Metallica Rock Acoustic Set At MusiCares Benefit

I’m sure the first thing that comes to mind for many fans when they hear the name Metallica is the thought of loud guitars and huge drums.  Most people probably don’t think of a nice soft acoustic set when conjuring up images of the biggest metal band in the world. But that’s exactly what fans who attended the MusiCares benefit got.

Ok so maybe it wasn’t nice and soft but it was acoustic.  First lets tell you a little bit about MusiCares.  Metallica played their set in honor of Ozzy Osbourne who was receiving the Stevie Ray Vaughan Award and the night was also in honor of Jeff Greenberg who owns Los Angeles legendary studio the Village.

To date MusiCares has raised and dedicated $10 million to addiction services…something many rockers unfortunately know all too much about.  The money is earmarked to help musicians get sober as well as provide ‘sober living and safe harbor rooms backstage at concerts.’

This is a great cause and of course plenty of other musicians came out to show their support.  Other notable performers included Dave Navarro and Slash and you can bet that there were plenty more stars in attendance.

Now on to Metallica’s 4 song set.  If fans were hoping to hear a few of the band’s monster hits scaled down to a bare bones acoustic version they were in for another surprise.  Metallica didn’t play any of their own songs and instead did 4 covers which are now available for you to download at LiveMetallica.com along with a few photos from the event.  Once in place on the stage the band launched into a rare cover of Earth’s ‘I Just Want To Celebrate’.  This was the first time they played that tune in 7 years.  Deep Purple’s ‘When A Blind Man Cries’ was played live for the very first time.  Also included in the set was a nice cover of the Beatles ‘In My Life which Ozzy says is his favorite Beatles tune (personally I go with Let it Be but the night was in honor of Ozzy so I suppose its alright that they chose a song for him.  When Metallica plays a benefit for me I’ll have to make sure they know that my fav Beatles song is Let it Be).  Back to the show…to close out their set the band dropped their version of the Oz mans ‘Diary of a Madman’.

All proceeds received from those of you who download Metallica’s set will go to the MusiCares MAP Fund so make sure you head over to LiveMetallica.com to support a great cause.

In other Metallica acoustic news James Hetfield was also a performer at the UCSF Pediatric Cancer Benefit ‘1st Annual Acoustic 4 A Cure benefit which was held at the Filmore in San Francisco on Thursday May 15, 2014.  Here’s a clip of James, Billie Joe Armstrong, Joe Satriani and Scott Matthews performing a very cool rendition of ‘Turn The Page and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.’

We know Metallica have been blasting their way through heavy metal history for decades so maybe its not so strange to hear them unplugging and playing some acoustic sets.  But don’t worry fans, Metallica will be coming to a city near you soon and you can bet your ass they will rock your face off just as hard as they’ve been doing for decades.

Source: LiveMetallica.com

About Dave Abrams

Dave has been eating, living, and breathing music since before he could talk. This makes Dave perfect for his role here at Guitar News Daily.