An entire acoustic Metallica concert? It sounded just weird enough to work and let’s be honest with no in-person live music to experience this was also a another much needed concert alternative. What made this livestream different from the start was the fact that they were raising money for the charity they started called All Within My Hands. Pretty cool.
After 30 minutes of promos for the charity they unveiled the Metallica HQ setup where they would be performing. The band was surrounded by four video walls divided into several hexagons that projected live video of folks who were willing to cough up some extra dough to essentially be there in the room. The band was very interactive with the people on the walls so for some of these lucky people the extra money was well spent.
They started out with a severely reworked acoustic version of “Blackened,” which pretty much set the tone for how a majority of their songs would translate to an acoustic treatment. I must say I have never seen anyone shred on a 12 string acoustic guitar like Kirk Hammet did during “The Unforgiven.” Wow. “Nothing Else Matters” was predictably the song that sounded most similar to the regular version and by no means was that a bad thing. A touching moment was when Lars & James brought in their sons to play percussion for “All Within My Hands” from St. Anger.
After a short intermission they ditched the acoustic instruments to play an electric batch of songs. Continuing on the theme of weird was a version of “Disposable Heroes” that was barely recognizable and an awesome version of “House of the Rising Sun.” A Metallica album that does not get enough credit is Load so it was great to see a balls-out showing of “Wasting My Hate.” Despite “Enter Sandman” being played so much during its peak I’ll be damned if I do not get riled up during the rare time when I do hear it so this was a fitting way to end the show.
SETLIST: Blackened, Creeping Death, When a Blind Man Cries, The Unforgiven, Now That We’re Dead, Turn the Page, Nothing Else Matters, All Within My Hands, Disposable Heroes, House of the Rising Sun, Waste My Hate, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Master of Puppets, Enter Sandman
