A Top Story This Week Metallica Tour

Metallica Tour To Help Introduce Danish Band To American Fans was a top story for this week. Here it is again: (PR) Since the Danish metal quartet's formation in October, 2001, Volbeat has steadily risen to become one of the major attractions in the European scene. The band has released three albums and a live DVD overseas. This fall, North Americans will eventually have access to the complete catalog, with all three studio albums available (the DVD is planned for a later date).
Volbeat's recent title Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood (2009) is showing an increased presence, with exponential sales and airplay increases in markets across the continent. On October 27, Volbeat will see The Strength / The Sound / The Songs (2005) join the previously issued Rock The Rebel / Metal The Devil (2007) at retail stores across the U.S. and Canada.
The band will comeback to North America this fall as support for Metallica and Lamb of God in arenas across Canada and the U.S. Singer Michael Poulsen shared, "We are so thankful for this nice opportunity and are looking forward to sharing the stage with one of our biggest inspirations. It's such an honor, and it's also a great honor to play for the Metallica fans who are very dedicated. It will be a challenge, but we will do our best to give the Metallica fans a little piece of what we are about and what we do. We wanna thank the gentlemen in Metallica for giving Volbeat this chance. Thank You!" Hopefully we will be able to play a headliner show or two while we're in the US. We can't wait to look you all!"

Concert Attendance Record to Metallica

Metallica's two sold out shows at Montreal's Bell Centre last Saturday and Sunday set a record for the highest paid attendance ever at the venue, Blabbermouth.net reports.Metallica also decided to be charitable with $21,462 from their two shows going to community services arranger Sun Youth, according to the Montreal Gazette."It's a nice gift," Sun Youth co-founder Sid Stevens told the newspaper. "People sometimes look at pairs of this nature in a derogatory or negative manner. But it's very interesting to look them donate in every city they visit."Stevens said Metallica have been giving part of the profits from their gigs on the Death Magnetic jaunt to a local charity at every tour stop. As for the follow-up to Death Magnetic, don't expect it in stores any time soon. Drummer Lars Ulrich told Dayton, Ohio radio station 103.9 The X that the pair will tour through the end of 2010, take a break and won't begin recording until early 2011. "You got another year on the road, and then you gotta, you know, suspire for a little while, then you gotta do it all over again," Ulrich told The Pulse Of Radio earlier this year.
"I'd love to put records out more often, but right now, I don't know what's gonna give, in between touring and having some chill time with the family and how long it takes to, you know, make these records."

Metallica have these dates scheduled:

Sept. 28 San Antonio, TX @ AT&T Center

Sept. 29 Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center

Oct. 1 Fort Lauderdale, FL @ BankAtlantic Center

Oct. 3 Tampa, FL @ St. Pete Times Forum

Oct. 4 Atlanta, GA @ Philips Arena

Oct. 12 Winnipeg, MB @ MTS Centre

Oct. 13 Minneapolis, MN @ Target Center

Oct. 15 Cleveland, OH @ Quicken Loans Arena

Oct. 17 Charlottesville, VA @ JPJ Arena

Oct. 18 Charlotte, NC @ Time Warner Cable Arena

Oct. 26-27 Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre

Oct. 30 New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden (Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame 25th anniversary)

Oct. 31-Nov. 1 Quebec City, QC @ Colisee Pepsi

Nov. 3 Ottawa, ON @ Scotiabank Place

Nov. 9 Grand Rapids, MI @ Van Andel Arena

Nov. 10 Buffalo, NY @ HSBC Arena

Nov. 12 Albany, NY @ Times Union Center

Nov. 14-15 New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden

Dec. 5 Las Vegas, NV @ Mandalay Bay Events Center

Dec. 7 Boise, ID @ Idaho Center

Dec. 8 Sacramento, CA @ ARCO Arena

Dec. 10 Anaheim, CA @ Honda Center

Dec. 12 San Jose, CA @ HP Pavilion at San Jose

Metallica: Returns To Relevance

When the metal titans in Metallica play Dallas this week, they will do so in triumph, on the heels of their late 2008 release, Death Magnetic, an album many are calling the pair's best in 20 years.

