Review: Metallica sets this amazing concert record during SoCal show

Metallica topped Taylor Swift, the Super Bowl and every other event at SoFi Stadium as it drew nearly 80,000 fans to the SoCal venue on Friday night.

It was the biggest crowd in the nearly history of the venue, which opened in September 2023.

The Bay Area band — consisting of vocalist-guitarist James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo — then basically tied their own record by drawing a similar-sized capacity crowd on Sunday.

The fans who purchased the more than 156,000 tickets for the two-concert stand, which was part of the group’s massive M72 World Tour, were treated to approximately three dozen songs during four hours of stage time. The band played a completely different setlist each night, making the performances feel more like two lengthy sets — rather than two full shows — separated by 46 hours.

Having closed Night 1 with a high-adrenaline run through three straight classics — “Fuel,” “Seek & Destroy” and “Master of Puppets” — Metallica picked right up where they left off and kicked off Night 2 with a powerful version of “Whiplash” from the 1983 debut “Kill ‘Em All.”

It was the start of another epic three-song run, as the band followed up “Whiplash” with equally muscular takes on “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “Ride the Lightning” — both of which hail from 1984’s genre-defining sophomore effort “Ride the Lightning.” (

Setlist:1. “Whiplash”2. “For Whom the Bell Tolls”3. “Ride the Lightning”4. “Dirty Window5. “72 Seasons”6. “If Darkness Had a Son”7. “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)”8. “You Must Burn!”9. “The Call of Ktulu”10. “No Leaf Clover”11. “Wherever I May Roam”12. “Moth Into Flame”13. “Fight Fire With Fire”14. “Whiskey in the Jar”15. “One”16. “Enter Sandman”