San Francisco’s newly built Chase Center was flooded with die-hard fans this past weekend for opening night, many wearing their original S&M shirts from twenty years ago. They were there for Metallica, performing two huge arena shows in SF in celebration of their iconic album with the San Francisco Philharmonic turning twenty.
Fans held up a banner with Michael Kamen’s picture, in honor of the deceased conductor and composer who was there the first time around. The concert’s first half was conducted by Edwin Outwater, with San Francisco Symphony’s Michael Tilson Thomas coming in later.
On their Hardwired tour, Metallica entered to a recording of Ennio Morricone’s “The Ecstasy of Gold”—but this time around, they had the entire symphony bring the track to life. The band went on to play everything from Metallica favorites “Master of Puppets” and “Enter Sandman” to Prokofiev with Thomas and longtime friend Lars Ulrich, who gave musical history lessons between songs.
For a show with so many moving parts, it came off as if they do it every night. See our pix from the performance below.