Metallica ride the lightning on Night 2 in Phoenix after COVID-19 cut first show short

Even James Hetfield seemed to wonder whether he’d allowed himself sufficient time to recover from COVID-19 after cutting two songs from the opening night of Metallica’s No Repeat Weekend at State Farm Stadium in Glendale and rescheduling Night 2 from Sunday, Sept. 3, to Saturday, Sept. 9.

After crashing the gate with the reckless abandon of “Whiplash” from their seminal debut, “Kill ‘Em All,” and following with two thrash-metal classics from their second album, “Ride the Lightning,” Hetfield took a moment to address the reason they'd been forced to postpone.

Hetfield thanked the fans for coming back when he and his friends could “fire on all cylinders,” assuring them that “we hate putting on a show that ain’t 110 percent."

Then, he added, “I will ask for some help singing tonight. I’m still healing. I know you brought your voices with you, am I right?”

Metallica 2023 Night 1 setlist:Here's every song from the first concert at State Farm Stadium

James Hetfield's delivery was suitably fierce on Night 2 in Phoenix

As it turns out, he needn’t have worried.

His delivery was suitably fierce as he led his bandmates through more than two hours of headbanging classics in a performance it’s hard to imagine anyone viewing as less than 110 percent (unless you factor in the people who will always view most everything as disappointing).

They even did “Master of Puppets,” the iconic track from 1986 that was supposed to end the concert Hetfield ended early eight days ago, recently given a second lease on life on "Stranger Things" for kids who weren't alive in 1986.

If that song was exactly the crowd-pleasing triumph we all needed — especially Hetfield, but also the fans — the concert at large was a life-affirming testament to the uncompromising legacy of a band that, as their singer noted, has "been together for over 280 years."

Songs from Metallica's '72 Seasons' more than held their own

Metallica promised two completely different concerts in each city on a stadium tour in support of “72 Seasons.” Their first studio release in seven years, it’s a refreshingly brutal return to the thrash-metal genius of their earliest recordings.

And the three songs they did from that new album held up surprisingly well in the context of their most triumphant moments.

We're talking a set whose highlights ranged from those already mentioned to “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “Welcome Home (Sanitarium),” “Blackened” and the TKO that brought things to a finish — “One,” their vividly harrowing tale of a soldier severely wounded in World War I, and “Enter Sandman," whose opening riff is among the most iconic moments in the history of heavy metal.

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Metallica could be playing 'Whiplash' for another 20 years

Hetfield somehow effortlessly rose to the occasion when he perhaps should have been taking it easy and his age-defying bandmates made it feel like they could still be playing “Whiplash” for another 20 years or so.

How Lars Ulrich still drums like that at 59 is anybody’s guess. Kirk Hammett’s fleet-fingered, speed-metal flourishes are as inspired as they are impressive as showcased in one amazing guitar solo after another. And Robert Trujillo rocks that bass like the John Entwistle of thrash.

The intensity of their performance was especially impressive when you factor in the staging, an in-the-round design that relocates the Snake Pit to center stage with Metallica performing on a ring around those fans, quite often nowhere near each other.

The immediacy of bandmates interacting with each other can get a bit lost when you’re playing on opposite ends of a stadium from each other, but it never sounded disconnected.

You could see that in the circle pits, as fans responded to the no-holds-barred intensity of the performance in a way that made it feel like "Kill 'Em All" was still just something you were sharing with your friends on a crappy cassette tape.

How Metallica made the stadium staging work

Would I rather see them play that same exact set crammed together on a small stage in the kind of venue they were playing back in 1983 when “Kill ‘Em All” was redefining heavy metal for a whole new generation? Anyone who says they wouldn’t rather see that is just talking nonsense.

But they made the staging work.

Most fans watched the action unfold on circular video towers hanging from the ceiling while the bandmates made their way around their giant circle of a stage. The production was fairly minimal, mostly interesting video touches until they neared the end of the set.

The first significant use of pyro was on “Blackened,” the 13^th song of a 16-song set. And when they followed that with their take on the Irish traditional (as covered by Thin Lizzy) “Whiskey in the Jar,” giant black-and-yellow beach balls dropped into the audience, the way they had during "Seek & Destroy" on the opening night. That was fun, but chances are it’s not what people talked about as they left State Farm Stadium.

So often, stadium shows are all about the presentation. Metallica shows are still about the music, 40 years after they changed the course of heavy metal history with “Kill ‘Em All.”

There’s clearly something to be said for that.

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Five Finger Death Punch deliver a lethal blow

Metallica’s main support act, Five Finger Death Punch, were five songs deep in their performance when their singer, Ivan Moody, took a moment to encourage everyone to introduce themselves to the person sitting next to them and shake their hand.

Next year is a voting year, he said.

“My point is this: Before they start dividing us, I want you guys to remember today and I want you to remember your (expletive) neighbor," Moody explained.

"Are you with me? The next time our government tries to tell you how to think, you send them my way and you tell them I said we are all bad company.”

And with that, they dusted off their oddly faithful cover of Bad Company’s anthem of the same name.

Moody took another breather after crowd-surfing his way through “IOU” to reminisce about their early days in Arizona, playing OzzFest in 2003 and the Mayhem Festival a few years later.

“And if any of you were there, you know that we were playing on a concrete slab about 20 feet wide by 15 feet long,” he said.

“My point Is this. Look at how far we’ve come, AZ. And from Day 1, one of the greatest rock stations in this country has supported us. Make some noise for KUPD.”

Their set was loaded with songs that have blown up on the KUPDs of the world, from the single that started it all, “The Bleeding,” to last year’s “Welcome to the Circus.” It was an awe-inspiring show of force by one of modern metal's most successful bands.

Suicidal Tendencies replaced Ice Nine Kills in Phoenix

Suicidal Tendencies were a late addition to the bill, replacing Ice Nine Kills.

And frankly, they were such a better fit, you have to wonder why they weren’t there all along.

They may have come up on the hardcore punk side of the thrash scene, eventually viewed as a crossover thrash band. But they’re clearly kindred spirits in a way that goes beyond aesthetics.

Robert Trujillo, Metallica’s bassist, was in Suicidal Tendencies from 1989-1995.

Their current bassist, Tye Trujillo, is his son, with whom he shared the stage at State Farm Stadium when Suicidal Tendencies invited him onstage to joined them on a highlight of their first release, “I Saw Mommy…” (whose singalong chorus follows that ellipsis with a deadpan “And your mommy’s dead.”

Their lead singer Mike Muir was the only person onstage who actually appears on that first record, but he’s held the band together all these years and he still throws himself into entertaining the crowd with an intensity that hasn’t wavered in the 40 years since that first album hit the streets. We'd all do well to raise a Pepsi in his honor.

Metallica 2023 setlist: Every song in Phoenix on Night 2

Here’s every song Metallica played at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023:

“Whiplash”

“For Whom the Bell Tolls”

“Ride the Lightning”

“Dirty Window”

“72 Seasons”

“If Darkness Had a Son”

“Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” (preceded by “Miller Time,” an instrumental doodle by Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo).

“You Must Burn!”

“The Call of Ktulu”

“The Unforgiven”

“Wherever I May Roam”

“Master of Puppets”

“Blackened”

“Whiskey in the Jar”

“One”

“Enter Sandman”

Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @EdMasley.

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