Ice-T was just repugnant, but we sat out in the parking lot so long that we missed everything but the encore, which was, of course, “Cop Killer”. Supposedly, he was going to be fined for performing the song under some “incitement to riot” clause in the city ordinance.

Guns N’ Roses, on the other hand, is up there with Def Leppard for me in the ranks of late eighties rock notoriety. Only Eddie Van Halen ranked higher as a guitar God from that era than Slash. Axl was, well, just someone so cool and their music was so engrained in my head that I can sing every word from Use Your Illusion I and II. I catch myself in the shower singing “You Could Be Mine” or “Locomotive.” Axl Rose had a voice back then. He was thin with that stringy long post-glam haircut and the apparently first person to wear spandex as a fashion choice in public. I knew the entire band by first name, and there was one cover song that I couldn’t sing along to. So I went to the bathroom then and came back in the middle of “Patience.”

Okay, not to talk about the banners again, but they took down the Metallica black and put up GNR Use Your Illusion (blue on one side, orange on the other). Watching that process alone was worth the price of the ticket.

So the whole experience was terrifying to me. It was my second concert and I was very dumb about the world. Before GNR started, they had built an extension on the stage for their performace so that Axl could come out into the audience a bit, and of course, it was right over where we were sitting so we had a perfect shot of his balls sitting like grapefruits inside his white spandex shorts. GNR performed to perfection. “November Rain” was the song that was a pitch perfect copy of the studio version, and “Don’t Cry” was the original version. Better yet, they skipped the stupid crap from Appetite for Destruction so the show as remarkably almost all the songs I liked.

But then I had also heard that GNR would pay some ridiculous fine if their performance went past midnight. Axl had developed a reputation for keeping the audience waiting, a couple hours or longer before he was ready to go on stage. Even then he was kind of a prima donna. But on the flipside of that, he promised to keep GNR on the road until both Use Your Illusion albums sold 1 million copies. And to my knowledge, he did.

10.30.1992 Metallica and Guns N’ Roses Stadium Tour Jack Murphy Stadium, San Diego, CA
Opener: Body Count
I was much more interested in GNR than Metallica until I saw this show, and that is when I entered my monsters of rock phase, however brief it may have lasted. The original bill included Faith No More and I was a big fan, but James Hetfield got burnt by the pyrotechnics (you can now get one right on the Metallica Quiz) and Axl Rose lost his voice and the entire tour was pushed from the summer into fall. This resulted in Ice-T as the opener after the tail-spin of his “Cop Killer” notoriety. (He plays a cop on TV now, that’s irony – I’m just full of trivia today.) School was in session by the time this tour rolled into Jack Murphy Stadium and a lot of kids skipped sixth period to go this show. Including me. If I have to mention that I knew only the songs from the black album (and a select few from …And Justice for All) than you haven’t been paying attention. Metallica for me was not a phase. In fact, it was never anything. From a purely sensory point of view, their show is unforgettable. What impressed me walking into the stadium were these enormous banners that covered the risers going several stories into the air. I always thought if you could take one home, it might cover your entire roof and drape down on to the driveway. I was a tender innocent kid who had absolutely no understanding of scale, but I thought it was impressive the woman that sewed those. I really wanted to know who took them home.

We had fourth row center seats, a product of the way ticket sales used to work, namely the first one in line got the best seats. Nowadays, there are a lot more ways to purchase a ticket and via the internet alone, you’re simply competing with a hell of a lot more people. I’m always surprised to drive by a Tower Records and see some poor kids lined up waiting for the Ticketmaster station to open. It’s not a particularly effective way to get it done, but I’ll admit I’m a little sad that it’s no longer part of the process.

Metallica was an impressive sight and the music thundered in my ears. There were pyrotechnics galore, and I actually recognized the occasional tune. “One” was a Metallica standard at the time, going into the rapid punch of the chorus “Darkness imprisoning me all that I see absolute horror” was sent my little junior high body into rapture. It was cool, and for one brief flickering evening, Goddamnit, so was I.

Metallica Setlist
Ecstacy of Gold
Creeping Death
Harvester of Sorrow
Fade to Black
Sad But True
Wherever I May Roam
Of Wolf and Man
For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Unforgiven
Shortest Straw
Bass solo
Guitar solo
One
Master of Puppets
Seek & Destroy
Whiplash
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
Last Caress
Am I Evil?
Damage Inc.