Heritage day rocks

Sandra is a big Metallica fan so on Sunday Robbie and I went with her and Ilan to buy tickets for the big 5fm concert. We spent quite a bit of time contemplating whether it was better get seated or standing tickets for the 12 hour concert. If standing, golden circle or field with the plebs? If sitting, expensive and close to the stage or far with a pair of binoculars. Ultimately we decided on the good sitting tickets and went yesterday at about 4 o’clock to claim our seats.

We arrived in time for Simple Plan and although the name was familiar I had no idea what they actually sang. As it turned out I could sing along with every song. After Simple Plan The Rasmus played but Robbie and I only heard them in background as we were on a mission to find the ever-elusive Stage B. Most of the concert officials hadn’t even heard of another stage, except for one dodgy guy who tried to sell me a special arm-band that one apparently needed to gain access to the exclusive Stage B club, and we were sent traipsing from one side of the stadium to the other. We eventually found the electronica stage where Roger Goode was spinning the decks in the centre of a coca cola themed trance party type setting. We hung around for the first bit of Stereo MCs and liked what we heard; it’s a group made up of two eccentric men and one beautiful black woman whose sound is funky and electronic wrapped up with some laidback rapping.

We got back to the rock stage in time to welcome South Africa’s greatest rock export Seether. There was a whole lot of moshing on the field where we were standing but we soon learnt (from the big guy with a bandana standing next to us) that you just stick your elbow out at the bouncing metal-heads or else give them a big push- this gets them out of your way and gives them the momentum they crave to get the bouncing going even higher. Collective Soul was pretty cool too and spoke a lot about going independent (leaving their record label). They asked us to tell our friends and family that we saw Collective Soul so this is me doing that!

Alright, so, I wont go on for too much longer about the concert because if you were there you saw it first hand and don’t need me to recount it in such detail and if you weren’t you probably don’t care- so I’ll make it concise.

Metallica rocked in the truest sense of the word and had the entire contingency of Durban’s angry ‘@ Generation’ screaming with adoration and adulation for the only people who truly get them, the band that is rock nobility and has had crowds head-banging for as long as I have been alive. Sandra bobbed her head as did Robbie and I and all the rest of us in the grandstands, spare a couple of die-hard fans who lost their voices and their minds.

During the first ‘curtain-call’ I dragged Robbie off with me back to Stage B, which by now we were very good at getting to, and did some stomping of our own to Fat Boy Slim who is so damn good at what he does and must have kept people partying till the wee hours of the morning. But by then I was fast asleep and Robbie was tossing and turning with a high court trial looming…