yes, a ring that Fields was wearing, the ring, a perhaps pewter had a grouping of spikes on it. I believe it was called a 'Crown of thorns'... So, with that little gem, they charged Mike Fields and he was to appear in court in a few months time.
Once Fields was let go, we all headed back to the hotel room and got little sleep. As I recall, that single bed hotel room had something like 7-9 people all crammed into it. With a single or perhaps double bed, it didn't give a lot of people room to sleep. I think I slept underneath a desk that was in the room.
We got up early as we had to be back in Fredericton in time to get ready for our perspective shows. I think we played in the afternoon sometime and Neighbourhood Watch a bit later in the day, perhaps the evening.
What I really remember now was that Grant had been sick with a cold the whole way to Moncton and I had sat beside him, so by the time we got back to Fredericton, both Grant and I were sick as dogs.
But we both had great shows and that weekend was one for the memory banks. So much had happened since that Friday to Sunday evening.
The next day, the Daily Gleaner and other provincial papers carried stories about the "mayhem" that Metallica had brought forth in the wake of their show. Many were arrested that night, before, during and after the concert. There was one particular paragraph about some punk ass kid who was wearing a jacket that had 'M.D.C. Millions of Dead Cops, Use Cops for Fertilizer' and then went on about other hooligans that had been arrested.
A couple of months later Mike's court date came up and he and his Father, Lou (rest in peace), drove up to Moncton for his hearing... Once in court and his trial began, the arresting officer never showed up and the case was thrown out of court.
Those trips to Moncton for concerts were always memorable. I believe on two occasions we almost died in car wrecks either going to or coming back from Moncton.
Metallica, Thanks for the memories!
Now, like many Metallica "fans" or former fans. I was a huge Metallica fan up until about halfway through the 'Black' album. There were some amazing songs on that album and some disappointing ones. 'Enter Sandman' I have quite a bit of history with as Dreamkick had managed to somehow get an advanced copy of the track when it was released as a single and we decided to pick it up as a cover in our set.
So by the time it became HUGE, we had been playing the song for quite some time. I've always said that we might have played the song more than Metallica had (had the time) because some nights people would go crazy for it and we'd end up playing it two or three times in the span of a night.
After that, I really had no interest in what Metallica had put out. There were a few songs here and there, 'Fuel' was pretty good, 'I Disappear' wasn't too bad. But I did not buy a Metallica album until 'Death Magnetic', which still to many is a horrible, horrible album. But once the 'remastered' version was released, it became a less bitter pill for your ears to swallow.
Their most recent release, 'Hardwired to Self Destruct' I think is THE best album since 'And Justice...'.
The tour has been massive. The guys have learned a lot in the many years they've been together. Colossal mistakes like 'Lulu' with Lou Reed and the 'Through the Never'... Which Mike Fields actually appears in a few times (had I stayed in Vancouver for another year, you can bet I woulda been by his side!)... That movie, if you can call it a 'movie' had amazing concert footage, but the 'story', if you can call it a 'story' was ridiculous and completely unnecessary, but the band probably knows that well by now.
Metallica has been known for great and innovative stage show for some time and with the Hardwired tour, they didn't let down.
What I first saw as a bunch of dumb 'video cubes' that they had suspended above the audience and stage soon became a really amazing and super cool effect system. I had recently seen a documentary on the tours effects (posted below) and really took a different position on this tours effects after seeing that mini-doc about how this tours effects came together and what they do.
These cubes weigh around 500lbs a piece, are filled with cameras and other computer driven systems. There's quite a few of these cubes and weighing in at 500lbs, then plus the rigging and wiring is quite something for riggers and stadium owners to contend with when bring the band to their town.
I had also seen a 'pro-shot' video of the band performing their single 'Moth Into Flame' and was amazed at these flying lights that all swarmed out during the song and began to form great patterns and flew around with such precision and fluidity, I was kinda dumbfounded.. How'd they do this effect?? My guess was drones... and my guess was right.
Really kicking myself for leaving Vancouver sometimes, While I did get to see nearly ever single band I'd ever wanted to see and then some. I have missed some really great tours. Iron Maiden with Ghost. This Metallica tour and I'll be missing SLAYER's farewell tour with Lamb of God and Behemoth (who'd I'd like to see more than Slayer or L.o.G. !)
