Metallica Mondays: How to watch the rockers play their Big 4 concert, live from Yankee Stadium
Another Monday, another Metallica live stream concert, which comes to us courtesy of the band's YouTube and Facebook pages. This time, America's favorite hard rock and thrash metal maestros have brought us a show that's close to home, after serving up plenty of gigs from locations around the world like Europe and South America.
For this week's edition of Metallica Mondays, the band is streaming their September 14, 2011, concert from Yankee Stadium in New York City's Bronx. This on-demand live stream not only keeps Metallica fans entertained with great music but also serves as a fundraiser for people severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. What's more, this particular show is chock full of old-school fan favorites and even includes a special performance of a Motörhead cover, along with some rock star friends of the Metallica family.
Towards the end of the show, the band played 'Overkill', a track made famous by Lemmy Kilmister and his crew, and were joined on stage by members of the bands Anthrax, Slayer and Megadeth, among others. In attendance for that legendary performance were stars such as Kerry King, Dave Lombardo, Gary Holt, David Ellefson, Chris Broderick, Shawn Drover, Scott Ian, Rob Caggiano, Frank Bello, Charlie Benante and Joey Belladonna, who all rocked the crowd's socks off that night.
Together, these four bands played a mammoth seven-hour concert called The Big 4 show at Yankee Stadium, with thrash metal icons Anthrax kicking off proceedings with a shredding setlist. The elite metal outfit Megadeth followed next, with an injured Dave Mustaine (who was a former Metallica guitarist) electing to take part in the proceedings even though he was due for neck surgery. Metal legends Slayer then played next with their infamously loud and pummeling set, after which Metallica closed out the electric night of music with some more punishing and pulsating numbers. You can check out Metallica's setlist for that celebrated 2011 show below.
Setlist
'Creeping Death'
'For Whom the Bell Tolls'
'Fuel'
'Ride the Lightning'
'Fade to Black'
'Cyanide'
'All Nightmare Long'
'Sad but True'
'Welcome Home (Sanitarium)'
'Orion'
'One'
'Master of Puppets'
'Blackened'
'Nothing Else Matters'
'Enter Sandman'
Encore
'Overkill' (Motörhead cover with members of Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer)
'Battery'
'Seek & Destroy'
The gig was certainly intense, with plenty of mosh pits springing up throughout, and one point, even wheelchair-bound fans could be seen crowd-surfing and enjoying themselves. As one grateful fan pointed out on YouTube, "WOW, I'm impressed that Metallica is still doing this and being SO generous, picking shows from their vaults from all eras, polishing them and just giving them to us. Other bands have tried similar things but as far as I know, no one has come close to what Metallica has done. A BIG THANK YOU." Another pleased supporter noted, "Metallica is one of the only bands who does anything like this where they take old shows and just let us see them for free. Metallica really cares about their fans."
The Metallica family also really cares about those impacted by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, so this concert stream also doubles up as a fundraiser opportunity. As the band noted, "While streaming is free (on Facebook and YouTube), we will be hosting simultaneous fundraisers on each platform benefiting All Within My Hands. Your donation will help address food insecurities and medical supply shortages during the current Covid-19 crisis as AWMH is working with partners at Feeding America and Direct Relief." So if you can afford to make a donation, please do so since it's for a worthy cause. Make sure you stay tuned to Metallica's social media pages for more epic free concerts like these in the coming weeks.