(LR) Metallica’s Robert Trujillo, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett perform onstage as Metallica Presents: The Helping Hands Concert on December 16, 2022. (Photo: Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images for P+ and MTV)
Metallica have just lost their long-running legal battle against Lloyd’s of London, with a California judge clearing the insurance market company of any financial losses resulting from the band’s forced postponement of six 2020 South American shows due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But just a day after announcing that disappointing verdict, Metallica were in good spirits, returning to the stage and giving back at the intimate Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles for their third fundraising event, the Helping Hands Concert & Auction.
Frontman James Hetfield expressed his excitement at being able to play for Metallica’s die-hard fans again, saying, “We’ve been together forever for 200 years. We are so thankful that we do what we do.”
Hetfield and co. even treated the crowd on Friday to the live debut of a thrashy new track from Metallica’s COVID-delayed album 72 Seasons, finally due out in April 2023. “We thought this was such a special gig that we would play ‘Lux Æterna’, the first single from [72 Seasons]. We’re playing it live here for the first time. How about that?” Hetfield asked rhetorically. A cymbal snafu prompted the band to stop and restart the song, but the 7,100 ecstatic concert-goers – including Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello and Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum – sang – hardly seemed to bother or even notice it.
While “Lux Æterna” was the only preview of 72 Seasons that night, the event, which benefited the band’s All Within My Hands foundation, offered a few other surprises. Metallica performed their first-ever covers of Thin Lizzy’s “Borderline” (“Phil Lynott wrote that song about my life,” Hetfield joked) and the UFO deep-cut “It’s Killing Me,” the latter at the request of drummer Lars Ulrich. “We keep doing covers because it’s fun,” Hetfield chuckled.
Then “new friend” St. Vincent – who did in fact cover Metallica’s “Sad But True” on last year’s all-star covers compilation The Metallica Blacklist – strutted out to record another Black song, “Sad But True.” jamming album power ballad. Also joining during the half-acoustic/half-electric concert was San Francisco folk singer/multi-instrumentalist and former AWMH intern Avi Vinocur, who played mandolin and acoustic, electric, and 12-string guitars. (“All that stuff we don’t know how to do,” Hetfield remarked.)
The story goes on
Jimmy Kimmel hosted Friday’s fundraiser and to thunderous applause proclaimed Metallica “one of the greatest bands in the history of the world,” while Robert Downey Jr. and Tony Hawk also made surprise appearances to sing the band’s praises and express their own fanbase . Rising hard rocker Greta Van Fleet opened the show.
Since Metallica founded All Within My Hands in 2017, the charity has raised $12 million to help fight food insecurity, provide disaster relief and build sustainable communities through employee and community college programs. This year’s AWMH memorabilia auction, which began on December 5th, will run until December 20th; 100% of the proceeds from the auction and benefit show go directly to people in need. Friday’s concert was streamed live via Paramount+ and can be rewatched in full on Monday, December 19th.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 16: James Hetfield of Metallica performs on stage at Metallica Presents: The Helping Hands Concert (Paramount+) at Microsoft Theater on December 16, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images for P+ and MTV)
What’s next for Metallica, after the court case and the pandemic, on April 27, 2023 — two weeks after the much-anticipated release of 72 Seasons, the band’s first studio album since 2016 — they’ll be back in stadiums playing their two-year-old M72 world tour They will play two gigs in each city, with completely different setlists for each night. The full setlist for their Helping Hands concert on December 16th is below.
Acoustics:
Blackened
the Unforgiven
Border
It kills me
Whiskey in the jug
Break (Introduced by Hetfield with, “We’ll be right back, take a quick break, then come back and kick some metal ass”)
Electrical:
The Call of Cthulhu
Harvester of Sorrow
holier than you
everything in my hands
creeping death
Enter Sandman
Lux Aterna
Nothing Else Matters (with St. Vincent)
Seek
Read more on Yahoo Entertainment:
Follow Lyndsey on Facebook, TwitterInstagram, Amazon