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Tuesday, June 10, 2003 - Sightseeing in Paris Wednesday, June 11, 2003 - 3 Paris Club shows / Drive to Rome |
(to be read with a french accent) and "Vive La France!" |
| We visited Cologne (northwest of Frankfurt) which actually turned out to be a pretty cool city. The weather was awesome. We saw the Cologne cathedral in downtown Cologne which kinda reminded of Harbor Place in Baltimore and Waterside in Norfolk. We saw the Cologne Cathedral which is one freakishly tall church (see below). We had a 4-5 hour drive to Paris, so we only spent half of the day in Cologne. So off to Paris we went... |
 
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| ...We made it to Paris. First of all, the traffic in Paris is absolutely the worst in the world, worse than DC and NY. Apparently, le french have not yet grasped the concept of striping on streets to better distinguish driving lanes. Add the fact that there are so many 10-lane traffic circles, Paris is definitely a poorly designed city. Also in France...TOLLS! Lots of them! One toll was $35 Euros! We finally got to our hotel (I use this term loosely - my bathroom is bigger than our hotel room in Paris). We had to park our large German car in front of the hotel drop off area because it wouldn't fit into Jean-Luc's very spacious parking garage which pissed off a lady that was staying at the hotel. She was American too. We decided to just get something to eat (which was an opportunity to utilize my 5 years of high school french - my teacher would have been proud!) and turned in early to get ready for an entire day of sight seeing in Paris, right? WRONG! |
| The one day we get to Paris is the same day the city workers decide to strike which meant: no subways which increased traffic, Musee D'Orsay was closed, certain streets were closed off, the Police teargassed some of the protestors (including Eric), Notre Dame closed before we could get to it, no Eiffel Tower, no Arc D'Triomphe, nothing. FUCK PARIS! At least we had the 3 Metallica club shows the next day to look forward to. |
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| Show #1 - 1 PM - La Boule Noire: La Boule Noire was a very small venue (200-300 people). Apparently, the French also haven't grasp the concept of people getting in lines before they go into a concerts. There was basically one entrance with only one security guard checking tickets and frisking people. Nice job Francois! Once we got in you could hardly see anything because it was so freaking dark. I would classify La Boule Noire as someone's basement, because that's how big it was. Another thing I also noticed - no AC, no fans at all. This was going to be hot sweaty show. Fortunately, french people are small, so I had no problems getting very close to the front. In fact, some of the short french people behind me were complaining that they couldn't see anything. Oh well. We were packed in like sardines and the B.O. coming from the sweaty french guys was unbearable. Thank god we only had to wait about a half hour before Metallica went on. The place was so small, that Metallica had to enter through the front and come to the stage around the side. Metallica played 9 songs for about an hour, and the energy was incredible. The setlist was very cool - Bellz, Puppets, Harvester, Frantic, etc. They ended the show with Motorbreath! What a great show! Short in length, but the energy was exhilrating! What made this show even better was when Kirk apparently recognized me and said what's up, plus after the show James tossed me a pick. Show #1 a success! |
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 Show #2 - 6:00 PM - Le Bataclan: Le Bataclan was a bigger venue, but not by much. It had a second floor balcony (much like the Fillmore, the Norva, the 9:30 Club, etc.). My guess is that it could hold about 1000 people. The place was definitely not new because it had a dirty, used feel to it. As far as setlists go, this show was the best of the 3. They changed the setlist a lot - Horsemen, Leper, Remorse, Fade, Fight Fire, Blackened, Damage, etc. Another cool thing that happened, was when James was bullshitting between songs, he also apparently recognized me (from the first show) and said "Hey, I know you." This show was by far the hottest gig I've ever been too! I sweated out at least 10 pounds. I was totally drained after the show and dripping with sweat. You know it's hot when Kirk takes his shirt off! I think the heat got to Lars too. During the last couple of songs, I could see he was drained and was kinda going through the motions. It was that hot! One funny thing that happened, was when James forgot the lyrics to Fight Fire and sung the line "I still don't know the fucking lyrics". I don't think many people (other than Eric and myself) noticed it. It was pretty fucking hilarious. James, being the quintessential professional, did it all in stride and didn't miss a beat. Show #2 a success! |
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 Show #3 - 10:00 PM - La Tranbendo: After several bottles of water and changing into some dry clean clothes, we get to the third and final club show. Apparently, Audioslave was next door at the Zenith playing a show. We could hear them playing. Doors opened late and Metallica didn't start till 11-ish (Were the Boyz over at the Zenith watching Audioslave?). La Trabendo was not quite as large as Le Bataclan. I figure about 800 people were at this show. The place reminded me of bar that has a small stage where small bands play. It was really setup weird and definitely a weird place to have a concert. I again easily make my way up front. I felt really sorry for the short people next to me that were going to get crushed as soon as the show started. In fact, a little person made his way in front of me. I didn't know whether or not he spoke english, but I gave him a few warnings of what would happen if 265 pounds fell on him. Needless to say, he didn't stay up front very long. The setlist was changed up again. They played Blackened (I love that song!), St. Anger, Puppets, Creeping, etc. Not to toot my own horn, but once again between songs, James mentioned that he recognized some of the people at all three shows. Kirk said "Yah, that guy!" (pointing at me). Really fucking cool moment for me! They ended with Hit the Lights in which they dedicated to the road crew for doing 3 gigs in one day. Hell Yeah! They said their goodbyes and asked if we wanted them to do a 4th show. James conveniently tossed me his wristband and said to me, "Three shows...one day...(thumbs up)". Man, I was on cloud nine! It was great to be a part of Metallica history. |
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| After the show, we got rid of all of our trash in a Paris parking garage. My clothes were soaking wet. Needing no more use for my sweat soaked underwear and socks, I decided to leave Louis a little present (I think Eric has a picture of the aftermath). You know you've hit an all-time low when you're in your sweat soaked underwear in a parking garage in Paris at 1 am in the morning. Not one of my better moments, but the 3 Metallica shows more than made up for it. We set off for Rome (only 874 miles)...Note to self: never ever drive from Paris to Rome again! |