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I started the morning out with a little run and then we all headed to Denny's for a nice healthy (everything at Denny's is healthy) breakfast, while sharing some "Tales from the Road". We ended up sitting in the parking lot of the venue for quite some time on day 2 in Philly. After the floor debacle the previous night, it didn't make much sense to stand in line all-day, so we (me, Jeff, Jimbo, and Super Ron) waited in Jimbo's truck until around 4 pm before getting in line. Fellow-Fueler Frank had won a meet and greet for this show, so he met up with us for a while, before going out in search of a floor ticket. Once we got in line, it was basically deja vu from the previous day. Horshack was there. The "How you doin'?" song was playing over and over. Sadly, there was no pro-wrestling fanatic/vomit king to be seen. He was probably still sleeping off his activities from the day before. We did see Joie at the show, as well, though I don't know where she ended up on the floor. I don't remember seeing her down there.
 Here's a little something for all you power-tripping local event staffers! Eventually, the doors opened and Jimbo, Jeff, and I headed down with the rest of the usual suspects and played our hand at trying to get a spot on the rail. This time around we waited down on the floor at the corner that we had initially been at the previous night. While we were waiting, we spotted the "Angry Romanians" (see my Philly Summer Sanitarium 2003 review). When the sides opened, we went for a spot in front of the mic stand closest to us instead of the one on the other side of Lars' drumkit where we usually are. The local security let people from the other side in this time, too. Go figure. It still went a lot better than the night before. Before Metallica went on stage, we also saw Bam Margera (pro skater and Jackass star) in the house, which was almost as cool as seeing the "Angry Romanians" again. The set at this show was one of the best that I've seen all year, but I'll get to that in a minute. When the show started Lars spotted us right away, he came over slapped five with several us between songs. James came over at one point and asked Laura, "Aren't you supposed to be over there?" and pointed over at the spot that we usually try to get (Yeah, James, we were thinking the same thing.) The spot we were at turned out to be just fine, though. James did a lot of singing at that mic. stand and Kirk seemed to be over there quite a bit, too. Rob got down just about in our faces during One, as well. Highlights of the night included "Dyer's Eve", "Bleeding Me", "The Thing that Should Not Be", and "Damage Inc." The set was just awesome. I thought the crowd was decent, too, despite the fact that it seemed to be a smaller crowd than the previous night. Of course, I was surrounded by some of the most dedicated fans in the country, so maybe I'm a little biased. The show ended with a local group of kids playing the opening of Seek and Destroy on stage. The kids even helped throw out picks at the end of the show. It must have been an incredible experience for them, and, by the way, these kids could play! After the show, Steph, Laura, and I piled into the old red truck and headed north.
 I'm not sure what these girls were doing.
The Good: Awesome setlist, awesome performances, being surrounded by great fans |
