TVD Live Shots: Metallica at Lincoln Financial Field, 5/12

Heavy metal giants Metallica brought their “WorldWired” tour to Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia last Friday laying claim that they are still the best at what they do—music that’s faster and heavier than any other band in the business.

Metallica is one band that needs no introduction. They are perhaps the biggest metal band on the planet and their name is synonymous with thrash and metal. Through their 35+ year career, Metallica has been truly a pioneering force in music, almost solely responsible for bringing the metal genre to mass audiences in the ’80s and ’90s. And in 2017, they have only gotten better with age.

Touring for the first time since 2009, Metallica’s “WorldWired” tour kicked off in Baltimore, MD last Wednesday and was followed by Friday’s night two in Philadelphia. The band is touring to promote their 2016 album, Hardwired… to Self-Destruct, their first studio effort in eight years and the band’s tenth studio album, released as a double vinyl set on Blackened Recordings.

For this tour, the rumor is that the band has somewhere around 40 production trailers worth of stage equipment traveling with them. After witnessing in person the gargantuan stage setup, I don’t doubt it for a second. Employing four larger then life video boards as the band’s backdrop, the sheer size of their stage is staggering and stretched as high as the stadium is tall. Changing the mood with color and tone, the video boards display rolling footage—live coverage, war footage, and a few twisted portraits of bandmates, James, Kirk, Lars, and Robert as depicted on Hardwired…’s album art.

Although the level of stage production is one of the biggest I’ve seen in recent years, the catwalks, video boards, and pyrotechnics were certainly not the largest thing is the arena. The mutual admiration and respect that Metallica shares with their fans overshadows everything else that’s going on. I think that’s what we all love most about Metallica. For a lot of us, the band was our first taste of what heavy metal could be when arranged and orchestrated as beautifully as they have done since their inception. Metallica may be most metal head’s first and biggest love.

Playing for just over two hours, Metallica’s delievery was as stunning as I’ve ever seen. Philadelphians certainly got a dose of hard rock that they’ll not soon forget and the band has set the bar dramatically higher than imaginable for arena rock shows in 2017.

Danish rockers, Volbeat served as the evening’s opener and got things started with a quick, heavy set. Rocking their hit “The Devil’s Bleeding Crown,” the crowd seemed to rock right along with the band whose stage set-up kept the band in the confines of a boxing ring.

VOLBEAT

Metallica Setlist:
Hardwired
Atlas, Rise!
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Creeping Death
The Unforgiven
Now That We’re Dead
Moth Into Flame
Wherever I May Roam
Halo on Fire
Motorbreath
Sad but True
One
Mater of Puppets
Fade to Black
Seek & Destroy
Battery
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman / Frayed Ends of Sanity

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