Metallica at the TD Banknorth Garden.
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Metallica played at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston on January 18th, 2009 for their World Magnetic tour. I ordered tickets a few months ago as a bundle deal, with which I received two tickets, two Death Magnetic CDs, and two codes to download digital copies of the show afterwards. The TD Banknorth Garden has a maximum capacity of 19,580, and from what I could see, there weren’t many empty seats, so the total attendance was probably close to that number. While there, I took a few photos with my iPhone.

There were two opening acts, The Sword and Machine Head. The set was 18 songs, which represents (by my count) only 15% of Metallica’s original songs, and only 12% if you count the Garage Inc. album, which was only cover songs.

1. That Was Just Your Life
2. The End Of The Line
3. Harvester Of Sorrow
4. For Whom the Bell Tolls
5. One
6. Broken, Beat And Scarred
7. Cyanide
8. Sad But True
9. …And Justice For All
10. All Nightmare Long
11. The Day That Never Comes
12. Master Of Puppets
13. Battery
14. Nothing Else Matters
15. Enter Sandman
16. Stone Cold Crazy
17. Hit The Lights
18. Seek and Destroy

Amazon’s purchasing process was so easy that it’s scary. First, you download the Amazon MP3 download software which handles the downloads outside of the browser and also imports your downloads into iTunes automatically. Second, you find the song you want on Amazon’s site, and click “buy MP3″ and you’ll be prompted by your browser to download or open a “.amz” file which you open with your Amazon downloading software. Depending on your connection, about 10 seconds later you’ll have a shiny new 256kbps DRM-free MP3 of the song you wanted, and it’s available in iTunes right away!

Most songs are only 89 cents a pop, and albums are only $8.99. You can’t beat the price, and since I only rip CDs to my computer as soon as I get them and then quickly relegate them to storage, it’s about time for something this simple. This is a great way to buy songs one at a time, but like I’ve said before, I probably won’t stop buying CDs or complete albums altogether.

With these supposedly efficient and fantastic services at my disposal, why do I still buy CDs? It’s something to do with the tangibility of an actual album, the fresh, printed smell between the pages of the insert and the detailed artwork. Many times technology misses something in the translation. There is definitely something missing in the online music business. Although it’s rare that I actually listen to the original CD I buy, I have never downloaded a song from a (legal) music distribution service.

When I pay for a song, I normally like to have other songs that go with it. One song from an album isn’t enough. One song is not the whole original work of art produced by the artist. Many people claim to want only one song from a band, stating that the rest of their songs suck. To those people I say, “Ok.” They can have what they want, but to me, I want the whole thing. The online music services do offer full albums for download, but it’s just not the same. You don’t get something tangible, or even something you can actually see. Until I can teleport an album minted by some robotic assembly line directly to me after purchasing it online, it’s likely I won’t support the online music industry.

So back to my original question of whether CDs are obsolete for music. I don’t think they are…yet. The compact disc a medium for storing information is just plain slow and bad. Perhaps the next generation of albums will be stored onto something flash-based, or maybe not. It’s definite that analog forms of storage (LP, 8-track, tape) are definitely obsolete for today’s uses of music. You can’t possibly expect to rip a good sounding music file from a vinyl disc. Everything’s digital, and it’ll stay that way, barring any unforseen apocalyptic events. But up to that day when we lose all sources of power, and cockroaches rule the world, I’ll continue to buy the “obsolete” CD.

So I ordered some new guitar strings last week, so I could start playing guitar again. It was a long battle with the dumb company, but they finally came in, and I have 4 sets, so I won’t have to deal with them again.

Anyway, I’ve forgotten a lot of stuff, but some of it I remember. I’ve started playing songs like “Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica, and “Creep” by Radiohead again without much difficulty. I’ve also started to learn “Lucky” by Radiohead, and I have down all the chords already. I’ll probably be working on some other songs too, since I usually have nothing to do.