A week after the worldwide release of their album St. Anger, Metallica embarked on an inventive promotion ploy, playing three gigs on the same day in three separate locations in Paris, France at well known venues. Each gig lasted an hour before packing up and heading for the next gig.
This bootleg is from the first gig, played at La Boule Noire. The recording is quite good for an audience recording, best rated as B+ in this regard. And the crowd really gets into it, which always makes a bootleg sound better when you can hear their enthusiasm, and cheering, and their singing along with the words.
The set list and performance is excellent. Mixing up a selection of great early hits, the only song to come from the new album is "Frantic", which frankly still comes across rather tinny here. It is also noticeable that Lars is using a very skinny kit, because there are a lot of things in these songs sound less full than they should be. No doubt the moving of gear quickly would have been behind it, but that's not to say it couldn't have been improved.
Rousing versions of "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "Master of Puppets" are followed by the crowd favourites "Harvester of Sorrow" and "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)", with the crowd being led enthusiastically in chorus by James. St. Anger's "Frantic" follows along with "Sad But True", before a trio of old school heavy hitters in "Battery", "Creeping Death" and "Motorbreath" round out the set in style.
The winners here are the generally pre-1988 set list as well as the crowd involvement. It lifts your enthusiasm while you listen along, and is the hallmark of all of the best bootlegs - hearing the crowd, but not having the two or three near where it is being recorded from dominating in conversation through the gig. Well done recorder!
Rating: It is... going to... take your breath away! 4/5
Full bootleg
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