767. Metallica / 1983-03-05: The Stone, San Francisco, CA, USA [Cliff's 1st Show] [Bootleg]. 5/5

The availability of, and ability to track down, bootleg recordings of bands in recent years has increased remarkably with the advent of the internet and other various modes of recording and distributing such albums. Nowadays practically every concert played is recorded by someone, and the sharing becomes more widespread.
There are some real gems that can crop up from days past, ones that still hold up years later, ones that have recorded a piece of history. Some of these pieces of history can also be pieces of crap, depending on the quality of the recording, or the quality of the performance involved. This bootleg has the best of both, which is fortunate, as it marks a big moment in the history of Metallica. The band had just parted ways with original bass guitarist Ron McGovney, and had found a new guy named Cliff Burton to take his place. His first show with the band was on 5th March 1983 at The Stone in San Francisco, and the band had brought in their open air reel-to-reel to record the show. From that came this bootleg.

This really is a superb bootleg. It is raw, and it captures the band in their ultimate rawness. It's interesting to hear the vocals especially. They aren't note-perfect, which to be honest is refreshing given they were yet to release a studio album. You can hear early indications as to why James's voice eventually blew out, even from this point in time. Dave Mustaine takes the lead on the opening tracks "The Mechanix" and "Phantom Lord", both of which he helped to compose, before handing over lead vocal duties to James. The setlist is terrific, and the band doesn't sound all that different from the one that eventually led to the studio. Filling out the set came the band's three favourite cover songs, "Am I Evil" (with Mustaine's guitar cutting in and out during the solo) and "Blitzkrieg", both of which eventually made the B side of the single for Creeping Death, and "The Prince". Here you can also hear for the first time Cliff Burton's bass solo, which on the album was entitled "(Anesthesia) - Pulling Teeth". What an amazing sound he gets out of that bass guitar, and it's just amazing to hear it here for the first time with this band.

This show was just two months before the band entered the studio to record their debut album Kill 'Em All. Everything that ended up on that album appears here in their live setting, except for "Hit the Lights", and of course the re-working and re-naming of "The Mechanix" to become "The Four Horsemen". It was also just one month before the sacking of Dave Mustaine as lead guitarist, and the hiring of Kirk Hammett as his replacement. As such, it is one of the few bootlegs around that has this quartet performing. Have a listen to this, and then pull out Kill 'Em All and notice the differences. Apart from Kirk's solo's, there really isn't that much!

Rating:  Whoever thought she'd be better, at turning a screw than me.  5/5

Listen to the complete show here!