Metallica
January 18, 2019
BOK Center
Tulsa, OK
Review by Vernon L. Gowdy III
Photos by Vernon L. Gowdy III
Metallica’s WorldWired Tour Delivers High Energy Show And A Record Attendance!
American stand-up comedian Jim Breuer opened the show with a set of heavy metal jokes and crowd interaction – singling out the youngest and the oldest Metallica members in the audience.
Metallica played to a record attending crowd of 19,228 fans of all ages, playing for well over two hours through an 18 song setlist. Metallica opened with two of the newer songs, “Hardwired” and “Atlas, Rise!,” from their latest album, Hardwired…to Self-Destruct.
Metallica’s stage design consisted of a square mainstage equipped with several prop lifts located in the center of the arena and overhead 52 LED video cubes would ascend and descend while displaying vivid, colorful and flashing images. And of course no Metallica show would be complete without the use of pyrotechnics, which were skillfully used in the later part of the show.
Metallica then kicked in a metal favorite “Seek and Destroy” as the crowd joined in with the chorus with Hetfield. Throughout the evening nearly 20,000 metal fans voices could be heard with the band on “The Unforgiven,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “Master of Puppets” and more.
After their song “One” from their fourth studio album, And Justice for All and songs “Holier Than Thou,” and two of the new songs “Now That We’re Dead” and “Halo on Fire” each band member got their moment with own highlighted solos. Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett provided their incredible drumming and guitar solo respectively while bassist Robert Trujillo had the crowd cheering during his breathtaking bass work.
Throughout the evening Hetfield would take a short break and mention the “Metallica Family” theme to the crowd and would interact with members in audience. Metallica also did a cover of Soundgarden’s 1988 tune “Head Injury,” which Hetfield dedicated to the late Chris Cornell.
Metallica began playing crowd favorites like “Creeping Death,” and “The Memory Remains.” Metallica’s new song “Moth Into Flame” was a visual highlight for the evening debuting the world’s first autonomous indoor drones that emerge from the prop lifts built into the TAIT stage. As the music builds, 100 drones emerge and swarm into several formations flying above and around the band. The motions and light effects of these micro drones with their on-board LED’s and their precise choreography synchronized with the music created a breathtaking visual moment.
Metallica closed out the evening with “Sad but True”, “One,” “Master of Puppets,” and followed with their encore with “Blackened,” “Nothing Else Matters,” and of course “Enter Sandman.”
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