On the first night of Metallica‘s residency at Sphere in Las Vegas, surrounded by the venue’s wraparound screen, James Hetfield took a moment to speak to a bandmate who has been gone since 1986.
The band opened its Life Burns Faster run on Thursday, Oct. 1, with a 16-song set that ran about two hours and 15 minutes. Just past the midpoint came “The Call of Ktulu,” the instrumental from 1984’s “Ride the Lightning.” As it faded, Hetfield dedicated it to Cliff Burton, the bassist who co-wrote it. “We love you, and we miss you, brother,” he said.
Burton died at 24 in a tour bus accident in Sweden on Sept. 27, 1986. The Sphere opener fell days after the 40th anniversary of that date. One opening-night review noted that a photo of Burton appeared above the stage during the dedication, and The Hollywood Reporter described the song’s visuals as a vast ocean from which an enormous Lovecraftian creature rose until it filled the screen, a nod to the Cthulhu mythology behind the title.
Metallica opened with “Battery” and closed with “Master of Puppets,” both from the 1986 album that turned 40 this year. The set also included “…And Justice for All,” which the band had not played live since 2014, and “Now That We’re Dead.”
The group relocated to the Bay Area after recruiting Burton, and that Hetfield referred to those early days from the stage.
Related: 40 Years Ago Today, Metallica Released the Album That Defined Metal. Then Tragedy Struck.
Hetfield, 63, kept the mood light elsewhere. He called the residency “a dream come true and beyond,” Las Vegas Weekly reported, and the Chronicle quoted him marveling at the pairing of modern technology and “old guys playing loud music.”
Metallica is the first metal band to play Sphere, and the run is long. The residency covers 24 shows through March 13, 2027, played in Thursday and Saturday pairs under the band’s No Repeat Weekend format, which means no song from one night appears on the other. Tickets for the first eight dates went on sale in March, and demand led the band to add more. Billboard published the full opening-night setlist, and drummer Lars Ulrich has said the idea dates to U2’s first night at the venue in 2023.
The band marks its 45th anniversary at the end of October and Hetfield and Ulrich are the two members who have been there since it formed in 1981. Four decades after Burton’s death, on a night built around what the band can do with new technology, Metallica still set aside a song for him.
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