It will be interesting to see where and what Metallica does net. It seemed to take them a couple albums to get their footing again. It would seem they've won back a lot of fans who'd left them over their music or the NAPSTER fiasco or other reasons. Can they keep them? Can Lars even continue being the drummer? You watch the band play now and Lars, who used to wind up like a Major League Baseball pitcher just to hit a cymbal, is now looking like he's treading water as he drums. His gut has gotten bigger this tour, when you'd think playing each night would have diminished it. James Kirk and Rob seem to be holding their age well and I could not see the band continuing without Lars, James or Kirk.
Check out this near 40 minute documentary on the Hardwired Tours effects and staging, it even goes into the bands catering.
Maybe someday I'll see the band live again. But if not, I'll definitely always have those memories of that chaotic weekend back in 1988/89.
Moth Into Flame (with drone action!)
Lawrence Rhinelander invites me into his VW Beetle to smoke a 'J'. Before we spark up, he pops in this cassette into his cars tape deck and cranks it.
"Ever heard of these guys?" - The band is frantic, the music is as heavy as Motorhead mashed with Venom and some other bands of the era. I'm hearing lyrics like, "Strapped in the electric chair", "Shouting gun on they run, through the endless grey, On they fight For their right, yes but who's to say"... This albums is amazing.
My first listen to Metallica. I didn't even know that Lawrence was a 'Metalhead'....
I had got into Metal around 1983/1984. mostly introduced to many of the bands I love through a family friend, whom I delivered papers to their house on Alexandria St. Mike Belyea loaned me so many albums. He was the first to feed me Metal, albeit my older Brother Scott had a brief stint listening to Metal maybe around 1983/'84 and I had got a couple of the albums he had bought.
I remember getting 'Master of Puppets' and my Mom's boyfriend, Ian Barry had a 'ghettoblaster', a pretty sleek one that I'd borrow when I wasn't pissing Mom off with the stereo and ancient amplifier I had in my room.
The opening track to Master of Puppets is of course 'Battery', that starts out with some pacifying acoustic guitar. I remember Ian coming in and hearing the beginning and going, "Hey, this is nice stuff"... Probably a bit of a shock to him considering what I was normally listening to. I warned him that the soothing sounds wouldn't last long. 'Battery' kicks in to over drive and he promptly left the room.
In 1988/'89, the 'Damaged Justice Tour' came to Moncton, New Brunswick. As openers they had Queensryche (while other lucky places got to see Faith No More). Queensryche was out promoting their 'Operation Mindcrime" album and being an opening band, the PA equipment (and those running it) did not give them any justice... Ha Justice? Get it? 'Damaged Justice Tour'? Bwaah!
Mike Fields, Grant Forsythe, John Robinson, Mark Wall, Marc Vienneau and I all piled into Mike's beater car, it was January or February, we'd all been partying the night before at night 1 of Peter Rowan's 'Maritime Independent Music Festival' - A three day indie music extravaganza held at the Capital Exhibit Center on the FREX grounds. Grant's band 'Neighbourhood Watch' and my band 'K.G. Wolfe' were both playing Sunday for the festival's 'Metal/Punk' day.
So, right after the Friday night shows ended, we took off to Moncton, driving through the night, I remember the bottom of Mike's car was rusted out and every time we'd hit a bump, we'd hear this loud scraping sound.
When we got to the Moncton coliseum, just around daybreak, a couple of us got out of the car and got down on the cold ground on the side where we had heard this 'scraping' noise coming from and could see Mark Wall's red sweatpants through the bottom of the car. It looked like a long pieces of steel was the only thing holding up the drivers seat from becoming one with the road.
We drove around the coliseum parking lot for a while, doing foolish teen craziness like hanging on to the open car door as we sped across the pavement, sliding along on just our sneakers on the ice and snow that blanketed the arena's cement.
We then decided we needed food. So we went to Moncton's McDonald's and I can't quite remember how it happened, but Mark V and I were in the car and Fields ended up putting his boot right through the window, showering us with glass. This was gonna be quite the day.
Between that incident and the evening was a blur, probably due to sleep deprivation, but I do remember standing in line to get in, the crowd pushing against the door. The cops and the security on the inside bracing themselves for whatever was about to happen... We were close to the front and someone in another line next to us managed to bust the window to the door with their foot or something, the cops inside, clambering to arrest the perps...
