More than four decades into their career, Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Metallica are invested in making their concerts more than just another rock show.
That was certainly the case Friday night, when the foursome tore through the first of two nights at U.S. Bank Stadium in front of a near-capacity crowd. The band played on a massive racetrack-style stage, complete with a pit in the center for the most devoted (and deep-pocketed) fans and eight looming towers that held both speakers and video screens. (In a recent Pioneer Press interview, bassist Robert Trujillo said it took physical training to perform on the stage and after seeing it in person, well, he clearly wasn’t kidding.)
On their current tour, which hits just 22 cities around the world over the course of 18 months, Metallica are offering completely different set lists each night, with the idea fans would attend both shows. Friday, they touched on various parts of their long career, with a focus on their most recent album, last year’s “72 Seasons.”
Metallica was the first rock band to play the then-new Vikings stadium in 2016 and cranked up the volume so high, civilians from up to a mile away reported hearing it inside their homes. They returned to Minneapolis two years later for a more traditional show at Target Center.
Friday, they managed to capture both the nervous energy of their USBS debut (which was only one of a handful of shows they played that year) and the more polished professionalism of the 2018 follow-up. Lead singer James Hetfield was already red-faced and sweating two songs in and, later, only semi-jokingly said he was “grumpy.”
But if there were any real tensions among the famously fractious bunch, they weren’t obvious Friday night. They sounded terrific from the show-opening “Creeping Death” and beyond, and hit a particularly heavy groove during the likes of “King Nothing” and the Grammy-winning title track of their latest record. (Hetfield’s voice tended to get swallowed up by the noise early on, but the sound crew had figured out a better balance a few numbers in.)
The band’s age — the members are between 59 and 61 years old — did hang over the proceedings, with Trujillo calling the band “senior citizens” while introducing an instrumental jam with guitarist Kirk Hammett and Hetfield noting the “100 years” the guys have been together.
To be clear, they have slowed down a bit, and the show had several built-in breaks with ominous instrumentals booming as drummer Lars Ulrich’s drum kit disappeared into the stage, with another appearing farther down the way. That allowed him to play in front of each part of the crowd that surrounded the in-the-round stage, but it also gave the rest of the guys the chance to catch their breath.
But, really, the only real issue was that with two nights, that meant fans heard big ones like “Seek and Destroy,” “Nothing Else Matters” and “Sad but True,” but not “Enter Sandman,” “One” and “The Unforgiven” unless they show up Sunday night.
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