Metallica Lights Up Hard Rock Stadium

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens lived up to its name on Friday night, when Metallica brought their "WorldWired" tour to town!

Fans of all ages sweated through the blazing South Florida afternoon in their Metallica gear, which basically comes in black!

Danish heavy metal band Volbeat opened the show, followed by California hard rock band Avenged Sevenfold, who really got the crowd going with their energetic set!   Their early numbers like "The Stage" and "Almost Easy" had fans headbanging and pumping their fists.  Many were throwing the classic hard rock "devil horns" and thankfully, no one had to pay Gene Simmons any royalties!

The stage setup had a large catwalk running out into the crowd that allowed the artists to get up close and personal with fans who had paid to be in the "Snakepit" in the center of the runout.  It came in handy during Metallica's blistering set!

Then, the witching hour was upon us. After getting the fans pumped up with AC/DC's immortal "Long Way to the Top (If You Want to Rock and Roll), the gigantic video screen backdrops crackled to life with the classic scene from Sergio Leone's spaghetti western "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" where Tuco frantically searches a massive cemetery for a grave with a fortune in gold coins.

That gave way to the "Hardwired" intro from Metallica's latest album "Hardwired to Self-Destruct".  The guys came charging out; lead guitarist Kirk Hammett leading the way with stinging solos on "Hardwired"!   Metallica puts on quite a show these days, with lots of flash pots and fireworks and extremely engaging videos and graphics playing behind them on the screens.  During the new song "Halo on Fire" they even had a flame running back and forth across the stage! 

Towards the end of the night, lead singer James Hetfield didn't even need to sing every line.  During fan favorites like "Wherever I May Roam" and "Master of Puppets" he would sing one line, then let the fans take the next!  It all built up to the monster encore of "Battery", "Nothing Else Matters" and of course, "Enter Sandman" complete with pyro and fireworks; sending fans home in an ecstasy of heavy metal glory!

Below is the complete setlist for Metallica:

1.   Hardwired 

2.   Atlas, Rise!

3.   For Whom The Bell Tolls

4.   Creeping Death

5.   The Unforgiven

6.   Now That We're Dead

7.   Moth Into Flame

8.   Wherever I May Roam

9.   Halo on Fire

10. Whiplash

11. Sad But True

12. One

13. Master of Puppets

14. Fade to Black

15. Seek & Destroy

Encores:

16. Battery

17. Fade to Black

18. Enter Sandman