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Thread: Metallica and Lang Lang at the Grammys

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    Metallica and Lang Lang at the Grammys


    Last edited by Firth; 02-01-2014 at 10:13 AM.

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    Member progholio's Avatar
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    was it just me or did anyone else find Lars Ulrich smashing on his high hat for what I suppose was for the purpose time keeping just annoying as hell?

    Dave Grohl completely schooled his ass on how to play drums like a beast on the Grammys, too bad the whole QOTSA performance got squashed by Delta Airlines ending credits.

  3. #3
    geez, that wasn't a stupid waste of time at all

    it was completely necessary and absolutely required Lang Lang on piano. sadly, they forgot to include Yo Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman. that really would've rocked

    ah... the Grammys(R).

    somehow, that managed to avoid the good qualities of both of those acts

    thanks for sharing it, though - i was wondering what it would be. i did think the visuals behind, which clearly relate to the new movie, were quite effective and eerie.

    K
    Last edited by Polypet; 01-29-2014 at 12:18 PM.
    And the code is a play, a play is a song, a song is a film, a film is a dance...

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    Member Wounded Land's Avatar
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    Yikes. Where to begin. First off, I am a big Metallica fan (...And Justice for All is one of my favorite albums of all time), but they just can't bring it anymore. Thrash is a young man's game.

    Second, I really hate it when classical or jazz artists appear on shows like this. They never allow them to do their own thing. I guess they assume (probably rightly) that people will just change the channel if they have listen to some guy play the piano for five minutes...but if that's the case why have them on at all? It doesn't "elevate" the show at all to have a classical or jazz musician play something totally different from what they usually do. Also, are there people who listen to this and say "Wow, I didn't know that classical music rocked so hard?" I don't get it.

    Third, man that just didn't work! Rhythmically they are coming from such different places (to say nothing of other aspects of the music). And the silly piano flourishes? What did that add to the tune? File under Failed Experiment, IMHO.

    NP: Dream Theater Black Clouds & Silver Linings

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    Moderator Sean's Avatar
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    That was a dumb song to begin with, so....

  6. #6
    And the winner is.....Jethro Tull!!!!

    So Metallica did this song at the Grammy's nearly twenty years ago and while I think it's a pretty good tune, don't they have anything more recent they could have played? It wasn't really enhanced by Lang Lang either. Pretty meh version of the song.

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    Progdog ThomasKDye's Avatar
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    I listened to the soft section and thought, "It's not THAT bad" (except for the bit at 3:07-3:10 when it sounds like someone quickly grabbed Hetfield's nuts and then let go) … and then the thrash section started and I wondered what the hell they were thinking.
    "Arf." -- Frank Zappa, "Beauty Knows No Pain" (live version)

  8. #8
    Clash of the titans?

    I like the song, but I don't like this performance. I think I hear some wrong notes in the guitar and the vocals aren't as strong either.

  9. #9
    Lang Lang is named after a famous panda bear,yes?

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    Member No Pride's Avatar
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    It was certainly pretty cheesy, but Lang Lang's Liberaceisms aside, I sort of got a kick out of the "Emerson meets Metallica" aspect of it. Which is not to say I'd ever want to watch or listen to it again.

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    I didn't know what you were referring to for the cut off until I watched the end of the Grammys on DVR. That was a shame, sort of an intense ending for the pop oriented affair. Wow that group rawked. Could only hear Lindsey Buckingham in the beginning.

    I'm not a real Metallica follower so that performance was new for me. Overall the Grammys were pretty diverse. The real Beatles Grammy party will be held Feb 9, the 50th anniversary of the first USA performance in a coliseum in DC.

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    Connoisseur of stuff. Obscured's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Firth View Post
    The real Beatles Grammy party will be held Feb 9, the 50th anniversary of the first USA performance in a coliseum in DC.
    Thought that was tonight out west; the broadcast of it airs on Feb. 9.
    (?)

    I enjoyed the Metallica Lang Lang performance. (Metalanglangca?) Just glad that spot wasn't given to Bieber or Miley.
    "Henry Cow always wanted to push itself, so sometimes we would write music that we couldn't actually play – I found that very encouraging." - Lindsay Cooper, 1998
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    Studmuffin Scott Bails's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Obscured View Post
    I enjoyed the Metallica Lang Lang performance. (Metalanglangca?) Just glad that spot wasn't given to Bieber or Miley.
    Could have been cool if Miley was twerking Hetfield while he sang. \m/
    Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally

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    Connoisseur of stuff. Obscured's Avatar
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    I meant the entire Metalanglangica spot, not Miley or Justin replacing LL and joining Hetfield & Co. Although it would be interesting seeing Miley getting violated by the entire band.
    "Henry Cow always wanted to push itself, so sometimes we would write music that we couldn't actually play – I found that very encouraging." - Lindsay Cooper, 1998
    "I have nothing to do with Endless River. Phew! This is not rocket science people, get a grip." - Roger Waters, 2014
    "I'm a collector. And I've always just seemed to collect personalities." - David Bowie, 1973

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by progholio View Post
    was it just me or did anyone else find Lars Ulrich smashing on his high hat for what I suppose was for the purpose time keeping just annoying as hell?
    Definitely noticed it towards the beginning. I found it an odd mix where that would be the standout. If he's going to play like that, bring that thing WAY down. It was overtaking everything!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Obscured View Post
    Thought that was tonight out west; the broadcast of it airs on Feb. 9.
    (?)

