Last week, Metallica announced that they’d be playing The Late Show With Stephen Colbert‘s Super Bowl broadcast. Now, footage of their performance has been released by the show, which you can watch below.
For Colbert, the band performed “Enter Sandman,” maybe their most famous song of all time. And to Metallica’s credit, they did the track justice; Lars even got up on his stool to whip the imaginary crowd into a frenzy, proving that even without an audience these guys are professional performers to the last. More impressive, though, is where they performed it — in their own storage facility, surrounded by a museum of amps from previous tours. As much as watching Metallica play “Enter Sandman” is always a treat, scanning the wall of amplifiers behind them and picking out logos and designs from their various tours over the years is even better.
Check out Metallica playing “Enter Sandman” on The Late Show below:
Even under quarantine, this has been a big year for Metallica. The band hosted their first ever pay-per-view livestream event, which has raised over $1.3 million for charity thus far. That money went to partners of the band’s own All Within My Hands foundation, specifically Feeding America and the American Association Of Community Colleges, not to mention supporting COVID-19 and disaster relief efforts in the upcoming months.
Meanwhile, the band are also currently working on a new album. In an interview from late November, drummer Lars Ulrich explained that Metallica had almost a month’s worth of material under their belts.
“We’re three, four weeks into some pretty serious writing,” explained the drummer. “And of all the shit – pandemics, fires, politics, race problems, and just fucking looking at the state of the world – it’s so easy just to so fall into a depressive state.
“But writing always makes me feel enthusiastic about what’s next. It’s like, ‘Fuck, there’s an opportunity here to still make the best record, to still make a difference. To still do something that not even turns other people on, but turns me on.’”
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Words by Chris Krovatin
