Those lucky enough to attend the hottest show of this summer in the Hamptons, Metallica at the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett on Thursday night, August 28, undoubtedly still had ringing ears on Friday morning. Was it worth it? Absolutely.
The special performance, presented by SiriusXM Radio to celebrate the launch of their new Maximum Metallica channel, was an absolute blast and at the smallest venue any fan of the band is likely to see them play, unless you were there for their days playing L.A. and Bay Area clubs in the early 1980s, before 1986’s Master of Puppets made them thrash metal gods, and the Black Album cemented them as one of the biggest bands in the world in 1991.
On a stage before the gathered crowd of well-heeled Hamptonites in pastels and white, and diehard fans wearing lots of black and denim — the latter being Sirius XM Radio listeners lucky enough to win the lottery for tickets — frontman James Hetfield acknowledged the uniqueness of the venue. “This reminds us of the club days when we’d get all hot and sweaty,” he said, noting that the 500-person tent set up behind Talkhouse was among some “pretty eclectic gigs” Metallica has played — another being 2013’s Freeze ‘Em All in Antarctica with just 120 fans in attendance. For perspective, the typical Metallica show attracts a crowd of 50,000-80,000 people at stadiums and massive coliseums. “We’ve never been here, so this is pretty cool,” Hetflield added before ripping into the iconic opening line of “Fuel”: “Gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which I desire…” as the crowd threw devil horns in the air and banged their heads to the music with Lars Ulrich on drums, Kirk Hammett on guitar and Roberto Trujillo on bass.
Besides “Fuel” and their rendition of Thin Lizzy’s “Whiskey in the Jar,” the set list was full of classic Metallica bangers from the Black Album and all that came before, such as “Creeping Death,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “Fade to Black,” “The Unforgiven,” “Nothing Else Matters” and “One.” Not to mention an epic instrumental performance of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” where Hammett and Trujillo encouraged the absolutely stoked audience to sing for them.
The band also played the excellently brutal “Sad But True,” with Hetfield teasing that the audience might not like this next song, then adding, “We’re gonna play it anyway. It’s pretty good. It’s kind of heavy, though.” It was more than pretty good. Other highlights included an aggressive performance of “Seek and Destroy,” from Metallica’s 1983 debut album, Kill ‘Em All, and, of course, the final songs of the night: “Master of Puppets” and “Enter Sandman.”
While attendees enjoyed an open bar and free Maximum Metallica hoodies, everything remained quite civilized when it came to waiting in lines and even getting up toward the stage. A lot of folks, it seemed, preferred to hang back a bit, and the evening’s many celebrity guests were mostly corralled in one VIP section with the likes of Howard and Beth Stern, Paul and Nancy McCartney, Andy Cohen, Colin Jost, Michael J. Fox, Ed Burns, SNL comedian Heidi Gardner (who just left the show after eight seasons), wrestler Chris Jericho, TV host Maria Menounos, Sylvester Stallone, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. A surprising face to see, Good Day New York anchor Rosanna Scotto was off to the side much closer to the stage, and when asked if she’s a Metallica fan, she replied that she’s becoming one.
There were, of course, legions of fans and Hamptonites looking for the hottest ticket of the season who did not get to go inside. The show was, however, so loud it could be heard outside, and some people were even buying entry to an adjacent property where they could listen comfortably. Dan’s Papers was informed that East Hampton Town asked Metallica to keep the sound below a certain decibel level, and they were told absolutely NOT. Hence the ringing ears.
Other fans waited outside to ask concertgoers who were leaving if they had extra hoodies, which had the date and location of the show on the back, to sell or give away.
The reason for this once-in-a-lifetime event, SiriusXM’s Maximum Metallica launched Friday, August 29 at noon on channel 42 and on the SiriusXM app. The channel will be available for free in all SiriusXM-equipped vehicles through the month of September giving non-subscribers a chance to experience the human-curated, premium service.
And if you want to hear the Amagansett show, the band’s performance was recorded and will premiere on Monday, September 1 at noon on the new channel. Metallica live at Stephen Talkhouse will also rebroadcast throughout the week on Maximum Metallica and will be available on the SiriusXM app. Additionally, the full concert will air on Howard Stern’s SiriusXM channel Howard 101 on Friday, September 5 at 7 p.m.
Past exclusive SiriusXM concerts at the Stephen Talkhouse include Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Mumford & Sons, and Dwight Yoakam, among others.
Check out siriusxm.com/channels/maximum-metallica for more Metallica music.
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