Metallica’s concert in Bucharest sparked a wave of reactions online, after Robert Turcescu published an extremely critical message about the band’s performance. His comments were followed by hundreds of reactions, most in defense of the American formation.
Robert Turcescu: “I left at half-time. I was also sorry, but mostly forced”
In a post published on Facebook after the concert, Robert Turcescu stated that he left the event before the end, claiming that the band’s performance was below expectations.
“Shame on you, Metallica, retire! I’m half gone.” I felt pity, but mostly strength“, wrote Turcescu.
He criticized both the sound quality and the instrumental performance of the band members.
“Apart from the set design, everything was a disaster. Bad sound and musicians who can’t keep the rhythm right…”Turcescu also said.
The only member of the band appreciated by the journalist was the soloist James Hetfield. “Paradoxically, Hetfield seemed the only one still fit on stage,” he commented.
Turcescu stated that he attended the concert by invitation and claimed that if he had bought tickets, he would have filed a complaint about the quality of the show.
“To be clear: I listened to Metallica, I grew up with Metallica, I played Metallica songs. But in concert they are ordinary bocci, good luck with the studios and marketing. Shame, well, go to retirement.” the journalist also stated.
Journalist Liviu Popescu jumped to the band’s defense
Turcescu’s message caused strong reactions online, and among those who responded was the journalist Liviu Popescu. “I read Turcescu’s miserable post. About the Metallica concert. The man had suddenly become a music critic”, Popescu wrote.
He argued that audiences don’t go to Metallica concerts for technical perfection, but for the emotional charge the band’s music has for generations of fans.
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“We know that Hetfield and the boys are 60+ and at that age you don’t play blues or soul, but thrash metal. Yes, you don’t have the voice of 25 years old, nor the fingers from then. But at Metallica concerts you come for something else. Something that Georgescu’s slaves will never understand”the journalist continued.
In his message, Liviu Popescu talked about the sentimental connection that many fans have with the band’s music. “You come because Metallica means the thread of your life, it means the first teenage song, the first girlfriend, the first beer, the first hangover, the first emotion. It means a matrix in which we grew up this cool generation, not the Georgist one. Otherwise I would leave Tâmaie like Turcescu“, he wrote.
“Metallica is a human life”
Liviu Popescu continued with a post full of nostalgia, evoking personal memories related to the band’s music.
“In 1991, when I was listening to “Nothing Else Matters” on a Turkish radio cassette player, in a high school balcony, and I kissed my then-girlfriend, I would never have thought that I would film them at a concert in Romania.” he told.
The journalist also stated that the image of the band goes beyond the idea of a simple live performance.
“Metallica is a human life and an accumulation of generations. It is eternal, it has been playing for 45 years, it will play for at least ten more years and it will dominate the world for another 100 years after that,” he written by Popescu.
Ironies in the online environment
The topic generated numerous comments on social media. Some netizens agreed with the comments regarding the sound and the difficulty of holding a metal concert at the same intensity after decades of career.
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Others mocked Turcescu’s position. “If I remember correctly, Turcescu was also criticizing the New Year’s concert in Vienna, or rather the conductor. What can you do with him, this man is good at everything”, one user wrote.
Another comment referred to the band’s involvement in charity projects in Romania.
“The Turks are offended that Metallica donated to Oanai Gheorghi’s hospitalu”, commented another netizen.
Metallica’s concert at the National Arena marked the band’s fifth return to Romania and reconfirmed the public’s huge interest in events of this type.
According to the organizers, the tickets sold out in record time since last year, a sign that the demand far exceeded the available capacity. The tens of thousands of spectators present at the stadium turned the evening into one of the biggest musical events ever hosted in the country.
