The typical T-shirt breakdown at a Metallica live performance goes one thing like this: 94 % Metallica shirts, 2 % Iron Maiden, 2 % Black Sabbath, 1 % Slayer, 1 % Slipknot and .00001 % Britney Spears/Taylor Swift. (You all the time have that one man being ironic along with his shirt alternative.)
The very fact that there have been way more button-ups and polos than live performance T’s to be seen within the Metallica crowd on Wednesday evening — most likely by a ratio of 100:1 — clearly underscored that the largest Bay Space band of all time wasn’t taking part in considered one of its common exhibits at Chase Heart in San Francisco.
No, the hard-hitting quartet — that includes vocalist-guitarist James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo — had arrived to carry out a large company gig throughout Saleforce’s Dreamforce convention. This Dreamfest live performance, which doubled as a profit for UCSF Benioff Youngsters’s Hospitals, was astronomically priced, with tickets beginning (!) at $1,500 a pop after which rapidly shifting up from there in a way that resembled a Richter scale.
Dreamfest all the time will get large names acts — with previous members together with Foo Fighters, Pink Sizzling Chili Peppers and U2 — and this yr’s fandango not solely featured mighty Metallica however rising pop star Benson Boone, who carried out throughout the road from Chase on a stage erected at Bayfront Park. The units passed off at roughly the identical time, giving followers the selection between Hammett guitar solos and Boone backflips.
In different phrases, the selection was fairly easy:
Metallica.
The band — which was taking part in its third Dreamfest gig, following bookings in 2011 and 2018 — handled the techies to a “greatest hits” fashion present that ran some 90 minutes and included a dozen songs.
Performing in-the-round, with concert-goers lined up on every of the 4 sides of the comparatively no-frills stage, Metallica got here out the gate with a head of steam and hit the gang with a ferocious model of the “Ride the Lightning” favourite “Creeping Death.”
“Sing it,” Hetfield demanded of the gang. “Did you bring your voices?”
Sure, the attendees introduced their voices. However the issue is that “Creeping Death” isn’t “Enter Sandman,” so many of those informal followers — who’re in San Francisco to attend the convention — most likely didn’t know the phrases.
Certain, it’s unavoidable that this stuff have a little bit of a “corporate gig” sort really feel to it, however that didn’t cease anybody from having a grand time — and it definitely didn’t maintain Metallica from placing its all into the efficiency.
“We are hear to have some fun tonight,” Hetfield remarked. “So, join us.”
Ulrich, particularly, gave the impression to be pushing for greatness from the primary swing of the drumstick till the final observe of the evening, powering the band via such marquee numbers as “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “Fuel” and “Wherever I May Roam.”
Hetfield was in sometimes good humor, goofing with the gang and remarking that he was inquisitive about what was occurring on the opposite Dreamfest stage.
“Hey, is that Benson Boone guy on right now?” Hetfield mentioned of the younger pop star, who had simply packed Chase Heart on his personal earlier within the month. “I want to see it. I want to see the backflip.”
He even advised one lighthearted joke on the viewers’s expense.
“How many tech guys does it take to screw in a light bulb?” the singer requested. “None. They call a tradesman.”
Primarily, he simply stored proper on rocking — identical to he does at each gig, be it a stadium present on the group’s ongoing M72 World tour or a company gig for Silicon Valley varieties — sounding nice on the microphone as he crooned via “Nothing Else Matters,” “The Memory Remains” and others.
Hammett was pure mastery on guitar all through the night, actually turning heads along with his leads on “The Unforgiven” and “Master of Puppets,” whereas Trujillo thundered via the groove in all the correct methods.
Followers had been ready all evening for “Enter Sandman” and so they’d lastly get it as a closing quantity, which prompted one of many worst mosh pits of all time — mainly like three guys operating round and infrequently virtually bumping into one another — and sending everybody again to their motels with smiles on their faces.
Metallica setlist:1. “Creeping Death”2. “For Whom the Bell Tolls”3. “Fuel”4. “The Memory Remains”5. “The Unforgiven”6. “Sad but True”7. “Wherever I May Roam”8. “Nothing Else Matters”9. “Seek & Destroy”10. “One”11. “Master of Puppets”12. “Enter Sandman”
