Metallica.com has posted a six-minute highlight clip from Metallica’s weekend performance to benefit Neil Young’s Bridge School, which helps physically challenged students learn and communicate through the use of technology. You can find rougher fan-filmed clips of entire songs here. The surprising acoustic set featured the onetime thrash greats performing unplugged versions of Rare Earth’s “I Just Want To Celebrate,” Nazareth’s “Please Don’t Judas Me,” Garbage’s “Only Happy When It Rains,” Dire Straits’ “Brothers In Arms,” Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page,” and three of the band’s own: “Disposable Hereos,” “All Within My Hands,” and “Nothing Else Matters.” Sounds pretty cool, right? Apparently, it wasn’t. California’s Mercury News’ Say Quillen wrote: “The band would have been better served by picking just one of the covers — ideally ‘Brothers in Arms’, which featured some nice guitar work from Kirk Hammett — and using the remaining time to explore more Metallica material in the stripped-down acoustic setting. Hetfield’s interpretive singing is not the band’s strong suit.” To this we add: Avoid the new interpretation of “Disposable Heroes” — arguably the band’s best song — at all costs. Ah, well… We’ll always have the first Garage Days EP. — D.X. Ferris
This article appears in Oct 24-30, 2007.
These idiots haven’t done anything that could be considered remotely original or dangerous since Master of Puppets. The last twenty years have been nothing but a sad disappointment to anyone who is old enough to remember what they actually sounded like for real. You know, back in the days when they were more concerned with making great music than they were with fashion and stylish haircuts. Now they’ve chosen to pitch in for a great cause, by performing their best impression of a second rate Lakewood bar band. Why am I not surprised?