As the dark stadium filled with fire, with the sounds of guns and bombs exploding everywhere, the crazed fans yelled at the top of their lungs. The enormous stage was rumbling with the sound of a single guitar as the band slowly started their next encore performance. Soon after I realized that I was actually at the Sanitarium concert listening to Metallica play “One”, I thought to myself, “Is this real, am I actually here right now?” I had a weird feeling the entire time because I had worked all summer to simply listen to music with a bunch of strangers.
The day started off pretty normal, well, besides the fact that we had all stayed in a house with nothing but an old Nintendo system and a couple of lawn chairs. We went to breakfast at Denny’s, after which we made our way to Denver, the site of the day’s big event. On our way to my cousin’s apartment, we drove by the multimillion-dollar complex. It had a huge billboard that said “Summer Sanitarium.” To my surprise, I kind of got a nervous feeling. Why? I do not know. We proceeded to my cousin’s apartment where the entire group conglomerated in preparation of the concert. We had a large group of people that consisted of Carter, Josh, Seth, Sam and his two brothers, Tim, Kim, Eric, my brother me and. While waiting for the right time to arrive at the event, we had the radio turned to a station that was playing Metallica in honor of their presence in Denver.
The moment had finally arrived, we were about to enter the newly built stadium. As we approached the entrance, there was a small line of people waiting their turn to be frisked. While waiting in line, I noticed that there were certain things not allowed into the stadium for safety reasons. One lady had a large chain that resembled a dog chain in her pocket. The guard told her to take it back to her car or throw it in the trash. When the lady threw her chain in the trash I realized how devoted some of these fans really were. I thought to myself,” maybe I’m not as big of fan as I thought,” and continued through the gates. After our entire group got through security we had to separate, due to the different seating assignments. Half of the group went to first level seating while the half I was with went to club level. As we entered the shiny glass, swinging doors, we walked into the club level with multiple bars, restaurants, and the old fashion hot dog stands. This was the first realization of how amazingly built the new stadium was. We then proceeded to our seating assignments, but to our amazement the concert had already started. This was a crushing blow, knowing that we had already missed the whole opening act and not wanting to lose a cent of our money’s worth.
As we slowly made our way to the correct section, we all had and excited step to our walk, which led to our final destination. As we gradually entered the stadium the first sight was a large arena filled with thousands of people. It was about 3:30 in the afternoon, so the suns blazing hot rays of light brightened the east side of the stadium to make it seem like it was some sort of unreal bliss. I couldn’t take my eyes off the large area that gloomed over us on the west side of the facility, but soon had to, in order to make my way to my seat. I found myself in a state of amazement because it wasn’t until I got to my seat that I finally heard the screeching sounds of the speakers pierce my ears. This piercing sound would annoy some, but to others such as myself it was a sweet hymn of music that I live for.
The concert went on with anticipation of the main event, Metallica. The crowd was not what I expected it to be. The crowd did not consist of just young kids that loved heavy metal, but also older people that were once cursed by their own parents for listing to rock n roll. To myself I thought, “Why would older people want to come and listen to music with a bunch of crazed young kids that were jumping and yelling.” This I didn’t understand until I realized that Metallica was a late 80’s and early 90’s band as well as a band to date. This gave me a good feeling that I can’t describe, but I was indeed ready to see the older people get insanely crazy with us young kids.
The moment had finally come; Metallica was about to enter the stage. While the vast crowd waited in anticipation, I was still trying to take in the raging crowd, the stage, and the event that was about to take place. People that had general admission tickets started to pour in from the main entrance. As I watched, I noticed that from the beginning of the concert to now, the number of people had almost doubled. The event had started; Metallica entered the stage and gently began to play their first song. As the glorious concert went on, they played many of my favorite tunes, but the one that I wanted the most hadn’t yet come to pass. Just as I thought the concert was coming to its end, the stage filled with fire and they played their first encore song. After its performance, I was not expecting a second.
Waiting for the lights to come on and the people to dissipate, I started to hear faint cheers and a faint sound of guns. I thought to myself,” could this be it, another encore?” Then the stadium erupted with gunshots and the sounds of bombs exploding everywhere, I knew that the song I had been longing for was about to be played. For a moment I had to stop and look at the sky and quietly yell at the top of my lungs. I couldn’t believe it; it was like they were playing it just for me. I was in a state of amazement. As the sweet melody continued I went on being a crazed fan yelling and screaming till I could barely breath. “One” was played and then the concert drew to an end. It was a time that cannot be explained very well through writing but only by experience. As I was walking out of the stadium I finally realized that simply listing to music with a bunch of strangers could be one of the most exciting things there is to do.