Metallica | photo by John Vettese for WXPN
Inside Metallica’s Philly takeover
The heavy rock icons spent Memorial Day Weekend at The Linc and around town, bringing out a cross-generational array of fans.
At the midway point of Metallica‘s opening concert of a two-night stand Philly, singer-guitarist James Hetfield gazed at the 65,000-something fans filling The Linc, and asked if anyone in the house was seeing them for the first time. An affirmative roar swelled from all sides; Hetfield tauntingly dubbed the newbies “Metalli-virgins,” asked “What took you so long?” and then, more earnestly, said “Welcome to the family.”
Oddly enough, these days “family” is a very apt way to describe the vibe of a Metallica concert. Not to say that it’s some kind of soft and wholesome metal show: the band is still up there raging through heavy riffs and blast-beats, accentuating their performance with dark and distressed projections, and their fans still love consuming their alcohol. But now you have a multi-generational mix, parents sharing the experience with their children — even grandchildren — leading them through the call-and-response moments and showing them the proper way to make the pinkie-and-index-finger devil horn salute. This audience is more conscientious, too, and you’re less likely to get in a brawl for distractedly bumping into a fellow fan. (Although, I definitely wouldn’t want to be that dude brazenly marching into the pit with a Cowboys shirt on. He got roundly booed at the very least, but that’s a whole other thing.)
In short, these are not the unruly fans that struck fear into the the hearts of city council people and South Philly Residents when Metallica played a free concert in the same sports complex in 1997; they’re a bit older, a little mellower, yet no less down for listening to loud music for hours on end. The band has grown in kind, aged like a fine bourbon you might say, tight and focused yet explosive as ever.
The Scene
Metallica’s two-date Philly takeover — which is how they’ve handled touring their monster 2023 album 72 Seasons, setting up shop in different markets for multiple days — hit Lincoln Financial Field on March 23rd and March 25th, making an optimal way for fans to spend their Memorial Day Weekend. The band paired up with Ice Nine Kills and Limp Bizkit on Night One, and Suicidal Tendencies and Pantera on night two. The concert was performed in the round, with a ring stage set up at the 50 yard line and the bands hooked up to wireless gear — with the exception of drummer Lars Ulrich, who rotated between a series of drumkits that would pop up at one side or the other of the ring throughout the night — that allowed them to literally run laps throughout the show, getting direct face time with fans at all sides. Above the ring, eight water-tower-esque structures loomed, wrapped in LED screens, projecting real-time footage backed with graphics, archival videos, and other visualizers.
The Fans
The Metallica audience itself deserves a moment of appreciation here. As one experiences at most stadium-size concerts, fans dress to impress, in one way or another. Vintage studded leather is broken out, new patches are sewn onto denim vests, band and tour t-shirts are carefully chosen. And some fans make an even bigger impression.
A viral video from night one shared by the folks at Crossing Broad shows an older gentleman in a Santa Claus outfit going off in the pit and crowd surfing to Limp Bizkit’s cover of “Faith” by George Michael…but wait, that’s Santa Rick, a regional guy who makes it his life’s mission to attend stadium concerts in Christmas attire. He rules, but isn’t unique to Metallica — he could be spotted last Summer at Foo Fighters at Hersheypark Stadium and Green Day at Citizens Bank Park, for instance.
But the person with the intricate, floral mosaic face paint that abstractly locked together to spell the name of the tour, M72? With eyes painted on top of his eyelids so when he closed his eyes there were more eyes? That’s a Metallica fan. See also the groups traveling from abroad, bearing their home country’s flag emblazoned with Metallica logos and artwork. Metallica devotees from Poland and Colombia caught up with photographers and one another at the south end of the field on night two.
And while this may or may not be specific to this fanbase, shoutouts to the people mixing it up in the pit with Lucha libre masks and hot dog costumes; we see your ridiculousness and are here for it.
The Openers
To generalize the vibe: night one was wet and theatrical, night two was dry and metal. Ice Nine Kills got the weekend underway Friday night with a set of high-octane screamo, accentuated with a ska horn section and a spectacle of horror movie props — from entrails to fake blood. Limp Bizkit took the stage as the clouds moved in above, and the skies opened up as they kicked into “Nookie.” The road crew dutifully covered up pedalboards and inputs with tarps, but couldn’t act quickly enough to save DJ Lethal’s mixer and laptop from the rain.
