If anyone ever doubted the appeal of Metallica in Mainland China, any skepticism was well and truly put to bed in 2013. Tickets for their debut show here sold out within minutes, prompting the promoters to add a second date. When the concerts arrived in mid-August, fans from across the country flocked to the Mercedes-Benz Arena – up in the cheap seats that night, we were surrounded by a group of twentysomethings from Hebei who headbanged almost continuously, while down (a lot) nearer the front public figures such as Ai Weiwei were in attendance. It’s fair to say that the shows were a big deal.
Despite the existence of swathes of knock-off merchandise outside the shows and reportedly being banned from playing ‘Master of Puppets’ – issues which it’s not hard to imagine the Metallica of old getting wound up about – the band also seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves. ‘I was very amazed at the response and the reaction, the energy that was given to us,’ James Hetfield told us after the first show in Shanghai. ‘I didn’t expect it to be that intense. I was told that people would be sitting down and clapping and very polite. And that would be fine as well, but we were very excited to see people singing the words, joining in and becoming a part of the show, which is what we really love.’
It therefore seemed inevitable that Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo would return to these shores before long – Ulrich even spoke at the time of his hopes for ‘a next level relationship between Metallica and China that could last for decades’ – and this month they're back, touting new album Hardwired… to Self-Destruct, their tenth studio LP. From the blistering opener ‘Hardwired’ (with the hook ‘we’re so fucked, shit out of luck, hardwired… to self-destruct’) onwards, it’s a strident record borne of the confidence that comes with being one of the biggest bands in the world.
Don’t be surprised therefore if songs from Hardwired… feature heavily on the set-list this time around. Although this trip to Mainland China also sees them take in a show in Beijing, as this will be their second visit to Shanghai they’re unlikely to feel quite the same pressure as last time to play a greatest hits set here. Nevertheless, this is a band who don’t have any qualms about pulling out the crowd-pleasers from their extensive back catalogue and have shown that they’ve very much still got it when it comes to performing live.
And somewhat surprisingly, tickets for the show haven't yet sold out. You can buy them right here through Time Out Tickets – just click the banner below.