METALLICA played the first of two shows celebrating its 40th anniversary last night (Friday, December 17) at San Francisco, California's Chase Center.
While in-person tickets were available exclusively to members of the group's Fifth Member fan club, METALLICA fans across the globe were able to view the performance live from home or on mobile via Amazon Music, Amazon Music's Twitch channel, and Prime Video (with or without Prime on-demand viewing membership). The show — along with tomorrow night's (Sunday, December 19) gig at the same venue — will then be made available exclusively at The Coda Collection/Prime Video channel for subsequent viewing.
As of a week ago, limited tickets for Friday night's show were going for between $757 and $1,457 via Ticketmaster, while tickets for Sunday's concert were going for at least $582, with several higher-priced tiers.
The setlist for the December 17 concert was as follows:
01. The Ecstasy Of Gold (intro)
02. Hit The Lights
03. Creeping Death
04. Trapped Under Ice
05. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
06. Orion
07. The Shortest Straw
08. One
09. Sad But True
10. Nothing Else Matters
11. King Nothing
12. Fixxxer (live debut)
13. Breadfan
14. No Leaf Clover
15. Frantic
16. The Day That Never Comes
17. Spit Out The Bone
"We are grateful that you have been along with us for 40 years, and we are so happy that you're here still after all this time," frontman James Hetfield told the audience at one point during the set. "It still blows my mind. Because we were created to do this. I know it."
He also confirmed, after a montage was shown that featured some of METALLICA's former members, that they would not be making guest appearances at the show. "Hopefully you got to see [the former METALLICA members] live at some point in your lives," he said. "We were blessed to have them in the band."
The 40th-anniversary shows see METALLICA return to Chase Center for the first time since the September 2019 "S&M²" concerts that also served as the venue's grand opening. It was impossible not to notice that fans from more than 60 countries traveled to the City by the Bay and completely took over San Francisco for "S&M²" weekend. That outpouring of positive vibes from around the world inspired METALLICA to invite those Fifth Members back — and this time, in addition to the two shows at Chase Center, METALLICA is curating other live music and comedy events, Blackened Whiskey tastings, and so much more all around the city during the long four-day weekend of celebrations starting on Thursday, December 16.
(Source: www.blabbermouth.net)