After all this time, Metallica still refuses to be predictable.
Celebrating its 40th anniversary as a band with the first of two special fan club-only shows at San Francisco’s Chase Center on Friday, Dec. 17, the Bay Area heavy metal legends made good on their promise to throw a proper hometown birthday bash.
Despite having multiple albums’ worth of greatest hits to their name, the band did their best to deliver a setlist that favored deep cuts and fan favorites to their diehard faithful. That meant no “Enter Sandman” or “Master of Puppets,” but instead rarities like “Trapped Under Ice,” from 1984’s “Ride the Lightning” — Metallica’s first performance of the track in nearly a decade.
But long before the quartet of James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo even took the stage, the Thrive City concourse outside of the home of the Golden State Warriors — which Metallica helped christen when the venue first opened in September 2019 — resembled a meeting of the United Nations. Groups of fans wrapped in the flags of their home countries, representing locales as far-flung as Chile, Germany and Japan, queued in long lines for limited-edition Metallica merchandise and took turns snapping photos and swapping stories.
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Baylee Serafinski, 34, said she flew in for the concert that day from San Diego.
“I’ve been a fan of Metallica since high school, but I’ve never had a chance to go to a show,” she told The Chronicle, “When I got the chance to buy tickets for their 40th anniversary shows, I just had to do it! Their music just has an energy that takes you to the highest highs and I think that seeing them live for these shows is going to be an unforgettable experience.”
Indeed, the air was thick with high expectations as Friday night’s concert got underway.
Perhaps that’s why the opening efforts of comedian Dean Delray and DJ Lord of Public Enemy failed to resonate with Metallica’s most hardcore supporters. Attempted jokes from Delray like asking if there were any “anti-vaxxers in the house” (proof of vaccination was mandatory to attend) and observing that “Omicron sounds like a Metallica song” were all in incredibly poor taste, which led to Delray being booed from the stage before the night’s true entertainment began.
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The palate cleanser was instantaneous as the four members of Metallica took the stage to their customary intro music, “Ecstasy of Gold,” though this time enhanced with narration from “Aquaman” star Jason Momoa. Then it was onto opener “Hit the Lights,” the first song Hetfield and Ulrich ever wrote and recorded together. From there, the setlist would continue chronologically, touching on cuts from all 10 of the band’s studio albums.
Though a few of their best-known songs, including “One” and “Nothing Else Matters,” were performed, Friday night’s show was more about dusting off rare gems.
Both shows (a second sold-out fan club-only concert featuring a wholly unique setlist is planned for Sunday, Dec. 19) is the culmination of a Metallica San Francisco Takeover that kicked off on Thursday, Dec. 16, and included everything from branded whiskey tastings to intimate shows around the city performed by side projects of various band members as well as a few of their children.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed even presented Ulrich and Trujillo with a special declaration marking Thursday “Metallica Day” in the city.
“When you talk about San Francisco,” Breed said at the press conference, “you talk about cable cars and then you talk about Metallica.”
It was solely the latter that inspired Elise Kerns, 32, to travel from Denver, Colo. Marking her 29th time watching the band, after first catching Metallica perform when she was just 9 years old, Kerns said she simply had to be there to help the group celebrate this milestone.
“Metallica live is hands down the best experiences of my life,” Kerns said. “They’re unrivaled. The euphoria I feel when I listen to their music is my favorite feeling. They make me want to live life to the fullest.”
Part of that allure likely stems from the fact that unlike other bands who have been in the game for four decades, Metallica truly does not seem like a group that is on their last lap.
“After 40 years, there are still firsts,” Hetfield told the crowd after treating fans to the long-awaited live debut of “Fixxer” from 1997’s “Reload” midway through Friday night’s show.
Following the band’s final song of the night — another deep cut, “Spit Out the Bone” from their most recent album, 2016’s “Hardwired … to Self-Destruct” — Metallica skipped the encore many expected and instead closed their set by addressing the crowd and tossing out several custom guitar picks.
Each member got a chance to speak, and when Ulrich got his turn at the microphone, his message was appropriately loud and clear.
“Thank you for being beautiful,” he said. “Thank you for representing from all of these different places and countries. I’ve said this before, but our best years are still come. We’re just getting started, motherf—rs!”
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