I was at the concert for the first night of filming

I was at the August 17th show in Edmonton, on the floor.
This was the first of four, eventually five, concerts that were filmed for this movie.
And Metallica pulled out all the stops when it came these shows. They brought out all their old stage pieces from tours past and used them all in one night.
They had their old center stadium snakepit stage out again and they roamed all over it for two hours straight.
Tonight wasn't just a Metallica concert, it was a Metallica show!
A giant Justice statue is built and explodes. You Ride The Lightning with giant Tesla coils and an electric chair shooting off massive arcs of electricity.
Giant glowing crosses rise from the stage and dense amounts of dry iced smoke fill the lower part of the stadium during Master.
The whole night a half dozen giant coffins shaped LCD TV/Laser/every colour known to man lights, blazed in every direction. These were from their Death Magnetic tour, and these coffins moved all around the stadium giving everyone on every level an extremely entertaining show.
I think about a dozen huge projection screens get lowered at times throughout the night. Especially during the long lead up into One.
Scenes of war and a probably fairly accurate sound levels pounded the sounds of helicopters and the thunder of guns.
Fire and explosions so big that the heat made people all over the stadium wince back simultaneously.
The amount of fireworks they used were probably as much as the fire marshal would allow.
On four sides of the stage there were three story tall, multiple hydraulically hinged, light and laser arms, that moved around.
I learned afterwards, as I could not see from my vantage point on the floor, but the stage was a constantly changing lights/TV display and motion sensitive to where the band where moving and synchronized to their playing.
Seriously they brought out all their toys for these five shows.
As the show progressed, things started to 'break down'. Actors playing repair crews came out to inspect various parts throughout the show. And increasingly things started to 'fall apart'. Staring with minor glitches with technicians coming out to fix things with flashlights and fire extinguishers.
Finally all the high tech show equipment starts to suffer a 'catastrophic meltdown' during the outro of the always a crowd pleaser, Enter Sandman.
Stuntmen falling from rafters, massive explosions and electricity crackling. Lights and lasers flashing. Giant fires burst up, the hydraulic stage arms start swinging uncontrollably, and finally all the lights going out.

There are 'technical delays' as the crews rescue the injured and technicians try to get everything up and running.
James comes out with a flashlight, using a tiny PA to explain that all the fancy lights and show is now 'broken'. All the while stagehands, actors and stuntmen are trying to get things running again.
So James then suggest that they Hit The Lights and the house lights come on.
They rock it with just the house lights through to the same ending to every Metallica concert, Seek and Destroy.
And coming out at the very end, a giant toilet rises. Complete with a giant knife pointed out of it.
And spray painted with the words "Metal up your Ass!!"

Finally after banging out the last notes, Lars picked up the mic and tells the audience that this was the first night of filming for this movie.
Then it took the band at least fifteen, twenty minutes to completely leave the stage.
They took their time kicking black inflatable Metallica beach balls that were falling from way over head.
Maybe 3,4,500? of various sizes, dropped down from above out into the crowds.
I got one!
They were waving, interacting and thanking the fans. All the while throwing solo cups full of picks and sticks to adoring fans.
These guys love their jobs, and it's not hard to imagine why.
It was two hours of hot, sweaty, ear ringing, blinding, sensory overload.

I don't know what the final product will be like, but it is two hours worth of concert footage filmed by very fancy looking 3D cameras. Crews were walking, hanging, on booms and lots of other places, filming all night.

Metallica has put out some pretty good documentary and concert films before. And now this 3D movie should be quite interesting.
Whatever the final product is, I'm sure it will be both entertaining for both the casual and hardcore fan.

This site here has the setlists for the five nights filmed.
http://www.setlist.fm/setlists/metallica-3bd680c8.html

August 17-27 shows in Edmonton and Vancouver.
The Monday August 27th show was added on at the last minute for filming of additional footage. Tickets were sold the morning of for 1$ each, on a first come first serve basis. The money was given to charity, I believe.

Rock on \m/ \m/