    I enjoyed the Metallica Lang Lang performance. (Metalanglangca?) Just glad that spot wasn't given to Bieber or Miley.
    Technically true about the airing of the Beatles performance.

  17. #17
    Like Chalk & Cheese. It didn't work & sounded a total mess!!!!

  18. #18
    Coming to the defense. I thought it worked great. Never mind that the guitar tech didn't bother to tune the guitars to the piano and Lang Lang was off by a beat during the opening section. The Prokofiev-style cadenza before the double-kick session was killer. The biggest surprise was that the piano was kept so high in the mix all the way through. I enjoyed it because the piano part kept spicing up the harmonies at key moments. "One" has a more wildly complex structure than anything I've seen performed at the Grammys maybe ever. Lang Lang navigated it and relished it, and in the process he actually loaned Metallica a big dollop of energy that they wouldn't have had without him.

    Lang Lang is an extremely talented guy with a refreshingly open mind. He truly is astoundingly technically accomplished. The toughest repertoire flows from his fingers like it's no big deal. He gets slammed in the classical world for not having enough depth, but listen to his latest recording of the Prokofiev 3rd Concerto and Bartok 2nd. It doesn't dethrone Argerich and Anda, but I think you'll come to the conclusion that comparing Lang Lang to Liberace is a disservice to both.

  19. #19
    Lang Lang, as i've said elsewhere, is a brilliant musician and like Itzahk and Yo Yo, who i name checked above, very open minded to even consider doing that.

    he was certainly the most interesting one to watch. i just feel, as someone who sometimes really likes Metallica and who loves Lang Lang, that it really didn't do either of them any favours musically. that said, kudos to him for being game, you now. i agree that he (ironically) gave them some sorely needed energy that they were lacking

    Liberace he certainly is not. Apples and Oranges. Lang Lang is a quite serious classical player and, imo anyway, quite excellent.

    K
    And the code is a play, a play is a song, a song is a film, a film is a dance...

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    one word: SHITE!

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    Quote Originally Posted by undergroundrailroad View Post
    Coming to the defense. I thought it worked great. Never mind that the guitar tech didn't bother to tune the guitars to the piano and Lang Lang was off by a beat during the opening section. The Prokofiev-style cadenza before the double-kick session was killer. The biggest surprise was that the piano was kept so high in the mix all the way through. I enjoyed it because the piano part kept spicing up the harmonies at key moments. "One" has a more wildly complex structure than anything I've seen performed at the Grammys maybe ever. Lang Lang navigated it and relished it, and in the process he actually loaned Metallica a big dollop of energy that they wouldn't have had without him.
    "One" is a pretty impressive composition, IMO. It tries to be epic and succeeds.

    But this performance only serves to illustrate why the level of "complexity" in a song is utterly insignificant if its foundation isn't well prepared and executed. I'm not really a fan of Metallica but I was "rooting" for this to be good on a night where everything was pretty much either singer/songwriter at piano, hip hop/divas, or old rock stars thrown together with young rock stars. The problem was that it sounded disjointed and there was almost was no sonic marriage except for a few accents towards then end. Very much came off as "gimmicky" and in the end the song paled to what it was to begin with.

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    Quote Originally Posted by undergroundrailroad View Post
    Coming to the defense. I thought it worked great. Never mind that the guitar tech didn't bother to tune the guitars to the piano and Lang Lang was off by a beat during the opening section. The Prokofiev-style cadenza before the double-kick session was killer. The biggest surprise was that the piano was kept so high in the mix all the way through. I enjoyed it because the piano part kept spicing up the harmonies at key moments. "One" has a more wildly complex structure than anything I've seen performed at the Grammys maybe ever. Lang Lang navigated it and relished it, and in the process he actually loaned Metallica a big dollop of energy that they wouldn't have had without him.

    Lang Lang is an extremely talented guy with a refreshingly open mind. He truly is astoundingly technically accomplished. The toughest repertoire flows from his fingers like it's no big deal. He gets slammed in the classical world for not having enough depth, but listen to his latest recording of the Prokofiev 3rd Concerto and Bartok 2nd. It doesn't dethrone Argerich and Anda, but I think you'll come to the conclusion that comparing Lang Lang to Liberace is a disservice to both.
    Kurt, the only reason I referenced Liberace was because of Lang Lang's flamboyant gestures, but I suppose Liberace never had a monopoly on that sort of thing. I did notice the out of tune-ness (particularly when Hammett was soloing) and wondered why that would happen. I'm sure the piano was tuned on the day of the show and I assume a piano tuner is going to try to get a piano as close to A 440 as possible, but perhaps there's factors that prevent that from happening. Guitar players generally use an electronic tuner that's easy enough to set to A 440, but whatever happened, it didn't help the performance. I did enjoy LL's cadenza; he's obviously a very accomplished pianist. And like I said, it was fun to hear anything remotely like Keith Emerson playing on a Metallica tune.