Once inside, the concert started began. I can't remember who else was on the bill aside from Queensryche, but at that time, I LOVED that 'Mindcrime' album. In my opinion to this day, it's the best album they ever released, it was a shame to see them sound so bad that night. The crowd, more aggressive Metalheads, certainly didn't appreciated the progressive cohesiveness that the band was at the time. Again, the sound work over job they got as an 'opener' didn't help.
We were mostly all together when Metallica took the stage and at some point in the mayhem we were all separated.
That show was a killer, wicked show. Metallica giving the performance they'd been known for. They had the big 'Doris - Lady Justice' statue that was built throughout the show only to be toppled during the peak of 'And Justice For All'...
At the end of the show, it took some time for all of us to find each other and when we did, one was missing.
Word had it that during the concert, Mike Fields had been crowd surfing and several times had gone over the barrier into the loving arms of the security guys, who'd pick you up, and then throw you to the left. The last time someone saw Fields go over the barrier, he was pushed to the Right....
We didn't know it, but what had happened when Fields got pushed to the right was that instead of a loving security guard, there was a cop, who grabbed Fields and whisked him off not to be seen again.
So, we gathered that Fields must be in jail. Arrested for what? Crowd surfing? Nuh uh, that didn't jive at all.
Somewhere during the evening or perhaps the day, we'd run into a couple of other friends from Fredericton/Oromocto, they had a hotel room, so we'd all gone there after the show (and perhaps before the show). We were all kinda freaked out over whatever had happened to Fields. Grant decided to take charge and the only option we had was to go to the Moncton police station to see if we could find Mike. He was our drive there, I'm not certain if Mark Wall had his car keys or if Mike had them, but it was his car and we'd be stuck in Moncton without him.
So Grant and I, maybe a couple other set out to get Mike outa the clink. When we got to the police station, it was decided that Grant would go in and querry about Fields. The rest of us punks probably were not adult enough to face the cops. So, in went Grant and after some time, he emerged with Fields.
So, Mike had a story and it wasn't a good one. That last time that Fields had gone over the barrier, he'd been pushed into the direction of that cop and that cop proceeded to grab Mike in a half-nelson and pretty much carry him off the coliseum floor, his feet barely touching the ground. He was taken into a hallway and then tossed into a paddy wagon that was filled with drugged out, violent, drunken concerto-goers. There he remained until the end of the concert and then they were trucked off to the Moncton jail.
Mike HAD been arrested, but what was the charge you might ask? Well, that must have been something that the cops were asking themselves at one point as well.
That night and most days, Fields was wearing a denim jacket vest with artwork on it that he had done himself. If you don't know Mike Fields, then you don't know that he's one of THE most amazing artists this area has ever produced. On the back of his denim jacket, he' done some artwork paying homage to one of his favorite Hardcore bands of the time, M.D.C.
Now 'M.D.C.' stood for at the time, Millions of Dead Cops (and one other album, 'Millions of Dead Children)... The denim jacket Mike was wearing said, 'M.D.C. - Millions of Dead Cops - Use Cops as fertilizer'... So, that didn't go over too well with the local constabulary, but it wasn't enough to charge his with any crime. So in the end, they charged Mike with carrying a prohibited weapon... What? What weapon? Well, the cops dug deep for this charge! The "weapon" was a ring. Yes, a ring that Fields was wearing, the ring, a perhaps pewter had a grouping of spikes on it. I believe it was called a 'Crown of thorns'... So, with that little gem, they charged Mike Fields and he was to appear in court in a few months time.
Once Fields was let go, we all headed back to the hotel room and got little sleep. As I recall, that single bed hotel room had something like 7-9 people all crammed into it. With a single or perhaps double bed, it didn't give a lot of people room to sleep. I think I slept underneath a desk that was in the room.
We got up early as we had to be back in Fredericton in time to get ready for our perspective shows. I think we played in the afternoon sometime and Neighbourhood Watch a bit later in the day, perhaps the evening.
What I really remember now was that Grant had been sick with a cold the whole way to Moncton and I had sat beside him, so by the time we got back to Fredericton, both Grant and I were sick as dogs.
But we both had great shows and that weekend was one for the memory banks. So much had happened since that Friday to Sunday evening.
