Metallica

Do you like your rock shows huge, loud & engaging? Do you like stage sets that fill entire arena floors, filled with gigantic set pieces & enough pyro to blow up a small country? Do you like singing along to tightly played, iconic songs for 2-3 hours with thousands of friends? If yes, Metallica are your guys.

Each show starts when The Ecstasy of Gold (theme song from The Good, The Bad & The Ugly) plays over the PA, and crowd anticipation hits a fever pitch with thousands shouting along with the melody. Just thinking about the opening gives me goosebumps. Once Ecstasy hits its crescendo, they hit the stage like a thunderbolt, hammering through their lineup of classic tunes to a screaming, fist pumping, metal-sign-throwing crowd. Grizzled metal fans join together with legions of kids (oftentimes their own kids), shouting out every word of every song, and even singing along with guitar solos & melodies. Their set list varies each night. There are standards that they have to play, and you'll of course hear plenty of their big songs such as Enter Sandman and Master of Puppets. But they mix things up extremely well and no two nights are ever quite the same. It's amazing to me that after 30+ years and thousands of shows, the guys in the band still love mixing things up, still love goofing around on stage, still love engaging with the crowd, and obviously just love playing live & generating crazy crowd energy.

Quite simply, they are the kings of arena metal. Bow to the kings!

You would think that a thrash punk band like Suicidal Tendencies would naturally lose some of their energy and edge after three decades, but after seeing a recent show of theirs, they come off as ageless. Vocalist Mike Muir and the boys got the packed theater slamming, jumping, and moshing as soon as they hit the stage.

They got the room going with some familiarity, leading off the show with oldies-but-goodies, including signature classic "Institutionalized" (just one Pepsi would be nice after working up a sweat from the moshing). The newer material that followed, such as Slam City, kept the crowd pumped up and proved that the band could still deliver sick, aggressive grooves after 30-plus years.

You could tell that Muir, the founder/only permanent member, was truly grateful of all the fans who they acquired over the band's storied career. He frequently addressed the crowd, commending first-time concertgoers and veteran fans for coming together, and accommodated several fan requests for certain songs. Once ST tore into "Possessed to Skate," the already-manic energy of the band and crowd alike turned up to 11, and it was a truly amazing culmination of a wild night of going "psycho" with the psycho masters. It felt like one big, slammin' family that night; props to Suicidal Tendencies for not losing a step since 1981.