Photos and words by Richard Roesler

Metallica Made their way to Texas on The WorldWired Tour. Along with  special guests Avegened Sevenfold and Volbeat and while it has been a long while since the boys in Metallica graced us with a visit.  Id say the absence was worth the wait, as would those in attendance from Houston and surrounding areas, like California would agree.  That right there were 2 young men across from me, in the “Snake Pit” that made the trek from the west coast!  For those that weren’t able to attend the snake pit was an area inside a looped walkway that came off the main stage and packed in the middle were a select group of concert goers, that I’m sure paid upwards of $20.00 easy to partake of the evening’s excitement just a bit closer then the rest.

With Volbeat and the Avegend Sevenfold kick starting the evening, the NGR crowd of (I don’t even know how many thousands) of Metallica fans?  They were all well primed for a party by the time James, Lars, Kirk and Robert to the stage!  While I usually do not read any of the other media’s coverage of an event until I have gotten some words down myself, don’t want to accidentally plagiarize something.  However while trying to find the attendance figure I came across a story and one of the young ladies in attendance that evening and her comments made a lot of sense.

I have been blessed to photographer so many amazing artists over the past few years, at a variety of venues.  And not to in any way take anything away from any of those artist and bands, but the size and scope of the WorldWired Tour was something I’ve never come across before!  The stage and framework and the towers were enormous, you throw in the giant screens, and all the pyrotechnics, multiple live video feeds and one can only imagine the convoy of trucks and buses that must make up this tour as it makes it way from city to city.  One point of the article I read was “is Metallica one of the last super tours?” again not taking anything away from any other artist and bands or trying to say they are anything less.  It just seems like Metallica has been doing it a long time, so what happens when these boys decide to just take it easy?  It will be interesting to see who takes up the Super Tour Mantle, they may already be out there and I just haven’t had the pleasure of seeing them…yet!

Till Next Time,