Home / Headline News / Live Review + Gallery: Metallica at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, IL on October 16, 2018

Live Review + Gallery: Metallica at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, IL on October 16, 2018

Metallica kicked off the second leg of their tour in support of their recent album, Hardwired… To Self-Destruct, in Milwaukee on 10/16/18. At least the promo email I got called it the opening of the second leg of the tour. But it seems hard to believe this is only the second leg of a tour for a band that has been on tour for a good deal of the past two years since this album came out.

If the band is weary from their travels, they don’t let on as they open up a two hour can of whoop ass that begins with two new tracks, Hardwired and Atlas, Rise!, playing a total of 5 new songs amongst the old school hits (see setlist below). Their set is played in the round at the newly opened Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. The stage sits below a truss of suspended cubes at different heights that have video screens on each side, which descend and rise for different looks. Other effects include rotating lights that peek out from under the cubes, fire shooting up from the stage floor, and even an air force of small, illuminated drones that circle above the band members’ heads during Moth Into Flame (I have no idea how they coordinate this and avoid the drones from hitting each other, but they do…and it is very cool!).

Metallica 10/16/18 Milwaukee, WI. (Photo by Bradley Todd – All Rights Reserved)

The Metallica I saw in Milwaukee this week is similar, yet decidedly different than the one I first saw in 1985 at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom on the Ride The Lightning tour. The heart of the metal behemoth still beats strong as the band delivers ferocious rock that commands fists to pump and heads to bang. But the personal interactions with the crowd, the “Metallica Family,”as singer/rhythm guitarist James Hetfield, refers to everyone, are kinder and gentler…dare I even say, mature? Hetfield generously lets the Metallica faithful know the group is appreciative of their love and support, and they are happy to have the family together to bond through the music. And the “family” now covers multiple generations, as Hetfield is quick to acknowledge when he singles out Sophia, a 12 year old on the rail with her dad, dedicating a song to her while giving her father props for bringing her to the show.

The crowd has a good reaction to the new tunes from Hardwired…,but the old classics such as Seek & Destroy, Fade to Black, and Master of Puppets send the crowd to a higher level. The only lull in the action is when the band does a group percussion sequence, with each member pounding on a drum, ala Blue Man Group.

Metallica 10/16/18 Milwaukee, WI. (Photo by Bradley Todd – All Rights Reserved)
Metallica 10/16/18 Milwaukee, WI. (Photo by Bradley Todd – All Rights Reserved)

Metallica’s three sing encore was a good microcosm of their staying power: a new song (Spit Out The Bone), a middle career ballad that showed their emotional range and reach (Nothing Else Matters), and a nuclear blast of a rocker (Enter Sandman). A fitting end to a show for a band that has grown up into elder statesmen of hard rock/heavy metal.

The band remains on tour until early December, then picks up again in January for a full slate of dates that are already booked through August 2019.

Web: www.metallica.com

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GALLERY BELOW SETLIST

SETLIST

  1. Hardwired
  2. Atlas, Rise!
  3. Seek & Destroy
  4. Harverster Of Sorrow
  5. The Unforgiven
  6. Now That We’re Dead
  7. Creeping Death
  8. For Whom The Bell Tolls
  9. Fade To Black
  10. Motorbreath
  11. Fuel
  12. Moth Into Flame
  13. Sad But True
  14. One
  15. Master Of Puppets
  16. Spit Out The Bone (Encore)
  17. Nothing Else Matters
  18. Enter Sandman

About Bradley Todd

Bradley Todd is a Chicago based concert photographer who also shoots people (only w/ cameras), events, places and things

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