Here's a trip through Day 1 of the Heavy MTL Montreal Festival on Saturday August 9, 2014.
We walked a few blocks from our hotel to the Metro and we were about three stops from Parc Jean-Drapeau on the island where the festival was being held. We were there in about 10 minutes. Got there about noon and had to wait in line about 20 minutes. They had a good system in place and it moved pretty quick.
On the map below we came in right by the top of the pool and walked around the park counterclockwise checking out the two stages in the back and working our way around to the two huge side by side main stages.
Caught a song by Eagle Tears on the Scene stage on this initial trek.
When we got to the main stage, Baby Metal was on. As you can see there was already a helluva crowd there, but it was nothing compared to what it would grow to by the time Metallica would headline that night.
Next up was one of my favorites...the mighty Overkill. They did a killer, but short 8 song set.
Setlist:
Deny the Cross
Rotten to The Core
Electric Rattlesnake
Ironbound
Armorist
In Union We Stand
Elimination
Fuck You
This was the live premiere of "Armorist" but the highlight for me was "In Union We Stand." I've seen Overkill many times,but I haven't seen them bust out "In Union We Stand" in easily a decade.
Lots of tattoos on display. This dude had an intersting mix of Metallica, Genesis, Pink Floyd and Nine Inch Nails.
I hadn't seen Pennywise in a long time since some Warped Tour probably in the 90's. Great Set. I dug the mix of metal and punk at this festival.
Dropkick Murphys are always fun and they played a killer cover of AC/DC's "T.N.T." on this day that killed.
Setlist:
The Boys Are Back
Citizen C.I.A.
Black Velvet Band
Don't Tear Us Apart
Which Side Are You on?
Prisoner's Song
Going Out In Style
Jimmy Collins' Wake
Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya
Rose Tattoo
T.N.T.
I'm Shipping Up to Boston
Anthrax did a classics filled set.
Setlist:
Among The Living
Caught In A Mosh
Got The Time
Indians
In The End
Madhouse
Fight Em Til You Can't
I Am The Law
Antisocial
Their tribute to Dio and Dimebag drew many cheers from the crowd.
God bless scary Smirnoff girl...at this point it was ridiculous trying to go get drinks or food. We claimed a tiny patch of grass on the hill to watch the rest of the bands. If you got up, it would be filled in seconds.
The Offspring were up next and performed all of their album "Smash."
After the "Smash" performance they encored with :
All I Want
You're Gonna Go Far Kid
Why Don't You Get A Job?
The Kids Aren't Alright
The Offspring totally could have headlined this festival. The, at this point, gigantic crowd LOVED them and it seemed just about everyone knew the words to just about every song. I kinda dig The Offspring but never knew they were this popular.
This guy got everyone's attention. He climbed up there. Sat and had a cigarette, then climbed down into the waiting hands of security.
It's hard to describe the size of this crowd by the time Metallica came on. My guess would be 100,000 (it would be probably half that the next day.) This was Metallica's only North American show last year and lots of people traveled to it like we did.
Now I've been to shows with more people, for example the two Woodstock Festivals in '94 and '99, but here EVERY INCH OF SPACE was filled so it just seemed more immense. You could turn around 360 degrees and not see an empty space anywhere.
Metallica is another band I've seen a bunch of times and this was one of their "By Request" shows.
We got a pretty good setlist - only a couple here I really didn't want to hear at all:
Blackened
Master of Puppets
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
Ride The Lightning
The Unforgiven
Lords of Summer
...And Justice For All
Sad But True
Fade To Black
Orion
One
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Battery
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
Encore:
Creeping Death
The Four Horsemen
Seek & Destroy
So overall...a long hot helluva day. Only complaint...way way too crowded by around 6pm. The cool thing, I didn't see one fight or any drunk assholes. Just a cool bunch of metal heads.
A lot of people just came to this first day for Metallica. The next day had about half the crowd (which was still impressive) and honestly the hang that day was way more enjoyable because of it. Not sure which day I would say had a better lineup. Both had some favorites as well as some cool new bands I discovered. Saw bits of quite a few other sets this day, but I evidently didn't snap any shots (day 2 also made it easier to get some great up close photos)
Click on this link to go to the MostPeopleAreBlank Facebook page. Click join/like/follow to keep up with any new posts. Day 2 review coming soon. Rock on and Enjoy - Paul
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