Perth is in the grip of Metallica mania \u2014 and fans are pulling out all the stops to be front and centre when the first chord hits.<\/p>\n
From sunrise at Burswood, die-hard fans made their way to Optus Stadium on Saturday, camping out in the hopes of snagging a front-row view of the legendary band\u2019s long-awaited return.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been more than a decade since Metallica last blew the roof off Perth in 2013, and the energy leading up to this weekend has been pure, head-banging devotion.<\/p>\n
Among the first in line were interstaters Jade Martin and James Williamson.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe walked up at about 8.30am and we were the very first people here,\u201d Mr Williamson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to be as close as you can. The chance to catch a guitar pick, the chance for them to look at you and make some sort of conversation and we want to be at the front because that\u2019s where people go the hardest.\u201d<\/p>\n
This will be the pairs first time seeing the legendary rockers but it certainly won\u2019t be their last, as they have spent tens of thousands of dollars on tickets for every Australian leg of the M72 World Tour.<\/p>\n
Also among the crowd was 51-year-old Ed, a self-proclaimed Metallica superfan who travelled all the way from Darwin.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was up at like five o\u2019clock this morning, I was tossing and turning all night … it\u2019s brilliant, I can\u2019t wait to see them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only thing that beats this is my children being born.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even a looming exam couldn\u2019t stop 19-year-old Loki Kelly from joining the queue \u2014 he spent his morning revising physics while waiting in line.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got a physics exam for my engineering degree … I\u2019ve got eight hours to sit here, may as well do something,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For 33-year-old Jacob Marinelli, the night marks redemption after Metallica\u2019s cancelled 2019 Perth show crushed his teenage dreams.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my first concert, because they cancelled on their last one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
And for Joanne Warner, 51, it\u2019s a family affair. She, her son Jayden, 34, and brother Ashley, 48, were camped near the front.<\/p>\n
Ms Warner said she played Metallica instead of lullabies for Jayden when he was just a baby, making it an exciting moment for them to see the band together. Ms Warner\u2019s brother, Ashley, flew all the way from Melbourne to share the moment with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Jayden was just born he used to hear Metallica a lot,\u201d Ms Warner said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perth is in the grip of Metallica mania \u2014 and fans are pulling out all the stops to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136,46,45],"class_list":["post-255331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-perth","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}