Metallica launched its Life Burns Faster residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas over the weekend, drawing roughly 17,000 fans a night for concerts the band itself described as a full-scale 'takeover' of the city. Beyond the shows, the event included a giant pop-up store, a specialty VIP bar called the Black Box, a Metallica museum, and even a blood drive, turning the Las Vegas Strip into what amounted to a temporary Metallica theme park.
"I had this dream last night that we were playing the Sphere," singer-guitarist James Hetfield told the crowd on Thursday. "It was so cool. This is like a dream come true and beyond. ... After 45 years, there's still a lot more fun to be had."
The band performed two entirely different setlists across Thursday and Saturday as part of what they called a "No Repeat Weekend," spanning 30 songs total and leaning heavily on Master of Puppets — which turns 40 this year — and the Black Album. Thursday's show included "Battery," "Creeping Death," "Now That We're Dead," "Sad but True," "The Shortest Straw," "Wherever I May Roam," "The Day That Never Comes," "...And Justice for All," a Kirk Hammett and Rob Trujillo "Doodle," "Nothing Else Matters," "The Call of Ktulu," "Lux Æterna," "Ride the Lightning," "The Memory Remains," "Seek & Destroy," and "Master of Puppets." Saturday featured "Blackened," "Fuel," "Leper Messiah," "Devil's Dance," "72 Seasons," "King Nothing," "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)," "The Outlaw Torn," another Hammett/Trujillo "Doodle," "The Unforgiven," "Orion," "Hardwired," "Whiskey in the Jar," "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "One," and "Enter Sandman."
The Sphere's visuals included a virtual roller-coaster ride through New York, Hollywood, Stonehenge, and the Nashville record store Grimey's during "Wherever I May Roam," which caused real motion sickness for at least one attendee, prompting Hetfield to ask the crowd, "How many of you have already thrown up?" On Saturday, a moon-like orb bearing a spiky "M" grew in size and crashed down over the band during "Enter Sandman." Other standout imagery included H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu monster rampaging through the Strip during "The Call of Ktulu," a bombed-out church and fighter-plane cockpit view for "For Whom the Bell Tolls," and marching soldiers turning into skeletons during "One." Album artwork came alive as well, with a prison riot around Lady Justice for ...And Justice for All, an electric chair scene for Ride the Lightning, and charred debris for 72 Seasons. Not every segment landed the same way — "Sad but True" featured only disembodied hands with hammers and walking men, while "Orion" relied on standard concert truss lighting, and "Fuel" was performed without pyro.
Hetfield addressed the crowd after "Leper Messiah" on Saturday: "We are super grateful that all of you have taken the time, the effort, and the cash to show up here live to celebrate this very moment with us. We don't take it for granted." Opening Saturday's show with "Blackened," he also told fans, "Are you with us? We are Metallica, and so are you." He also joked Thursday, "For modern technology and old guys playing loud music, this is pretty fucking awesome."
Outside the Sphere, fans explored the pop-up shop's photo ops — including a recreation of the Ride the Lightning electric chair — and a replica of the Metallica Mansion garage where the band wrote Master of Puppets, complete with empty beer cans. VIP ticket holders could access the Black Box bar, featuring a "tuning room" where guests played Hetfield's, Hammett's, and Trujillo's actual guitars and posed with Ulrich's drums (no drumsticks allowed, per posted signs), a museum displaying late bassist Cliff Burton's instrument and handwritten lyrics behind glass, and a listening bar playing rare material, including the so-called "leaked Napster version" of "I Disappear." A Sirius XM broadcast was also scheduled at the Black Box.
Among the fans in attendance were New Yorkers Robert Slayback and his son Jake, who missed several days of ninth grade to attend. "That's a good reason to miss class, right?" Robert said while waiting in line for the Black Box, noting that Jake was especially excited about an appearance by Metallica archivist "Spider-Dan." Fan Dave Leopold, part of a group that traveled from Chicago, Philadelphia, Indiana, and Minneapolis, said the trip was worth it: "It's hard for us at this age, in our 40s, with kids to be able to get out and do something like this. So we had high expectations. Everything we heard about the Sphere made it sound like it was going to be incredible, and [the show] exceeded everything. This was 100 percent worth it." Celebrity attendees included Jack White and Matthew McConaughey, while one fan reportedly wore a full Santa Claus suit on both nights while waving to the band from the "Snake Pit" in front of the stage. Metallica's Life Burns Faster residency is set to continue at the Sphere off and on for several more months.
Photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
