METALLICA: Official Video Recap Of First Shanghai Concert

August 28, 2013

METALLICA played for the first time ever in China earlier this month, doing two sold-out shows at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai on August 13 and August 14. The first night sold out in record time and faster than any other Western act that has played the country before.

Official video recap of the first Shaghai show — featuring footage of bassist Robert Trujillo in the meet-and-greet, tuning-room jam and the "Fade To Black" performance from the concert — can be seen below.

Following are excerpts from METALLICA's August 14 press conference in China (courtesy of Time Out Shanghai).

On filming a documentary in China:

Lars Ulrich (drums): New experiences bring opportunities for new collaborations and new creative endeavours — it's that simple. Being here in this wonderful country and feeling the energy and excitement, the idea came up to celebrate it and to try to document it and to try to get the experience out. As you know, there are a lot of you, and there may be 20,000 of you who came to this arena yesterday and today, so we figured that if we filmed and shared the experience then maybe we could get to more of you and maybe there could be a next-level relationship between METALLICA and China that could last for decades. The idea came up fairly last minute and we love creative endeavours where we make it up as we go along. There's an impulsive energy that comes with that that can be very beautiful and kind of cool and the last few weeks this idea came together of filming here and maybe bringing some local bands into it and bringing some actors in and maybe some way bridging this into the 'Through The Never' movie that we made in the United States. We are making this up as we go along, but it's all being documented — everything we do is always documented — so we're excited about that and we think that there is something cool that will come out of it. Whatever that is, we're not quite sure yet, but we'll do our best to make it shareable and worth everybody's while."

On interaction with Chinese fans:

Ulrich: "We've been doing meet-and-greets and the interactions with the fans have been very emotionally engaged; they're very appreciative and thankful that we're here. Obviously there is a language barrier. What we try to do, we try to loosen the moment with banter and so on and some of that doesn't seem to translate when there's language issues or whatever, but you can feel that there is a passion and that there's been a longing for this moment that is really special. Most of the time, the communication just comes from the audience when you're up on stage. You sense what's going on and what's coming back at you. People all over the world have different ways of expressing and you sort of learn that there is a correlation between the way people express themselves in different cultures to what they throw at you in gigs. In Italy, they're very much like passionate southern Europeans, in Latin America this happens, and in certain Nordic countries, they're a little more conservative. You learn those patterns along the way, but you could obviously sense that this moment had been a long time coming."

On piracy and bootlegged METALLICA goods being sold in China:

Ulrich: "The one thing increasingly that we focus our energies on is trying to discern between what we can control and what we can't control. Increasingly, getting wound up and spending a lot of time on things that you can't control, it's just... I'd rather FaceTime with my kids or do something else. It is what it is. And that's a whole separate conversation about Chinese copyright issues, which maybe is not the time to do now. You can't control that, so you just turn a blind side to it as best you can."

METALLICA is teaming up with SiriusXM radio to bring back the Mandatory Metallica channel and will celebrate with a special show at Harlem's world-famous Apollo Theater in New York City on September 21 that will air live nationwide.

The only other international live date on METALLICA's schedule for the rest of 2013 is September 19 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Next up for METALLICA is the release of the band's 3D movie, "Metallica Through The Never", which arrives in limited release on September 27 before expanding its run on October 4. A soundtrack album arrives on September 24.

The movie is part concert film and part fictional narrative, with the latter centering on a roadie played by Dane DeHaan who must go on a mysterious mission for the band during the course of a live performance.

Find more on Metallica
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).