“I had a dream last night,” Metallica’s James Hetfield said. “We were playing the Sphere.
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“So cool.”
Indeed, it was, James. Yet, it wasn’t a dream. It was very much real. And there were 17,000-plus metalheads in attendance to experience it with you — as well as drummer Lars Ulrich, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo — as the biggest Bay Area band of all time kicked off its sold-out multi-month Life Burns Faster concert residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas over the weekend.
Metallica knocked it out of the park during the first show on Thursday (Oct. 1), performing a blistering two-hour-plus set that featured 16 songs, ranging from longtime concert staples (“Seek & Destroy,” “Creeping Death,” “Master of Puppets”) to more obscure, seldom-played numbers (“Now That We’re Dead,” “…And Justice for All”).
Then Metallica returned on Saturday with an all-different set of tunes on the second half of this “No Repeat Weekend,” a format that fans have gotten used to — and deeply cherished — during the past three years of the group’s M72 World Tour. (The format will change, presumably to a more hits-concentrated setlist, once the tour begins playing one-night stands in cities in 2027.)
The two nights fit together like two halves of the same musical experience — as opposed to two distinct and unrelated concerts — which is most certainly how the band intended it come across.
And, not surprisingly, the group’s massive metal sound meshed wonderfully with the Sphere’s massive video graphics displays, which are shown on the vivid and clear 16K resolution wraparound LED screen that dominates the interior of this 366-foot-tall building.
The dramatic graphic displays change with every single tune. That translated into numerous visual highlights on Night 1 as viewers were transported into an old cathedral church with each of the players featured in stained glass windows for “Now That We’re Dead” (a seldom-played gem from 2016’s excellent “Hardwired… to Self-Destruct”); spent time with a winged Godzilla-sized beast as it rose out of the ocean to (somehow) stalk the Las Vegas Strip in “The Call of Ktulu” (the epic instrumental from 1984’s “Ride the Lightning” that the band once again dedicated to late, great bassist Cliff Burton); and boarded a train for a wild ride through cities they have played around the world during “Wherever I May Roam” (from the band’s 1991 self-titled outing, aka “The Black Album”).
The visuals were overwhelming at times — which is a Sphere signature — and the sheer size and motion of what is going on is so different than anything one experiences in the real world that the experience can be dizzying and disorienting. Even Hetfield recognized that the visual displays might be leaving a few folks blue around the gills.
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“Raise your hand if you’ve already thrown up,” he remarked at the conclusion of “Ride the Lightning” on Night 1.
Besides the only-at-Sphere visuals, one of the other things that differentiates these Vegas shows is that the crowds were significantly less energetic than what one typically sees at a Metallica gig. It was amazing to look around and the majority of folks sitting, fairly subdued, for large stretches of the performances.
Yet, that’s not a band issue but rather a venue issue. I’ve seen shows here by Dead & Company, Eagles, U2, Phish and now Metallica and can that it’s absolutely normal for music fans to be relatively subdued at Sphere concerts, as the massive visual displays lull attendees into an almost trance-like state. That’s great for zoning out to colors and images, but it also serves to deeply reduce one’s ability to connect with — and pay attention to — the performers.
This opening weekend of the “Life Burns Faster” residency came to a close in spectacular fashion as Metallica powered through a mighty one-two punch of “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “One,” both of which were set to graphic depictions of the horrors of war, and then followed up with the all-time classic “Enter Sandman.”
Night 1 setlist:
1. “Battery”
2. “Creeping Death”
3. “Now That We’re Dead”
4. “Sad but True”
5. “The Shortest Straw”
6. “Wherever I May Roam”
7. “The Day That Never Comes”
8. “…And Justice for All”
9. Kirk and Rob Doodle
10. “Nothing Else Matters”
11. “The Call of Ktulu”
12. “Lux Æterna”
13. “Ride the Lightning”
14. “The Memory Remains”
15. “Seek & Destroy”
16. “Master of Puppets”
Night 2 setlist:
1. “Blackened”
2. “Fuel”
3. “Leper Messiah”
4. “Devil’s Dance”
5. “72 Seasons”
6. “King Nothing”
7. “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)”
8. “The Outlaw Torn”
9. Kirk and Rob Doodle
10. “The Unforgiven”
11. “Orion”
12. “Hardwired”
13. “Whiskey in the Jar”
14. “For Whom the Bell Tolls”
15. “One”
16. “Enter Sandman”
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