  23. #23
    Out standing in my field trespass's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Polypet View Post
    geez, that wasn't a stupid waste of time at all
    Not sure I understand why the funny face after "stupid waste of time". What's funny about it?

    I thought it was great and watched it a few times on DVR last night because I found it to be rather amazing to see Lang Lang w/ Metallica. As someone mentioned it was Emerson meets Metallica and thank god for a guy like Lang Lang who looked like he was doing his best Emerson impersonation.

    I thought I would get on this board and people would be saying how cool it was. Instead just a bunch of negative opinions. Who cares if it was technically flawed or not, it was frickn' awesome and I loved the spirit behind it. If you want to see a plastic POS performance you should of seen KISS play at the NHL stadium series on Saturday night. Now that was the most plastic, uninspried, phone it in performance of all time. Gene Simmons looks like a complete retard with his "uniform" on and to have watched them play "Rock n' Roll All Night" probably damaged me for life. Metalica and Lang Lang were only about a billion times more entertaining.

    For what it's worth, the best concert I saw last year was Metallica's movie in IMAX 3D. Metallica is still a very relevant band, and at least they don't resemble no talent action figures like KISS does.

  24. #24
    Member Paulrus's Avatar
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    So I decided I need to see what all the fuss is about...

    ...aaaaaand the Grammys took it down.
    I'm holding out for the Wilson-mixed 5.1 super-duper walletbuster special anniversary extra adjectives edition.

  25. #25
    >Not sure I understand why the funny face after "stupid waste of time". What's funny about it?

    it wasn't funny, it was sarcasm (my bad) - it should have read: Geez, that wasn't a stupid waste of time at all .

    honestly, i certainly don't begrudge anyone who loved it. personally, as a fan of both Lang Lang and Metallica (at times), i thought this was not reflective of what either artist does best. not that it had to be... but to me it came off as gimmicky (and a gimmick i've seen too much of as a classical music lover - look it's "Lang Lang with Metallica!") and, you know, unrequired. I had higher hopes for it going in than what it turned out to be. For me (IMHO, YMMV, ETC) it was a waste of both my time and theirs. So i was a little bitter, sorry

    I'm sure there were people who thought, like yourself, that it was great. Frankly, i didn't care for most of the other musical "events" which occurred there either, though i'm sure plenty of people loved them too. Nothing against anyone for that. It should be known that i am a very diverse listener and totally appreciated much of the music on display that night on it's own merits. I just happened to know the Metallica song they played and thought this performance was not the best example of it. Definitely, i feel like Lang Lang added both needed energy, as mentioned above, and a great attitude to the proceedings. That wasn't enough for me to feel it was a worthwhile use of their talents, though.

    I think one of the only things i really enjoyed that night was the performance of "Get Lucky", ironically a song i can usually take or leave. It was pretty kick ass.

    > I thought it was great and watched it a few times on DVR last night because I found it to be rather amazing to see Lang Lang w/ Metallica. As someone mentioned it was Emerson meets Metallica and thank god for a guy like Lang Lang who looked like he was doing his best Emerson impersonation.

    Yeah, this is also not, for me, an endorsement, though i do understand that a lot of people like Emerson in that mode. I love his music dearly - his thoughtful compositions and more finessed playing had an impact on me. But whereas i can appreciate the hyperactive concert Keith and saw them twice back in the day, the histrionic sort of bombastic "progressive" rock keyboard thing, especially with the faux classical bent (for show mostly) bores me to tears. But that's just me, again YMMV (and other letters to that effect). I can't handle it. When i see someone of Lang Lang's calibre doing this (and he is on a different level than even Emerson in classical terms), i think "how fun!" and i'm happy for him. He's very cool to take it on with such gusto and surely it helps his profile to be on stage with Metallica. God bless them all. They're having fun and making music. I've nothing at all against that.

    Musically, however, for me, it was sort of a "stupid waste of time" (and talent, i might add). The song itself suffered, and Lang Lang, though probably the best thing about the performance, wasn't given a chance to shine as he could've. That said, the cadenza was indeed monstrous, if overwrought, and Kirk's high hat sounded fabulous.

    I actually also did think the visuals worked nicely. From what i've seen of the movie, which is likely very cool, they served the promotional purpose well. It all had a sort of epic feel to it, as per the film, so it worked in that sense.

    Again, more power to you for liking it. I'm sorry if my little snarky ironic commentary upset you in any way. Forgive my novella in response to your post but i wanted to make my point clearer. I thought it was musically a waste but i agree that there were most definitely plenty of worse acts on the show that night.

    And for the record, i really can't stand KISS (KISS lovers please ignore that comment)

    Taco salad,

    K
    Last edited by Polypet; 01-29-2014 at 12:20 PM.
    And the code is a play, a play is a song, a song is a film, a film is a dance...

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