On Sunday, veteran SoCal thrashers Suicidal Tendencies took the stage to a warmly-received, heavily-played set. The only original member of the long-running band is vocalist “Cyco” Mike Muir, though the current lineup features Dillinger Escape Plan’s Ben Weinman on guitar, Jay Weinberg (son of Max) on drums, and bassist Tye Trujillo, son of Metallica’s Robert Trujillo (who played in ST from the late 80s through the 90s). An awesome moment happened during the iconic “Institutionalized” when dad popped up sidestage to pump his fists and cheer on his kid and the rest of his old band.
The opener with the greatest impact, though, was easily the confrontational Pantera which, speaking of high-profile pinch-hitters, now features Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde in the mix. 30 years on, imposing frontman Phil Anselmo still stalks the stage with intensity, screaming cuts like “5 Minutes Alone” and “Walk,” and the stadium teemed with spectators during their Sunday set. But sensitivity comes to the surface when the band honored bandmates who are no longer there: guitarist Dimebag Darrell, who was shot and killed onstage in 2004 while performing with the band Damageplan, and drummer Vinnie Paul, who died from heart disease in 2018. Everything Pantera does, Anselmo said, is for them.
The Main Event
The big draw, the selling point of Metallica’s M72 tour, is that each city gets a no-repeat weekend. If you come to night one and night two, you’ll get completely different shows. That mostly shook out as advertised, though the band hit some of the same beats each night — musically remembering their late founding bassist Cliff Burton (with his song “Orion” on night one and with “The Call of Ktulu” on night two) or Trujillo joining guitarist Kirk Hammet on a noodley mystery jam mid-set (“To Live Is To Die” on night one, “Philadelphia Freedom” into Bill Conti’s Rocky theme on night two).
Some points of the show hit relentlessly hard: their first set of the weekend kicked off with “Creeping Death” into “Harvester Of Sorrow”; later on, pyro lit up for the mid-period barreler “Fuel,” complimenting the impressive later-period track “Cyanide.” On night two, “For Whom The Bell Tolls” was explosive at the top of the set, while “Fade To Black” felt poignant later, Hetfield taking the opportunity to talk about the song’s themes of suicide. “It’s a permanent solution to a temporary problem,” he said, telling any fans who are struggling to know “it gets better.”
Around Town
On their downtime in between dates, Metallica staged a series of fan events all over the city, making the most of what they called their “Philly takeover.” Hammett appeared at The Fillmore on Saturday for a guitar tech-talk; up in Bucks County, the AMC Neshaminy 24 screened the film project Metallica Saved My Life. There was Metallica bowling, a Metallica blood drive, and more.
On Saturday at The Foundry, WMMR’s Sara Parker hosted a discussion with Metallica artist Squindo who, for the M72 tour, has made a series of city-specific shirt and poster designs. For Philly, the image that got picked — and that was projected all over The Linc both nights — was a maniacal demon, wearing a Super Bowl ring, devouring a cheesesteak. Check the nearby Instagram Reel for his thoughts on the design and surprise at it getting chosen for the shows.
The Grand Finale
Metallica played just about two hours each night, mixing up raw and raucous interplay with technical precision, and seemed to be having the greatest time being up there, kicking ass. As one might expect, though, they’re experts in going out with a bang. On night one, the anthemic “Master Of Puppets” was the gnarly show-closer; it was preceded by the racing early cut “Search And Destroy,” during which a very un-metal array of tour branded inflatable balls dropped out of the towers and into the crowd to get batted around. On night two, the riveting “One” painted a haunting picture of military PTSD and the atrocity of war in the penultimate slot, and playing it just ahead of Memorial Day, Hetfield sent it out to anyone present who’d served in the armed forces. That show, and the weekend, closed on a lighter-but-still-heavy note, with the inflatables dropping during a propulsive “Enter Sandman,” the whole stadium joining in a massive singalong, the band sending us all off to never-never land and out into the night on an incredible high.
See more photos from Metallica’s Linc concert below; the M72 tour continues into summer of 2026 around the world, full dates here. For more Metallica, revisit WXPN’s coverage of their last time headlining The Linc, in May of 2017.
