Metallica knows that the easiest way to a fan’s heart is through a taste of homegrown rock.
The metal giants are currently pounding their way through a long-overdue tour of Australia and New Zealand, a six-date coast-to-coast swing for the M72 World Tour.
When the “One” rockers visited Adelaide Oval on Wednesday night, Nov. 5, the setlist included many favorites from across their decorated, Rock Hall-inducted career — plus some legendary local music.
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Fan-filmed footage shows Metallica pumped out a cover of INXS’ Billboard Hot 100 leader “Need You Tonight”. Then, a segue into the Angels’ classic from 1976, “Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again,” led by bass player Robert Trujillo at the mic.
It’s a song that courses through the bloodstream of every Australian weaned on guitar music, and has somehow evolved with a call-and-respond that has passed down the generations. When the song is played, tradition requires fans to roar “no way, get f—ed, f— off.”
Of course, that happened in the City of Churches.
At the height of their powers, the Angels were the prototypical Aussie pub-rock band, a group blessed with a captivating singer, the late Bernard “Doc” Neeson, and memorable, grinding songs.
The Angels were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1998. The following year, Neeson suffered a severe spinal injury. He died in 2014 following a years-long battle with brain cancer, aged 67. Bass player Chris Bailey died of throat cancer a year earlier, in 2013. In August of this year, the city of Adelaide’s lord mayor Jane Lomax-Smith unveiled to the public The Angels Lane, close to Hindley Street Music Hall in the CBD.
INXS needs no introduction. The new wave stars climbed the highest mountain of contemporary music with six U.K. top 10 albums (including a No. 1 with Welcome To Wherever You Are from 1992) and five U.S. top 20 albums, a BRIT Award (in 1991 for best international group) and, in 2001, elevation into the ARIA Hall of Fame. Surely Rock And Roll Hall of Fame elevation is in the cards.
It’s not the first time on this tour that Metallica has dished some homestyle cooking. During the opener Nov. 1 at Perth’s Optus Stadium, the Bay Area legends served up a rendition of John Butler’s “Zebra,” which the Western Australian native responded to with his own cover of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.”
Produced by Live Nation Australia, the tour continues Saturday (Nov. 8) at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium, then visits Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium (Nov. 12), Sydney’s Accor Stadium (Nov. 15) and wraps up Nov. 19 at Auckland’s Eden Park. It’s Metallica’s first Australian run since 2013.
Evanescence and Suicidal Tendencies are the support on this leg of the M72 World Tour.
