Metallica Gives Us Our Moment
The legendary band's performance in Blacksburg will go down as one of the most memorable moments in Virginia Tech lore.
Seasoned and experienced fans of Virginia Tech have often reminisced about their memories of the 1999 football season, when Michael Vick’s transformative play led the Hokies to their only national championship appearance.
Younger fans, such as myself, haven’t been fortunate enough to experience a something like that.
Until now.
Metallica’s show inside Lane Stadium on Wednesday gave younger fans the closest thing they’ve ever had to an everlasting moment.
By now, you’ve seen the myriad of photos and videos of the performance, which captivated more than 70,000 people for two hours. The clips are amazing to watch, and I highly recommend watching every video you can find, but they simply cannot portray how incredible the experience was.
Seeing the giant stage, lighting, and sound setup, made it feel like Virginia Tech was the place to be. Worsham Field’s beautiful blades of grass gave way to a massive concert arena for the first time in the stadium’s history.
How fitting it is that the act headlining Lane Stadium’s first concert is the band that helped propel the program into national relevancy so many years ago.
Metallica teased the crowd at the outset, playing a small portion of Enter Sandman before diving into the beginning of the set. As the artists finished Master of Puppets, they playfully trolled the crowd into thinking the show was over.
It wasn’t.
James Hetfield’s “Let’s go!” chants sounded loud enough that you could hear them across the New River Valley. The crowd’s response seemed even louder. And as good as Enter Sandman is in the Fall, it was even better on Wednesday.
I know this description seems rather extravagant and excessive, but for younger fans that have yearned for a milestone moment they can latch their fandom on to, this was more than a concert. It was a collective catharsis.
Seeing an internationally-renowned band selling out Lane Stadium made it feel like Virginia Tech was the national brand that it was just a couple decades ago. For just a few hours, Blacksburg wasn’t the home of a middling athletic program, but instead the epicenter of the authentic college sports experience.
I am fortunate enough to have shared this incredible moment with a few friends, but most importantly my dad, who has seen all the ups and downs of the Hokie adventure.
I don’t know if this will ever happen again. It took years for Virginia Tech and Metallica to make this happen. The group plays all over the globe, and is in high demand more than 40 years since it’s inception. If it does, I will do everything in my power to be there.
If it doesn’t happen again, I’ll be able to take solace in the fact that for my generation’s memorable moment, I was there.
While I’ll always hope for another moment that actually involves the team, I’ll never forget the feeling of seeing our very own Metallica play on our field. That’s a moment that we’ll all reminisce about, long after the next generation of Hokies join us on this wild ride.
(Editor’s Note: Metallica’s concert is the second inside Lane Stadium. The stadium hosted a show in 2007 featuring Dave Matthews Band.)