METALLICA has a 360-degree camera video of the “Fuel” Performance from the band’s August 2 concert at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, during the band’s 2024 leg “M72” The tour can be seen below.
To support METALLICAthe latest album, “72 Seasons”The band played two-day, non-repeat shows in each city – first in Europe, then in North America, again in Europe and now again in North America – as part of the “M72” Tour. Every concert sees METALLICA Performance on a huge ring-shaped stage, with the Snake Pit in the middle and four drum kits evenly distributed around the circular stage, so that drummers Lars Ulrich can get closer to the audience at various points during the show.
METALLICA Frontman James Hetfield spoke about his attitude ahead of the 2024 stage “M72”tell “The Metallica Report”: “What I’m getting myself into is unknown. I know how big the stage is. I know that we’ll have breaks here and there. I know what we’re getting into. When we started with the ‘M72’ Stage, in the stadium, between the pylons, walking around and thinking: “Oh, the stage is going to be so big.” “Oh, that’s cool.” “That’s going to be great.” “That’s too narrow” and this and that. And then, between that point and the actual construction, when it’s kind of too late, “Oh shit, that thing is so big.” The fear level was at the beginning of the ‘M72’ Tour. How are we going to cover that stage? And of course my ego says, “Well, the other guys don’t have to sing. They don’t have to run there. They don’t have to do all that. And nobody knows my worries and all my concerns.” But as soon as I share it with the other guys, they say, “Yeah, but I’ve got this and I’ve got that.” It’s like, “Oh, okay. Okay. I want mine back. That’s okay.” So it’s known. We know what’s coming and we know what shape we have to be in. And it’s just fun. Now it’s just fun. We’ve broken in that stage. It’s well trodden out and worked fantastically. And so we can just go back in and do what we do best.”
When asked whether there had been any changes to the “M72” Stage at all since the 2023 shows, Hetfield said: “A few things have changed here and there – extra microphones, whatever monitors we need. And that’s typical on any stage. The lighting tends to show things you don’t see before: ‘Yeah, we need to drape that’ or whatever, just things to make it better. Like everything we do, you want to improve it. So that was the first few months of the first tour with the ‘M72’ Stage.”
About his preparations for a METALLICA Tour, especially when it comes to playing around 32 songs at each stop of the current tour “M72” hike, Hetfield said: “Obviously, before we go on tour, we sit there and try to remember the countless great songs we have and then just trust that when we get together, we’ll be like, ‘Oh, yeah.’ It’s muscle memory. But yeah, in the last month, the normal thing that happens is I start to doubt myself. I start to feel insecure, ‘Wow, we’re old. We can’t do this,’ and blah, blah, blah, all that bullshit that everyone tells themselves before they do something that they care about and that they hold dear. So I have nightmares like, ‘I’m the only one who cares about what we’re doing here. Where is everyone?’ I show up at the show. Everyone’s fooling around or there’s 200 people backstage. And where’s my stuff? Where’s the setlist? What songs are we playing? And then typical things like the guitar neck is made of rubber and it only has two strings. And where’s my roadie? And the guitar cable won’t let me get to the microphone. You know, stupid stuff like that has to happen and I don’t freak out about it. You just practice and it comes back pretty quickly.”
To Munich and Milan METALLICA The European tour continued through the first half of the summer, with stops in Spain, Denmark, Norway, France and Poland. Another round of North American dates began on August 2 in Foxborough, Massachusetts, with stops in Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle and Edmonton. METALLICA will conclude the 2024 touring season at the end of September with four shows in Mexico City.
Accordingly Billboard, METALLICAThe production of is transported in 87 trucks – 45 for the band and their setup, plus two groups of 21 each for the steel stage and towers. The band’s crew consists of 130 people, plus 40 steelworkers, local employees and truck drivers.
METALLICAmanager Cliff Burnstein told Billboard that between 80% and 90% of fans attend both shows at each concert.
The “M72” Tour starts at the end of April 2023 in Amsterdam.
