METALLICA Plays Career-Spanning Set At First 40th-Anniversary Show At San Francisco's Chase Center (Video)

METALLICA played the first of two shows celebrating its 40th anniversary last night (Friday, December 17) at San Francisco, California's Chase Center.

While in-person tickets were available exclusively to members of the group's Fifth Member fan club, METALLICA fans across the globe were able to view the performance live from home or on mobile via Amazon Music, Amazon Music's Twitch channel, and Prime Video (with or without Prime on-demand viewing membership). The show — along with tomorrow night's (Sunday, December 19) gig at the same venue — will then be made available exclusively at The Coda Collection/Prime Video channel for subsequent viewing.

As of a week ago, limited tickets for Friday night's show were going for between $757 and $1,457 via Ticketmaster, while tickets for Sunday's concert were going for at least $582, with several higher-priced tiers.

The setlist for the December 17 concert was as follows:

01. The Ecstasy Of Gold (intro)
02. Hit The Lights
03. Creeping Death
04. Trapped Under Ice
05. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
06. Orion
07. The Shortest Straw
08. One
09. Sad But True
10. Nothing Else Matters
11. King Nothing
12. Fixxxer (live debut)
13. Breadfan
14. No Leaf Clover
15. Frantic
16. The Day That Never Comes
17. Spit Out The Bone

"We are grateful that you have been along with us for 40 years, and we are so happy that you're here still after all this time," frontman James Hetfield told the audience at one point during the set. "It still blows my mind. Because we were created to do this. I know it."

He also confirmed, after a montage was shown that featured some of METALLICA's former members, that they would not be making guest appearances at the show. "Hopefully you got to see [the former METALLICA members] live at some point in your lives," he said. "We were blessed to have them in the band."

The 40th-anniversary shows see METALLICA return to Chase Center for the first time since the September 2019 "S&M²" concerts that also served as the venue's grand opening. It was impossible not to notice that fans from more than 60 countries traveled to the City by the Bay and completely took over San Francisco for "S&M²" weekend. That outpouring of positive vibes from around the world inspired METALLICA to invite those Fifth Members back — and this time, in addition to the two shows at Chase Center, METALLICA is curating other live music and comedy events, Blackened Whiskey tastings, and so much more all around the city during the long four-day weekend of celebrations starting on Thursday, December 16.

Formed in 1981 by Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, METALLICA has become one of the most influential and successful rock bands in history, having sold nearly 120 million albums worldwide and generating more than 2.5 billion streams while playing to millions of fans on literally all seven continents. The band's several multi-platinum albums include "Kill 'Em All", "Ride The Lightning", "Master Of Puppets", "… And Justice For All", "Metallica" (commonly referred to as The Black Album),"Load", "Reload", "St. Anger", "Death Magnetic" and "Hardwired... To Self-Destruct", released in November 2016 and charting at No. 1 in 32 countries.

METALLICA's awards and accolades include nine Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, multiple MTV Video Music Awards, and its 2009 induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. In June of 2018, the band was awarded one of the most prestigious musical honors in the world: Sweden's Polar Music Prize.