Good thing, too. What with drummer Lars Ulrich's anti Napster testimony to Congress and subsequent lawsuits against file-sharing fans; the self-pitying documentary Some Kind of Monster; and 2003's St. Anger, with its trash-can drumming, 12-step lyrics and general sonic ugliness, the pair had some ground to make up.
While reminiscing about his band's current efforts, guitarist Kirk Hammett gets philosophical about Metallica's ups and downs with fans: "We are a band that means so many different things to so many different people, and everyone needs their version of Metallica to be the predominant one," he says. "That's something that we're aware of, and it's also something we're aware that you can't actually fight or try to change."
He's right: Some folks say Metallica lost it after 1990's Black Album. Others say the fall started after 1988's ...And Justice for All. Others draw the line even earlier, with 1986's Master of Puppets. But by blending the intricate thrash of the band's early years with the powerful rut of its underrated '90s discs (aided by new bassist Rob Trujillo, once of Suicidal Tendencies and Ozzy Osbourne's band), Death Magnetic has made Metallica an act to be worshiped again. Songs like "My Apocalypse," "All Nightmare Long" and "Cyanide" biff the listener with crushing riffs, fleet solos and fist-pumping choruses.
Hammett looks back at the recording sessions for the disc, helmed by career-resuscitator-to-the-stars Rick Rubin, with fondness and pride: "I think we wanted to be in the studio with just the four of us writing music, and then going in and working at our own pace, just hashing it out among ourselves," he says. He adds that Rubin kept Metallica focused on a very particularly concept: Making music "like we did... in the '80s."
It bears mentioning, of course, that Death Magnetic also marks the end of Metallica's major-label contract. So what does the future hold?
"At the expense of looking like some kind of fuckin' asshole, I'm not gonna answer that question," Hammett says with a laugh. "There might not even be a record industry five years from now. There might not even be a CD format anymore. Everything might go directly to our cell phones. Who fuckin' knows, man?"
One thing the guitarist does know for sure, though, is that his band is just one part of a major resurgence of American metal. Hammett is quick to praise New Orleans doom revivalists Down, Texas-based stoner groove monsters The Sword, and specifically, the band that will open for Metallica at the American Airlines Center, Virginia's politically aware crushers Lamb of God. "I was looking them the other night," Hammett says of Lamb of God, "and (I was) thinking, 'Fuck, man, it was my idea to get 'em on the bill, and I think we've got our fuckin' work cut out for us.'"
He actually shouldn't feel threatened, though.
Metallica is as good as it's been in two decades. Now, if only the band could just stop taking more than five years between albums...

METALLICA RAISE FUNDS WITH FIRST EVER HOMETOWN SHOW

Heavy rockers METALLICA have raised $200,000 (£133,333) to help their local community in California, by playing their first ever hometown concert.The pair played a sold out show at the Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium in San Rafael earlier this month (11Sep09), with fans paying up to $350 (£233) per ticket. The money raised from the show has gone towards the Marin Rocks Museum Project, an interactive museum of Marin music history which includes educational programs for young people in music and the arts, which is set to open next summer (10). Drummer Lars Ulrich says, "We love Marin, and we don't get chances to make an imprint in our backyard as much as we'd like. And this just seemed like a perfect opportunity to get involved in something that had Marin stamped all over it." Museum publicist Stephanie Clarke adds, "There has been nothing but positive reaction to everything about the concert. People are very excited."

Metallica show at U.S. Bank Arena

Tuesday marked the second night of the current leg of Metallica’s North American tour. More important to the audience at U.S. Bank Arena was the fact that the band was back in town for the first time in years.

“Maybe Metallica should come to Cincinnati more than every five (darn) years,” shouted drummer Lars Ulrich, noting the obvious.
A whole lot of it’s-been-too-long love swirled through the arena for the two hour show. Sixteen thousand sets of fists pumped during the shoren shaking performance, and the band returned the favor afterwards mingling on the stage for 10 minutes, waving to fans, growling salutations into microphones, tossing guitar picks to general admission floor dwellers.
Though it’s the start of a new tour, there was no rust to be shaken off the Metallica metal machinery. If any of the fellas missed a note, it wasn’t apparent, which is pretty remarkable considering the speed and precision required for thrash such as encore selections “Whiplash” and “Seek and Destroy,” to name a couple. (There was also a thrashy cover of Queen’s “Stone Cold Crazy” thrown into the encore.) In fact, of all of their peers in rock who consistently sell out arenas worldwide year after year, nobody plays harder or louder.
Metallica’s 18-song set ranged from stuff off their 2008 return-to-original-form CD “Death Magnetic”; back to the classic thrash tunes that made them an ‘80s metal sensation; and rounded out with ‘90s crossover hits.Guitarist and lead singer James Hetfield sounded fine and looked fresh. The band performed in darkness during the opening tune, “That was Just Your Life,” with Hetfield’s face ducking in and out of spotlights as he moved between eight microphone stands positioned variously on the stage. The show was in-the-round, so the band did its best to give all sides of the arena a show, including Ulrich, whose drum riser spun in 90-degree increments. The rotating riser was one of several fancy production touches. Green laser beams fanned over the stage and across the ceiling. Flames shot out from behind the guitar amps, and grating on the deck of the stage emitted giant fireballs. Four casket-shaped trusses lowered from the rafters toward the band, setting an ominous visual tone during some classic “For Whom the Bell Tolls” riffage. That song, Metallica’s third of the evening, marked the first moment when the crowd went bananas. The old stuff always has ruled, according to diehards, and it always will. And though there were some nice riffs among “Death Magnetic” material like “Cyanide” and “The End of the Line,” songs like “One” and “Master of Puppets” were those with the power to make time stop.“Cincinnati, do you want heavy?” was Hetfield’s rhetorical question. “Metallica gives you heavy!” If Hetfield’s lead vocals made him the star of the show, the guy who added the most value was bassist Robert Trujillo, who looked like a cross between a high school burnout and an AND1 baller with his basketball jersey and his long, stringy hair. Trujillo’s finger-plucking approach brought a thunderous element to the music. It was as if he were inventing new low notes during “black album” songs “Sad But True,” “The Unforgiven” and “Enter Sandman,” providing a rumble that lent some eyeball rattling heaviosity to radio friendly fare.

