In my review of day one of the Orion Music + More Festival I forgot to mention one of the most important things – the festival is dedicated to/in memory of Metallica’s late bassist Cliff Burton. When Burton appeared on the short film the day before the crowd cheered. And James Hetfield (vocals/guitar) mentioned Burton a few times.

Sunday I slept in and than emailed and texted with friends. It was another gorgeous day so I walked down to the beach and put my feet in the water for a bit and then walked on the famous Atlantic City boardwalk. On the way there I saw some kind of Parthenon on Atlantic Avenue.

I stopped off for lunch again at the Wonder Bar. This time it was Ketel One and a salmon burger. The food there is much better than you’d expect from a joint like that. I had a difficult time getting my check so I was about 15 minutes late for Gary Clark Jr’s set.

The field was pretty empty again because it was only 3:00pm.

But the lines were long for the museum and crypt.

At the Fuel stage I could see that Gary Clark Jr. had the crowd swaying and bopping with his hard rock blues sound. He reminded me of Hendrix with how he made the blues very heavy.

After his set I went to the vendors and picked up two t-shirts for myself and one for a friend. The vendor of the purple shirt had some really cool shirts but I couldn’t buy all the shirts I wanted.

While drinking my root beer float I could hear the indie rock of Best Coast. The female lead singer seemed to be trying a little too hard. I don’t know if this was the best venue for them.

Earlier in the background at the Damage Inc. stage I could hear Landmine Marathon and later Torche – both bands were heavy on the Cookie Monster growls.

I saw a lot of Metallica t-shirts (tsk tsk) and I was noticing a lot of shirts for Volbeat. I overheard some conversations about them also. It seemed like this was the band to check out. They’re from Denmark and they are wonderful. A great sense of humor, they play great heavy metal but mix it up with Johnny Cash songs and pop songs like Dusty Springfield’s “I Only Want to Be With You.” I really enjoyed this band.

Next was the Orion stage and Eric Church, who is a foot-stomping, whiskey drinking, good ole boy. The music was country hard rock. He used the fire pots and smoke in his set. I enjoyed the music with the mix of country and hard rock with banjos and guitars but the lyrics did not do much for me.

Halfway through Church’s set I went to the Damage Inc. stage to see Sepultura, a metal band from Brazil. I had missed Suicidal Tendencies the day before and I didn’t want to miss another legendary thrash metal band from the 1980s. Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo used to play with Suicidal Tendencies so I also missed when he joined them for their set. Sepultura is a classic growling head banging metal and a very good time.

I went back to the great spot I had had the night before – leaning against the VIP fence – and waited for Metallica. There was a group of people hanging out next to me and who should walk up to them but a blonde woman and the guy I’d fallen in love with the day before. They were talking with them and I was trying not to stare but I couldn’t help it because I really fell hard and fast for this guy. He was even cuter than the day before. So once again internet – if you know this guy and he’s single, have him get in touch with me.

Metallica started their set pretty much the same way and after a short film about the album they played The Black Album. They did the same thing as the night before which is to play the album tracks from last to first.

Hetfield, Trujillo, Lars Ulrich (drums), Kirk Hammett (lead guitar) were again very happy to be there. Hetfield surrounded us with his love and we gave our love back. During “My Friend of Misery” Hetfield divided the field in two and had each side singing “ohs” in different melodies. When he was teaching the second half the first half began singing quieter and Hetfield motioned for us to get louder and when we did he just rocked back with a beatific smile and crossed his arms over his heart. Hetfield also has this adorable twinkle in his eye so no matter what he’s singing you can’t help but smile.

Trujillo did the spinning with the bass thing again and we got the lasers and fireworks and fire pots and lots of good music.

Again, you can see the set list at LiveMetallica.com, where you can also buy many Metallica live shows including this one.

By Carene Lydia Lopez