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...from Tiffany As I write this, I am slowly recovering from two full nights of Battery. They played two nights at Awful Arthur’s in Roanoke on September 29th and 30th. All I can say is WHAT A WEEKEND!!! I have been excited for months and this weekend finally arrived. I drove around all day blaring Metallica tunes, which is really not any different from any other day, getting all jazzed for the show. One of my friends went with me. We arrived at 7:30, drank several “beverages” and ate dinner. While we were eating dinner, Battery was just warming up and they played "Blitzkrieg". I started going off at the table!!! So finally it's 9:30, and they open up with "The Four Horseman." It sounded incredible!! Then they played "Sandman." I was thinking to myself - at least we get it over with early. I am so over that song. But anyway, they started playing older Metallica songs. They played a few from Master of Puppets - "Master", "Battery" and "Orion." They killed Orion - FLAWLESS! They dedicated it (both nights) to Cliff and each night this guy out of the crowd came up and held a Metallica flag with Cliff on it.
 From ...And Justice For All, they played "One" and "Harvester." From Ride the Lightning, they did "Bellz" and "Fade to Black". From Kill 'Em All, they of course did "Seek and Destroy" and that got a little wild. By this time each band member had done close to 6 shots of Jägermeister each and had been drinking beer all night. I had probably a half of a fifth of Vodka myself, and everyone was feelin’ F.I.N.E.!!!
 So we start doing the “Searching..." thing and Jason (Battery's frontman) wants people to NOT say “Seek and Destroy”, but to say something else. By that time I'm up on stage singing with the guitar player and he gave me his beer he was drinking (he gave me a pick too!) and I chugged it (a no-no when you drink Vodka). There were these two other women up on stage too. So Jason yells "Searching..." and this guy (from the crowd) yells “show me your tits.” The other two women pull up their tops and well, you can imagine. I have witnesses that I stayed FULLY clothed!!! I jumped down when they started that shit. All the hardcore fans up front were all looking at each other like, get them off the stage and let’s get on with it!!! So they finally quit the strip show and it was off to rockin’ again. They did "Roam", "Fuel", "Blitzkrieg", and I’m sure some other songs I’m forgetting. The show ended around 1:30 AM, and I made my way home. It was quite the wild night.
 The next morning, I woke up with a HUGE headache. I could barely move my neck from excessive head banging and my ears were ringing LOUD (I didn’t wear earplugs). I was not feeling good at all. Do ya think it was that strange clear liquid I consumed the night before? I thought to myself, "How the hell am I going to do this again tonight?" All day, I didn’t think I was going because I felt like shit. But after laying around all day and washing the smoke smell out of my hair, I was ready to go again! I got a message from Jeff and George saying they were on their way, so I was off for round 2... I was a bit smarter on night #2. I brought earplugs and stuck with only drinking wine. NO CLEAR LIQUID! Jeff and George showed up and they just came from the Virginia Tech-Georgia Tech game, they weren’t too happy about the outcome (GT won 38-27). I was sure when Battery started playing, that their night would improve!
 Battery started the show with "Ecstasy of Gold", and then ripped into "Am I Evil?". Then they played "Sandman" AGAIN. I looked at Jeff and George and we just gave each other “the look” when you hear "Sandman". The rest of the show went something like this: "Puppets", "Blitz", "Fade", "One", "Stone Cold Crazy", "Fuel", "Sad But True", "King Nothing", "Orion", "Disposable", "Roam", "Seek", "Breadfan", "Bellz", "Unforgiven", "Whiplash", "Whiskey", "Leper", "Ace of Spades", "Turn the Page", "Last Caress", "Nothing Else Matters", "So What!" and they played a bit of "Ktulu". They left out "Shortest Straw" (which was on the setlist). I wish they played that song because I freakin LOVE that song.
 I did get a “souvenir” from the show. Jason gave me a Duracell battery. I got a battery from Battery. Laurence (drummer) asked me to come on stage to draw the raffle ticket for the guitar they were raffling off. (I didn’t win by the way.) I asked the lead singer if Virginia Fuel (Me, Jeff and George) could come up and sing "Shortest Straw" and he was like "HELL YEAH!" Then the damn bouncer came up and said they couldn’t play anymore because they could lose their liquor license or something. Well, it was about 1:30 AM or so. Oh well...
 "Can we pleeeeeeease sing Shortest Straw?" Battery was freakin unbelievable! They were tight! Vocals were right on and they were just FANTASTIC! After the show was over, I went over and had my picture taken a few times with them. They are cool as hell. I woke up the next with a "hellaciously" sore neck - but it was sooooo worth it...
 ...from Jeff Battery freaking rocked! They played for well over 3 hours...and would have played longer if the bar didn't have to close down around 1:30 AM. Although, I doubt they could stand up any longer considering the amount of shots of liquor they drank throughout the night. Here are some highlights:
 From left to right: Jason Taylor (guitar), Kirk, Laurence Langley (drums) Larz, Jason, Harvey (ex-frontman), Phil Maclachlan (bass), and Jaymz
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