“The Sweater Song” From Metallica

Last week Rolling Stone chatted up Rivers Cuomo about Weezer’s new album Raditude. Near the end we asked about the 15th anniversary of their debut single “Undone The Sweater Song,” which he now admits is “almost a complete rip off” of Metallica’s 1986 classic “Welcome Home (Sanitarium).”
” ‘The Sweater Song’ was the first Weezer song I ever wrote, back in 1991,” Cuomo says. “I was trying to write a Velvet Underground type song because I was super into them, and I came up with that guitar riff. I just picked up that acoustic guitar and the first thing I played was that condition. And it just feels so classic to me, true now when the band starts to play it, it just takes over the energy in the room and you’re just transported into the world of Weezer. It wasn’t until years after I wrote it that I finished it’s almost a complete rip off of ‘Sanitarium’ by Metallica. It just absolutely encapsulates Weezer to me you’re trying to be cool like Velvet Underground but your metal roots just pump through unconsciously.”
While on the topic of the old days, we also asked Cuomo about former Weezer bassist Matt Sharp who left the band after Pinkerton to form the Rentals and afterwards filed a lawsuit against his former bandmates over royalties. Five years ago Sharp and Cuomo covered the hatchet and played a few songs together at a college show. Sharp even wrote on his blog that there was talk of him rejoining the band as an additional guitarist. What happened?
“We were just beginning to feel it out, and it didn’t pan out for one reason or another,” says Cuomo. Might he work with Sharp again? “I don’t know if there’s a lot of room for it anymore, particularly now that I’ve got a two year old.” How about the possibility of him playing with Weezer again at some point in the future? “Seems unlikely,” says Cuomo. “But you never know.”

Metallica, Waltzes, and Burning Man

The San Francisco Symphony's 98th Season opens with a twirl Sept. 9 with a spectacle of waltzes led by Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas at Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco.AC = -->
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Before the 8:30 p.m. spectacle showcasing pianist Lang Lang, you can enjoy patrons' dinners and champagne acceptance on the Promenade. After the spectacle, the party continues at City Hall.
Promenade packages, which include pre spectacle champagne, spectacle and after party, range from $135 to $260 per person. To order, call 415-864-6000 415-864-6000. Dinner and spectacle packages cost $375-$2,500 and may be purchased by calling (415) 503-5500 (415) 503-5500.
For an overview of the symphony's 2009-2010 season, go to sfsymphony.org. The sympgony under Tilson Thomas will present a three week festival celebrating the music of Gustav Mahler Sept. 16 to Oct. 3. The festival comes on the heels of the release of the final symphony in their Mahler recording project.
— Diane Peterson
SAN RAFAEL: Metallica finally makes it to Marin
It's hard to believe, but they're saying the Metallica spectacle on Sept. 11 at Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium will be “the first time” the metal gods have ever performed in Marin County.
Legend has it that way back in the day, they even jammed at Volpi's in Petaluma before playing The Phoenix.
Evidently, all it took was a benefit for the Marin History Museum's “Marin Rocks” exhibition, celebrating the county's storied musical estate.
Tickets $100 $350 went on sale on Aug. 1 and quickly sold out. But hardcore fans are still looking for a way in the door. A scalper posted this on Craigslist last week: “Twelve hundred dollars or b/o.” How much is it worth to you?
— John Beck
NEVADA: Burning Man invades the desert again
Burning Man, the renowned annual celebration of self expression, returns Aug. 31 through Sept. 7 to the 400 square mile expanse known as Nevada's Black Rock Desert.
Participants will create the latest avatar of Black Rock City, a camp bedecked with innovative art installations and animated by different performances, commune for eight days and then leave the desert as they found it.
Current ticket prices for Burning Man 2009 are $300 and above. For an introduction to this complex ongoing phenomenon, which is much more than a festival, check out www.burningman.com. or call the event's hotline at (415) TO-FLAME (863-5263).
— Dan Taylor