Exit Light, Enter Metallica: Metallica Takes Center Stage At Lane Stadium

After months of anticipation, a full Lane Stadium was able to view Metallica for the first concert Lane Stadium ever held.

Walking into Lane hours before openers Suicidal Tendencies and Pantera took the cavernous floor, I took the longest route possible across campus to feel the buzz around the town.

I have been a member of Virginia Tech Media for over two years now, and I wanted to compare the feeling between a high-stakes football matchup and last night. What did I find?

Fans were brimming with real excitement.

As I was edging closer to the ticket booth, I heard fans of the playing bands compare the buttons on their jean jackets, talking about how many times they had seen Metallica perform before, and I watched tons of families of all ages pack Beamer Way en route to the confines that sat in front of them.

The first thing I saw when I entered the concourse of Lane was a security guard who called me over and handed me scratch-off cards for a chance to win a vinyl from Metallica

After nestling in my assigned seat, I witnessed what looked like thousands of fans assemble inside what was called the "Snake Pit," a small donut hole circle enclosed by the circular stage, which would be taken on just minutes later by Suicidal Tendencies and Pantera.

After both Suicidal Tendencies and Pantera had taken the stage, the once bright sun had faded into a cool breeze signaling the night ahead, a sense of tension and excitement struck the air until it was finally time for the band that Tech fans had been singing since 2000 to take the stage.

After an introduction played to the tune "It's a Long Way to the Top," to the sold-out Worsham Field, fans were introduced to "The Ecstasy of Gold," while being tuned into the infamous scene from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" Which showed "Tuco" grazing across the cemetery in search for gold.

Then came the moment everyone had been waiting for. The beginning of "Enter Sandman" played throughout Lane, as the earth started to shake, it almost felt like the completion of something building up for years.

Just after the introduction, when the world seemed as if it was about to crack open, Metallica flipped the script and rolled into their setlist which included hit songs including Creeping Death, For Whom the Bell Tolls, a few other preceeded one of my favorite moments was when lead singer James Hetfield, and drummer Lars Ulrich took a beat offstage leaving members Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo on the stage to perform what was called a "Kirk and Rob doodle" where Trujillo explained " We always suprise people with different things. Tonight we cooked something up for you, very very recently, like last night...We're nervous as hell."

Hammett and Trujillo then rocked the stage with a back-and-forth duet for a few minutes before the band started playing all together once again.

Having never been to a Metallica concert before and to be quite honest never listening to much of their music, I wanted to really pay attention to the chemistry between the band.

It felt like during every song, each member had their own time to shine, there were solo shots above Ulrich where he looked at the camera above him while playing the drums, there was a moment between Trujillo and Hetfield where they faced opposite each other and each held a hand of one another while playing the guitar. In almost every song, there was an extensive solo from Hammett that rocked the stage. The only lead of the whole show was the fans, which was a unique experience.

As the show later went on, Metallica dipped into their older hit songs with three of their final five songs containing the likes of "Nothing Else Matters," "Seek and Destroy," and "Master of Puppets." Each showing vivid sequences on each of the eight video billboards posted around the center stage.

After "Master of Puppets" rung through my near-deaf ears Hetfield and the band acted as if the show was over, saying "Goodnight" only to hear thousands of fans replying with a mixture of cheers and boos, only to set the stage for the final song everyone had been waiting for, "Enter Sandman."

As the song was warming up, you could hear the rumbling of what sounded like a thousand horses from the student section where every packed seat was vibrating as thousands of Tech students jumped up and down, almost seeming louder than at any Tech football game seen before. After the booming song was finished and fans were departing into the concourses of Lane Stadium, an electricity was still felt all the way back until I had reached my car, which sat miles away.