The next day, the Daily Gleaner and other provincial papers carried stories about the "mayhem" that Metallica had brought forth in the wake of their show. Many were arrested that night, before, during and after the concert. There was one particular paragraph about some punk ass kid who was wearing a jacket that had 'M.D.C. Millions of Dead Cops, Use Cops for Fertilizer' and then went on about other hooligans that had been arrested.
A couple of months later Mike's court date came up and he and his Father, Lou (rest in peace), drove up to Moncton for his hearing... Once in court and his trial began, the arresting officer never showed up and the case was thrown out of court.
Those trips to Moncton for concerts were always memorable. I believe on two occasions we almost died in car wrecks either going to or coming back from Moncton.
Metallica, Thanks for the memories!
Now, like many Metallica "fans" or former fans. I was a huge Metallica fan up until about halfway through the 'Black' album. There were some amazing songs on that album and some disappointing ones. 'Enter Sandman' I have quite a bit of history with as Dreamkick had managed to somehow get an advanced copy of the track when it was released as a single and we decided to pick it up as a cover in our set.
So by the time it became HUGE, we had been playing the song for quite some time. I've always said that we might have played the song more than Metallica had (had the time) because some nights people would go crazy for it and we'd end up playing it two or three times in the span of a night.
After that, I really had no interest in what Metallica had put out. There were a few songs here and there, 'Fuel' was pretty good, 'I Disappear' wasn't too bad. But I did not buy a Metallica album until 'Death Magnetic', which still to many is a horrible, horrible album. But once the 'remastered' version was released, it became a less bitter pill for your ears to swallow.
Their most recent release, 'Hardwired to Self Destruct' I think is THE best album since 'And Justice...'.
The tour has been massive. The guys have learned a lot in the many years they've been together. Colossal mistakes like 'Lulu' with Lou Reed and the 'Through the Never'... Which Mike Fields actually appears in a few times (had I stayed in Vancouver for another year, you can bet I woulda been by his side!)... That movie, if you can call it a 'movie' had amazing concert footage, but the 'story', if you can call it a 'story' was ridiculous and completely unnecessary, but the band probably knows that well by now.
Metallica has been known for great and innovative stage show for some time and with the Hardwired tour, they didn't let down.
What I first saw as a bunch of dumb 'video cubes' that they had suspended above the audience and stage soon became a really amazing and super cool effect system. I had recently seen a documentary on the tours effects (posted below) and really took a different position on this tours effects after seeing that mini-doc about how this tours effects came together and what they do.
These cubes weigh around 500lbs a piece, are filled with cameras and other computer driven systems. There's quite a few of these cubes and weighing in at 500lbs, then plus the rigging and wiring is quite something for riggers and stadium owners to contend with when bring the band to their town.
I had also seen a 'pro-shot' video of the band performing their single 'Moth Into Flame' and was amazed at these flying lights that all swarmed out during the song and began to form great patterns and flew around with such precision and fluidity, I was kinda dumbfounded.. How'd they do this effect?? My guess was drones... and my guess was right.
Really kicking myself for leaving Vancouver sometimes, While I did get to see nearly ever single band I'd ever wanted to see and then some. I have missed some really great tours. Iron Maiden with Ghost. This Metallica tour and I'll be missing SLAYER's farewell tour with Lamb of God and Behemoth (who'd I'd like to see more than Slayer or L.o.G. !)
It will be interesting to see where and what Metallica does net. It seemed to take them a couple albums to get their footing again. It would seem they've won back a lot of fans who'd left them over their music or the NAPSTER fiasco or other reasons. Can they keep them? Can Lars even continue being the drummer? You watch the band play now and Lars, who used to wind up like a Major League Baseball pitcher just to hit a cymbal, is now looking like he's treading water as he drums. His gut has gotten bigger this tour, when you'd think playing each night would have diminished it. James Kirk and Rob seem to be holding their age well and I could not see the band continuing without Lars, James or Kirk.
Check out this near 40 minute documentary on the Hardwired Tours effects and staging, it even goes into the bands catering.
Maybe someday I'll see the band live again. But if not, I'll definitely always have those memories of that chaotic weekend back in 1988/89.
Moth Into Flame (with drone action!)
Great story my friend. Was also at that show ' had a run in with "the man" .. Great concert ' memory
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