After catching a quick run in the morning, we piled into Big Jeff's car and headed to Charlotte with Sean, Ron, and Lauren in the trunk. No, seriously, they folded the seats down slept partially in the trunk. Aside from the trunk opening up on the interstate a few times, it seemed to work out alright. By the way, after driving past the exit for I-77 twice in a row (the previous time was on the way to the '04 Charlotte show), Jeff is no longer allowed to drive to Charlotte for Metallica shows. On the bright side, at least half of a double-wide didn't fall off a truck in front of us like our last trip to Charlotte.

George looks like one of those creatures from the movie, 'Beastmaster'

When we got to Charlotte, we met up with Joie at the venue. While we had been relatively lucky with the weather at the most of the shows on the fall leg of the tour, apparently "luck runs out," because it was freakin' cold in Charlotte. We were wrapped in a big blanket with all our winter clothes in full force while waiting in line outside the venue. The nearest restroom to the venue happened to be the most sketchy Burger King I've ever had the misfortune of setting foot in.

Once again, the event staff moved the line all over the place, but everything always seems to work out and eventually we ended up down on the rail without much trouble. Tonight's show was Gojira's final show on the tour. The lead singer from Lamb of God made an appearance during one of Gojira's song and the Gojira singer showed up during Lamb of God's set. I suppose if you were into either or both of those bands, that would have been pretty cool. It was something different, if nothing else.

(Picture courtesy of MetOnTour.com)

Metallica's set was top-notch, yet again. The sets seem to be consistently stronger than the winter U.S. shows from earlier in the year. Tonight I got to hear “Judas Kiss” for the first time. I really like how it comes off live, and it was worth the wait to finally hear it, much like "My Apocalypse" the night before. We also got "Phantom Lord" again, which I never get tired of. "Turn the Page" showed up on the setlist again along with "Horsemen," "Bellz", and "Fight Fire with Fire." This was yet another great show, and I really had a good time at this one.

The Good: "Judas Kiss," "Phantom Lord," good times and good friends down on the rail
The Bad: It was cold! Ok, compared to the January shows it was tropical, but for Charlotte in November, it was cold.
The Ugly: The Burger King loaded with crackheads at 11am. I expect to see crackheads at White Castle at 2am, but not at a Burger King during the day.