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Photo courtesy of Dana Gorab |
For anyone who doesn’t know about the legendary 1991 Monsters of Rock festival in Tushino, Moscow, the Soviet Union had just collapsed and the post-Soviet space was feeling the wind of change. At that moment, about half a million people gathered at the Tushino airfield, according to unverified data. Legends such as Metallica, AC/DC and Pantera were performing in front of an absolutely unsophisticated audience, consisting of citizens of yesterday's Evil Empire. It is clear that all this was a celebration of life, an imprint of light from another universe…
But my essay is not about this concert. At that moment I hadn't even walked under the table yet. My story will be about an event that took place on July 18, 2008: Metallica, for the first time in 17 years, returned to St. Petersburg, Russia. I was 19 years old and I decided to see my idols. I was living in the south of Russia and it was 1800 kilometers from my city to St. Petersburg, or 36 hours by train.
With plans to stay overnight in Moscow, I made my way to the Saint Petersburg Sports and Concert Complex, which has since been demolished. The rounded arena was surrounded by three chains of cops, each of which thoroughly searched attendees. I had a ticket on the floor, but I was one of the first to arrive, so I got into the hall and immediately ran closer to the fence of the fan zone. As people kept arriving, they slowly started to press from behind. Eventually the pressure became so strong that the first row fell down the fence of the fan zone and rushed to the stage. I ended up two or three meters away from the stage.
The Sword and Down were the opening acts, but I don't really remember their performances, to be honest. I remember that it was very hot in the dense crowd. It was impossible to take off your jacket, it was impossible to go to the toilet without losing your seat. But when Metallica finally came on stage, I realized that James Hetfield was three meters away from me!
The opening riff of “Creeping Death” played and the madness began. There was such a slam of crowd-surfing that people were mixed in my head like in a huge washing machine. Because of the heat and pressure, people started yelling to the guards to get water as I think someone fainted. They tried filling plastic beer glasses with water, but each time a security guard handed a glass to the crowd, dozens of hands reached for the glass and it was spilled. In the end I got some water at the bottom of a glass, but everything in my wallet ended up getting wet.
It seemed as though the show was over in one breath, and there we all were, standing stunned and dumbfounded in front of the stage and yelling to the stage crew to throw us something from Metallica. Lars Ulrich's towel flew in my direction and about five of us jumped on it and started tearing it apart. I don't remember where the pieces of that towel are now.
I remember joining the crowd of people coming out of the arena and it carried me to the nearest supermarket, which was about three hundred meters away from the complex. It was a fairly large supermarket that was open 24 hours. There were probably a couple thousand people barging into it and rushing to the gallery with drinks to grab everything they could. Falling on bags of cat food, I could finally catch my breath and come to my senses.
That's how I went to see Metallica for the first time in my life!
With plans to stay overnight in Moscow, I made my way to the Saint Petersburg Sports and Concert Complex, which has since been demolished. The rounded arena was surrounded by three chains of cops, each of which thoroughly searched attendees. I had a ticket on the floor, but I was one of the first to arrive, so I got into the hall and immediately ran closer to the fence of the fan zone. As people kept arriving, they slowly started to press from behind. Eventually the pressure became so strong that the first row fell down the fence of the fan zone and rushed to the stage. I ended up two or three meters away from the stage.
The Sword and Down were the opening acts, but I don't really remember their performances, to be honest. I remember that it was very hot in the dense crowd. It was impossible to take off your jacket, it was impossible to go to the toilet without losing your seat. But when Metallica finally came on stage, I realized that James Hetfield was three meters away from me!
The opening riff of “Creeping Death” played and the madness began. There was such a slam of crowd-surfing that people were mixed in my head like in a huge washing machine. Because of the heat and pressure, people started yelling to the guards to get water as I think someone fainted. They tried filling plastic beer glasses with water, but each time a security guard handed a glass to the crowd, dozens of hands reached for the glass and it was spilled. In the end I got some water at the bottom of a glass, but everything in my wallet ended up getting wet.
It seemed as though the show was over in one breath, and there we all were, standing stunned and dumbfounded in front of the stage and yelling to the stage crew to throw us something from Metallica. Lars Ulrich's towel flew in my direction and about five of us jumped on it and started tearing it apart. I don't remember where the pieces of that towel are now.
I remember joining the crowd of people coming out of the arena and it carried me to the nearest supermarket, which was about three hundred meters away from the complex. It was a fairly large supermarket that was open 24 hours. There were probably a couple thousand people barging into it and rushing to the gallery with drinks to grab everything they could. Falling on bags of cat food, I could finally catch my breath and come to my senses.
That's how I went to see Metallica for the first time in my life!
- Aleksandr Yarvinen, Arctic Dreams