Metallica is in the midst of their M72 World Tour. The band has presented a “No Repeat Weekend” at every stop which sees the group play two completely different sets two nights apart in the same city.
Friday night the band played in Glendale, Arizona, and their 14-song setlist was two tracks shorter than every other opening night so far on the tour. The band reportedly cut the set short due to vocal issues suffered by frontman James Hetfield.
The Arizona Republic reported the news in a show review, and Metallica appeared to roll tape on the intro to “The Day That Never Comes” before pivoting to play “Hardwired” instead.
“Hetfield did appear to relinquish his lead-singing duties to the audience more often as the night wore on, but I thought it was just to make the crowd feel more like part of the performance,” the newspaper reported.
“Metallica did appear to play a shorter set than they’ve been doing, though. Every opening night since this tour hit the States has been a 16-song performance following “Seek & Destroy” with a set-closing “Master of Puppets.”
“We got 14 songs and no ‘Master of Puppets.’ Normally, I hesitate to overuse a word as ripe for overuse as ‘tragedy.’ But what else would you call it? Especially after Hetfield toyed with our affections for what seemed like an eternity, egging us on to scream for one more song?”
“I don’t know why they cut those songs. It didn’t sound like they were having problems. We don’t Snapchat and/or send each other telegrams, so I have no idea. But it was a shorter set than they’ve been playing.”
One fan that shared video of the set on YouTube noted: “Metallica played ‘Seek & Destroy’ as their last song for their Friday show in Glendale Arizona at State Farm Stadium. They were supposed to play ‘Master Of Puppets’ last, but James started losing his voice. Hopefully it returns by Sunday.”
Fan-filmed video footage of the concert can be seen below.
