Remember we had the "You direct the next MetOnTour video"? You guys had some great ideas, and I have been using a few of them here and there, during the AUS/NZ tour. I will definitely keep them, and some of the ideas might show up in future videos too. Thanks to all the people that submitted ideas! I owe ya :-)With the above said, we now have our first video from Down Under. "How do they put together the setlist?", was one of the questions, and in Sydney on Jan 23rd, I followed the process. It took Lee, Metallica's production assistant, four tries before he got Lars to sit down and put the setlist together. YOU can now follow the process. The video is about 18 minutes long, and it ends with an excellent version of Frantic. ENJOY

Good morning, Metallica is back in the USA. A short break, before the tour starts up again. We should see/hear some rehearsals before then though. I will keep you updated. I got some good news & some bad news. The good news is that the vids from the Australia & New Zealand will start pouring in. The bad news is that we will not have any Aus/NZ vids prior to the Sydney Jan 23rd show. Not to go in to too many details (Lars will give you all the dirt in an upcoming video though, of course) but we had our equipment FUCK US UP, and messing up the tapes from those shows. Sorry about that, but rest assured, the ones we have from the other shows, will make it all up. Back to editing...MOT

"Let's cut the shit, right! We haven't been to Australia for six fucking years, and we are fucking retarded, because being in Australia is King Shit! We had the best time I ever had on tour, and I mean that", said Lars thirty minutes after walking off stage in Perth, the last show on the Australia/New Zealand 2004 tour. I think the rest of the band, and crew, agrees too. We all had a blast, and it better not be another 6 years, RIGHT???

Last show on the Big Day Out tour, we are right now in Perth at the Claremont Showgrounds. The band has been in Perth for a couple of days (flew to Perth right after the Adelaide show). Check this shit out, if you went to City Beach, right outside Perth, yesterday you would see three band members out in the water trying to surf! Yes, that's right, we had the Metallica circus invading City Beach. Normally we would have Kirk & Rob hitting the waves, but this time around James was there too. We had Jake "The Snake" Patterson as a surf instructor. I asked how James was doing, and his answer was "He got up on the first wave, and had a sick ride". NUFF SAID, GOOD ONE PAPA HET!Another Check this shit out..When the crew (and a few other bands on the BDO) flew in, we had an "interesting" experience. When we were about to land in Perth, suddenly the plane started to rise again, away from the airport. The pilot said "as you probably realise, we steared away from the airport and decided not to land. It seems like we have something malfunctioning and we are contacting the engineers right now. Hopefully we will do another try in a few minutes". That sounds fucking nice! Everyone got pretty quiet on the plane, and we all had the longest 5 minutes of our life. After 5 minutes the pilot got back on the speakers and said "We have now located the problem and everything is ok, we are now ready for a safe landing". wow...Talk to ya in a bit...MOT

Last show on the Big Day Out tour, we are right now in Perth at the Claremont Showgrounds. The band has been in Perth for a couple of days (flew to Perth right after the Adelaide show). Check this shit out, if you went to City Beach, right outside Perth, yesterday you would see three band members out in the water trying to surf! Yes, that's right, we had the Metallica circus invading City Beach. Normally we would have Kirk & Rob hitting the waves, but this time around James was there too. We had Jake "The Snake" Patterson as a surf instructor. I asked how James was doing, and his answer was "He got up on the first wave, and had a sick ride". NUFF SAID, GOOD ONE PAPA HET!Talk to ya in a bit...MOT

Adelaide, that was a Big Day Out. I don't know about you, but my feet hurt, that was something special, right? Right after the show, James told me that "sometimes it is hard to hear the crowd, but then when I take out my earplugs, it fucking hits me, HUGE." This was a fun show", he continues.

Another huge day out, we are in Adelaide at the Royal Adelaide Showgrounds. Only two more shows to go on this tour, before a short tour break. The sun is shining right now, but still, we got (The) Darkness on stage. What kind of trouble can we get into today? Don't know yet, but I will find out for you...

We're out of here, thank you Melbourne, we had a blast! Today's show at the Myer Music Bowl was also an outside show, but still almost inside, and still, very intimate. The venue reminds me of an amphitheatre in the US. In the front row, we had the Australian Clubberz. - "We should play in Australia more often" said James, and based on the response, FUCK YES THEY SHOULD. Also, the band and crew want to send out a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Zach Harmon, the fucking man, the president, the everything in Metallica! "Don't have your birthday on a show day", said Lars to the crowd, while Zach got pied on stage by EVERYONE, including band & crew. Right after that, the crowd sang Happy Birthday to Zach.Tomorrow is a non-show day, speak to you then.

Alrighty then, another day at the office? We are still in Melbourne, tonight Metallica's own show at the Myers Music Bowl. We are joined by The Datsuns and doors should open around 6pm. Yesterday was a day off, Rob & Kirk went on another surf trip. If you saw a caravan of mini vans, it might have been the Metallica Surf Circus coming in to town. They were with some of the best male surfers in the world, but when they arrived in Torquay, they hooked up with some of the top female surfers in the world - The Roxy Girls. After visiting the Quiksilver HQ, they went on to the beach for some surf action. When I got back from the trip with Rob & Kirk I met James outside his hotel. He told me he went to a motorcycle museum. He bought some posters and other cool memorobilia.

One down, one to go here in Melbourne. Next one will be a Big Day In at the Maya Music Bowl. Tomorrow, some unnamed band members will go surfing, others will not. If you see them out in the water, watch the fuck out! The setlist remained the same as the last Big Day Out, seems to be working pretty good with the guys & the crowd.