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| James Hetfield of Metallica (Photo: Chase Center) |
40 years of Metallica descended onto San Francisco this week and culminated with two one-off shows at the Chase Center last night (Friday) and tomorrow (Sunday). Throughout the past week, Metallica-related events have occurred at various venues throughout the city to celebrate the band's 40th anniversary, but last night was the first actual Metallica show at the Chase Center where tickets were only available to members of the Fifth Member Metallica fan club.
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| Metallica's 40th anniversary @ the Chase Center (Photo: Chase Center) |
And boy did the fans show up! Flying in from all around the world, it was honestly hard for me to say if this was more of a celebration of the band or of their dedicated fans who assembled for this special night! And what a night it was! The show kicked off promptly at 9pm with a short retrospective video from the massive monitors hung directly above the stage at center court and fittingly, the band launched into their very first song, from 1982, "Hit the Lights". For the next two hours, the band would wind through their 40 years of history, picking at least one song from every album.
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| Lars Ulrich & Robert Trujillo of Metallica (Photo: Chase Center) |
For me, it was the period in the late 80's and early '90's where I found my love of Metallica, so as soon as the opening guitar notes of "One" rang out last night, I was in my element. "One" is such a classic Metallica song and I'd argue the first to truly show the band's song writing evolve from just pure hard rock, into more melodic songs with complex instrumentation.
Following "One" came "Sad But True" and "Nothing Else Matters" -- again, both tracks that resonated with me over 25 years ago and still sound as fresh as they did back then when I heard them for the first time.
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| Kirk Hammett of Metallica (Photo: Chase Center) |
The band sounded absolutely fantastic and from what I've read, you'll be able to watch the concert later this week on the Coda Collection streaming app and see for yourself what a truly remarkable band Metallica continues to be -- even after 40 years!
Thanks for reading and I hope to see you Sunday!
