I had the (mis)fortune of being one of the last generations of kids before YouTube era. Back then (or shall I say - back in my days), getting music wasn't as easy as it is today. Also, being from a country with almost non-existent heavy metal scene wasn't very promising for a young kid wanting and trying to get some heavy music. But since I wanted to show the world how tough and rebellious I am (yes, my puberty kicked in that way...), I listened to the only type of at least wannabe rebellious music I could get - rap, hip-hop and a bit of Croatian punk-rock (because that was the hardest shit you could get in Croatia as a kid not knowing a lot about worldwide heavy metal scene).
Until one day, when my best friend showed at my place with this all-black-cover CD. "Dude, you ever heard of Metallica?" I said "Sure, that's some kind of a band I guess, but I don't know much more than that." "Put this on, you really have to listen to this," he said. So I did. And it blew my mind straight away!
A music so heavy, so rebellious, so agressive, and yet so beautiful and hypnotic! For the next month or two we were listening that album so much we destroyed the CD! That didn't go so well with my friend's dad since he was the one who bought the CD, but he did get another one. We did get to listen to the second copy, but in a "controlled environment". Maybe that copy is alive even today, but I digress here. So, as time went by we managed to get some more music from Metallica and we also managed to discover some other heavy bands and, needless to say, the time of rap and Croatian punk rock was over for us. :D
And of course, I wanted to go and see Metallica perform live. But there were a few problems standing in my way. First of all, Metallica didn't exactly perform live somewhere near my place (not even in my country), so I would have to go somewhere abroad for the concert. Of course, that didn't seem like a good idea to my folks (meaning I couldn't go). Second of all, even if my folks somehow did want to let me go, the ticket prices for the Metallica shows are hefty for Croatian standards (like, one sixth or one fifth of an average Croatian salary), which makes the ticket quite unaffordable for a family with two relatively small children (me being twelve-thirteen and my sis being seven-eight). And third of all, even if my folks did decide to pay such an amount of money for some concert, it certainly wouldn't have been for a heavy metal concert since that wasn't their cup of tea.
But those problems vanished last week. I finally got to see Metallica perform live! I did have to go to Bologna (Italy), though, and the price wasn't small, but since now I do earn my money, I could afford it. And I don't regret it! First of all, I do have to say that Bologna is a very nice city (with typical Italian architecture and great pizza and ice cream - if you're not into architecture), so wandering around the city was also nice, and the concert itself... I'll never forget it! My childhood heroes played live a few meters in front of me and I got to see them live. Finally!
And I have to say, I've been to some great concerts of some great bands (like Black Sabbath or Airbourne or The Cult), but this one tops them all. And now, after seeing my favorite childhood band live, every other concert will be compared to this one.
I do hope that this was not the last and the only time to see them live. And who knows, maybe I'll see them in my country, too (they had performed in Croatia eight years ago, but, unfortunately, due to my adolescent stupidity I couldn't go to that concert, but that's another story).
And I do have to agree with the legendary statement of Miša Tumbas:
Metallica je i moj dobar drugar!
Thanks for reading my story, see you! I'll be back.
Pero
