Metallica wraps up its Detroit doubleheader at Ford Field: 5 takeaways
Metallica roared back into Ford Field on Sunday to play the second of two Detroit shows as the band capped the 2023 portion of its M72 World Tour.
Here are some takeaways from a weekend visit that also included a sold-out Friday concert:
The 'No Repeat Weekend' concept was a gamble, and a hit
Fans who attended both Ford Field shows — and there were plenty of those folks — got 32 songs and more than four hours of stadium-shaking entertainment.
The M72 tour premise is simple but unconventional: Two nights, two distinct set lists. And it turned out to be a blast, with Friday and Sunday offering their own variations on Metallica’s catalog of blistering, multitextured, turn-on-a-dime work.
While the songs were different, there was a similar structure and flow to the two nights, each of which featured 16 songs and reserved the same slots for new material, deep cuts and one instrumental, along with an epic opening and finale.
Sunday’s show kicked off by reaching back to the very start with a performance of the band’s frenetic 1983 debut single, “Whiplash.” It was promptly followed by two more early standouts — “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “Ride the Lightning” — on the way to a two-hour-plus affair that ultimately closed with the crowd-pleasing punch of “One” and “Enter Sandman.”
“Dirty Window,” from the band’s much-derided 2003 release “St. Anger” (“your favorite album,” James Hetfield cracked from the stage), was a left-field highlight on a night that also included “Welcome Home (Sanitarium),” “The Unforgiven” and “Wherever I May Roam.”
All told, between the two shows, Detroit concertgoers got a big helping of “Ride the Lightning”: Six of the eight tracks from that game-changing thrash record were in the weekend mix.
The production was top-notch
Metallica shows have long been state-of-the-art, but the M72 World Tour tried a few new things, most notably an in-the-round presentation that placed the band on a giant circular stage at mid-floor.
The lighting was reliably spectacular — including brilliant displays beamed from all four corners of the stadium — and a festive touch came from the giant yellow-and-black beach balls that descended onto the crowd late in the night. Only the pyro was scaled back here, likely because of the unique stage setup.
And the sound, at least on Ford Field’s lower level, was first-rate for a stadium rock concert, where audio is often erratic. Metallica’s two shows were richly mixed and there were moments the music took on a 360° effect.
The band is still vital
All four Metallica members are either in or fast approaching their 60s, but the group is still firing on all cylinders and seems to be deeply invested in the cause.
“We do not take this for granted,” Hetfield told Friday's Detroit crowd. “Metallica has been doing this for 42 years, and we still love every second of it.”
Kirk Hammett’s spiraling, high-voltage solos, Lars Ulrich’s spirited presence at the drum kit, Robert Trujillo’s nimbly fingered bass lines, Hetfield’s commanding ringleader presence — all added up to a Metallica that’s still got it and seems to be having fun along the way. And based on the intense audience participation each night, the multigenerational fan base is right there with the group.
Some Detroit love
Like many modern bass guitarists across genres, Trujillo feels a debt to the Motor City — and to one groundbreaking musician in particular.
“I don’t know if I’d be playing bass if it wasn’t for Detroit,” he said onstage Sunday, explaining: “Motown. James Jamerson.”
For each show on this tour, Trujillo and Hammett have crafted a short, custom jam to play live. On Friday, it was a heavy ditty dubbed “Primo.” Sunday, following the Jamerson shout-out, it was a 2½-minute number they called “Motown, Yo Town” (don’t hold us to spellings here), with Hammett tacking some funky scratches atop Trujillo’s bobbing bass.
Sunday’s Detroit show was the final night on the 2023 run of the M72 World Tour, which will pick back up with European dates in the spring and return to North America in the summer.
Metallica has a deep attachment to Detroit, no doubt. And given the flexible nature of the set lists on this outing, it made sense to wonder whether a cover of Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page” — famously recorded by the band in 1998 — was in order. In the end, no such luck.
For Ford Field, an exclamation mark to a huge 2023
It has been a big year for stadium shows in Detroit: Ford Field alone hosted nine nights of star-powered music, including doubleheaders from Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen to go with this weekend’s Metallica blowout.
Along with dates from Beyoncé, Luke Combs and Ed Sheeran (with surprise guest Eminem), it was the biggest concert year in the history of the Detroit Lions' venue, which was inaugurated by the Rolling Stones in 2002.
2024 isn’t shaping up to have quite that sort of stadium-show volume. But two years after the touring industry emerged from the pandemic shutdown, 2023 was a bona fide revival that saw ticket buyers packing the seats — with Metallica providing one loud, satisfying punctuation mark.
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
Metallica's night-two Detroit set list, Nov. 12, 2023
1: "Whiplash"
2: "For Whom the Bell Tolls"
3: "Ride the Lightning"
4: "Dirty Window"
5: "72 Seasons"
6: "If Darkness Had a Son"
6a: "Motown, Yo Town"
7: "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
8: "You Must Burn!"
9: "The Call of Ktulu"
10: "The Unforgiven"
11: "Wherever I May Roam"
12: "Moth Into Flame"
13: "Fight Fire with Fire"
14: "Whiskey in the Jar"
15: "One"
16: "Enter Sandman"
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Metallica wraps up its Detroit doubleheader at Ford Field: 5 takeaways
