Makeup concert goes well for Masters of Puppets

The Metallica tribute band Masters of Puppets was scheduled to perform at Pala Casino's Infinity nightclub on Oct. 3, but that evening a water pipe broke and flooded the Infinity room so the concert planned for later that night was cancelled. Masters of Puppets and Pala Casino rescheduled, and the band performed at Infinity on Feb. 20.

It was perhaps appropriate that Masters of Puppets' first concert at Pala Casino was a successful second attempt. The band was unaware that Pala is part of Greater Fallbrook and also unaware that original Metallica guitarist Dave Mustaine has lived in Fallbrook, but Metallica transitioned smoothly after Kirk Hammett replaced Mustaine as the lead guitarist.

Masters of Puppets isn't necessarily from the Dave Mustaine era or the Kirk Hammett era – the band members all use stage names associated with present and past Metallica members and the Masters of Puppets guitarist goes by Kirk Mustaine.

The bassist uses the professional name Cliff Jason Trujillo to recognize the Metallica contributions of Cliff Burton, Jason Newsted, and Robert Trujillo. James Hetfield has been the lead vocalist and guitarist since Metallica was formed in 1981 and Lars Ulrich has been Metallica's only drummer, so the tribute band counterparts use the names Harley Hetfield and Napster Ulrich.

"There's no better comeback in the world," Harley Hetfield said. "Metallica is the greatest band in the world."

The band obtained its name from the 1986 Metallica album Master of Puppets, whose cover features a cemetery full of white crosses. Throughout the Infinity concert, the video screens on the sides of the stage kept the image of the white crosses, and four white crosses were on the stage. Masters of Puppets opened with the song "Creeping Death" and preceded that song with a video of a man walking through a cemetery of crosses.

The content of Metallica's songs is known to almost anybody who attends a Metallica tribute band concert, so for the fans from outside Greater Fallbrook who attended the Masters of Puppets performance the multiple memorial crosses likely had no impact. However, a term for a large number of deaths is megadeath and Dave Mustaine formed the band Megadeth after Hammett became the new Metallica guitarist.

For those with sufficient knowledge of Greater Fallbrook, the multiple memorial crosses created not a mental image of massive death associated with thrash metal but rather a mental focus on the fact that Dave Mustaine was one of Metallica's original members. This could be – figuratively rather than a theme of thrash metal violence – a double-edged sword; orienting thought to Dave Mustaine fails to give full credit to Metallica's Kirk Hammett era but such recollections of Metallica's initial guitarist also facilitates a tribute for the entirety of Metallica's existence.

"Creeping Death" was the first of the 15 songs Masters of Puppets played during the concert which lasted 114 minutes, including the three-minute video introduction before the band members went on stage. By the time Masters of Puppets concluded the concert with "Seek and Destroy", the rescheduled appearance proved to be as successful as the post-Mustaine Metallica.

"We're just happy we get to come back and entertain the people who missed the show, "Harley Hetfield said.