While in Shanghai I saw three very different concerts. Metallica was surly the highlight.

Yesterday I went to see Metallica in the sold out Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai. It was the first concert ever the band gave in China. Since the chinese fans had to wait 30 years for that, ticket demand was so high that they had to add a second concert a day later. The concert was amazing, they played over two hours with encore. That the frontman James Hetfield just turned 50 was absolute not noticeable. My personal highlight was “Nothing else matters”, when everybody was holding up their cellphone flashlights (lighters were banned inside the stadium).

A while back I went to a classical concert playing the music of japanese composer Joe Hisaishi at the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center. He is famous for making the music for many well known animes (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, My neighbor Totoro…).

I also went to Jamiroquai. Although it was also a very good concert, the stadium he played in was only half sold out. Guess he’s not that popular here in China, as most of the audience were foreigners.