The average T-shirt breakdown at a Metallica concert goes something like this: 94 percent Metallica shirts, 2 percent Iron Maiden, 2 percent Black Sabbath, 1 percent Slayer, 1 percent Slipknot and .00001 percent Britney Spears/Taylor Swift. (You always have that one guy being ironic with his shirt choice.) The fact that there were far more button-ups and polos than concert T's to be seen in the Metallica crowd on Wednesday night
Amy Poehler welcomed her good friend and fellow Saturday Night Live alum Kristen Wiig to her Good Hang podcast, and somehow the conversation turned to a scenario in which Wiig joins Metallica and makes them a "quieter" band. At one point during the episode, Poehler brought up Wiig's singing talent, and asked her if she was ever interested in pursuing music professionally. "I would love to do an album, a record," responded Wiig, "but I don't even know how to get started." She then turned straight into the camera, and added, "Can you weigh in on the comments on this? ... How do you get into the music business?"
Another super fan, who proudly displays his Metallica-themed tattoos, talked about being so depressed as a teenager that only discovering Metallica saved him from suicide. He said he felt as if the band's front man and co-founder, guitarist and lead singer James Hetfield, who has been open about his own mental health struggles, was speaking to him directly through the song Fade to Black, which addresses suicidal feelings of hopelessness and despair.
I embarked from Lower Manhattan with Rob Caggiano (of Volbeat and Anthrax fame), Michael Alago (legendary A&R rep behind Metallica and White Zombie), and my buddy Dimitri, a photographer covering the event for another media outlet. It was a three-hour drive seeded with stories, laughs, and a growing buzz you could sense in the air. We rolled into Amagansett around 4 p.m., finding a pre-show scene already electric: fans, media, VIPs, and hopefuls - everyone drawn to this one-night-only spectacle.
It happened outside Long Island's Stephen Talkhouse, under a 500-capacity tent, where the band ripped through a 13-song set loaded with classics. They also paid tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, with Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo jamming "Crazy Train" for their nightly "doodle." "This reminds us of the club days," James Hetfield told the crowd, as Rolling Stone points out. "Getting hot and sweaty and up close and personal."
The corporate Salesforce conference Dreamforce has named Metallica as its headliner for the big concert they have every year, and Benson Boone will play too, but the bigger news may be that Dreamforce is moving to mid-October. If you follow the legacy metal band Metallica these days, you likely know the current iteration of the band never meets a corporate promotion deal they don't like. Though to be fair, the once-SF-based band also does a lot of charity work.
I'm not going to confirm anything, because there's nothing to confirm. But I'm not going to deny it, because we're all such fans of this venue. It's something that we're considering, [but] nothing is etched in stone or green-lit.
All Within My Hands was established in 2017 by the members and management of Metallica and is dedicated to creating sustainable communities through workforce education, the fight against hunger, and other critical local services.
The Department of Defense faced a copyright issue after posting a video highlighting drone capabilities set to 'Enter Sandman' by Metallica, requiring the video to be removed.