Tag Archives: Metallica

The Big Four love each other. Cue laugh track.

If you’re in the mood for a quick laugh, check out this excerpt I stole from Blabbermouth got from a recent Scott Ian interview. He’s explaining The Big Four tour.

“This isn’t a manufactured thing put together by management or record companies or anything like that. This is put together because these four bands have all been around for so long. We’re still at the top of our game and we all really get along well, and really do love each other, as lame as that sounds for a bunch of metal dudes.“

Read full interview here.

I’ll suspend my disbelief about the ‘manufactured’ part, I’ll pretend I didn’t read the ‘top of our game’ part, but I can’t take the ‘love’ part seriously.

All you have to do is do a quick search on Blabbermouth, and you’ll see how much these four bands love each other. Granted it was never Scott or anyone else from Anthrax doing the ‘loving’ in the press, but still, these bands tolerate each other at best, in my opinion.

I don’t want to make assumptions about people I haven’t met and things I don’t know about. I think it’s great that this Big Four thing is finally happening and I applaud them for ending their feuds, but this whole “ah, we’re all BFFs and are doing this cause we love each other” thing is pretty hard to take seriously. Especially after reading stuff like this.

But, what do I know? Last night I forgot to wipe after a messy shit and woke up with my underwear looking like one of those Rorschach inkblot tests.

Lars has an excuse

After waiting for an U.S. leg of The Big Four tour, fans are not pleased with the single California date. Lars has an excuse for that though. Here it is:

“Listen, we don’t wanna cram this down people’s throats. We don’t wanna sort of overstay the welcome, and we don’t know what kind of response there’s gonna be to this in America, so we’re starting, obviously, without being disrespectful to the rest of the wonderful country […] When the Coachella organizers asked us if we would come and play there the week after and they would leave the scaffolding up and all that business, it just seemed like a great way to kick this off in North America.“

So in case you Californians thought you were special or something, Lars clears it up. You aren’t. You’re just lucky people behind Coachella are willing to let them use their stage and stuff. Otherwise you’re just testing ground for the financial potential of this thing.

“If there is enough demand for it, obviously there’s a very strong possibility that there will be more shows, but we don’t wanna overextend the welcome and we also don’t wanna turn it into something that becomes this whole nostalgia trip“

Listen to the full interview here.

Translation: We don’t know if this Big Four tour is gonna do well in America, so we’re using Coachella’s sloppy seconds to test that. If that’s good, we’ll do more dates.

Wasn’t that just easier to say?

Everyone can play guitar like Jaymz

A few good months ago, we told you that all you need to play guitar like James “Yeeeaaaah” Hetfield is to have his signature picks. Someone listened.

Not only did he get the picks, he also got a similar looking guitar and a similar looking shirt and tried to cover the video above. The result? Absolutely amazing. Metal riffing at its finest.

Make the jump to see it. James, if you’re reading it, I hope you’re taking notes.

Only one American Big Four show?

Ever since “The Big Four tour” rumors hit last year, American fans were expecting an American leg. It didn’t happen in 2010, but after great DVD sales, the rumors started flying around that it will happen. Finally, yesterda, an announcement was made. American fans went crazy.

Unfortunately the announcement today is that there will be only one U.S. show… In Indio, California. On April 23rd. The news post on Metallica.com clearly states it’s the only one for this year:

“It’s true — this is indeed the only scheduled stop in America this go around, so we’re hoping that you can head West to join us”

Read full post here.

Now, of course, they could do more dates next year. It’s way too big of a cash cow to just ignore the American demand. But that statement says it all, plus the poster clearly says “first and only time in the U.S.” so if you don’t live in (or close to) California and you can’t make it, you’ll have to wait.

Anyways, it’s called The Big Four Festival and tickets go on sale this Friday (Jan 28th) on Ticketmaster. They have an official site which you can access here. They also have the Facebook page we told you about. The poster is after the jump.

Get ready, America! (updated)

It was obvious that this was gonna happen after the media attention and the DVD sales, but now it’s confirmed. The Big Four are coming to the U.S.

No dates yet, but there’s a big poster on Metallica‘s official website. You can either check it out there or make the jump to see it here. They’re also advertising this Facebook page, but right now all it has is a photo of elephants. Not cool to make fun of Kerry King like that, if you ask me.

So Dave will have to pretend to like Lars for a little while longer. Finally he can promote himself using Metallica‘s name without taking a jab at them. His dream came true.

Anyways, I caught two Big Four dates in Europe last year and it was definitely worth my time, so make sure you check them out if you can. Don’t forget, they’re also doing England and France this summer…

**UPDATE**: They posted a new image on the Facebook page saying more details will be announced tomorrow (January 25th). Stay tuned, we’ll be making fun reporting this. Image after the jump.