In a recent interview with WMMR Philadelphia, Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett reflected on the early days of the band, including a wild gig in the City of Brotherly Love.
Metallica is currently on their M72 Tour is currently underway, though there’s no Philly date set at this time. When asked when they might return to our area, Hammett was elusive, but he did say: “I’ll never forget that Tower Theater show, during the Ride the Lightning tour, ’cause it was radical. We busted the place up, and I remember that show was so crazy… We were talking about that show for years afterwards. Legendary. And this is how much of an impression they made on me, ’cause I still remember it.”
That was on January 12th, 1985. Nearly forty years later, is there a chance for Round 2 of Upper Darby destruction? “We should play it just for old time’s sake. You know? That would be actually very, very cool.”
The Tower Theater has been largely dormant since 2019. It’s currently owned by Live Nation. The future of the building remains unknown.
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During the interview, Hammett seemed amazed at what Metallica was able to accomplish in those early years, back when the Bay Area thrash scene was bubbling under in the early ’80s, eventually producing metal titans like Slayer, Megadeth, Exodus, and his own band.
“We were all so young,” he said about their formative years. “but we had a very clear vision of what we wanted to do, what we wanted to sound like, how we wanted to execute things, the type of songs we wanted to write… When we were making those (first two) albums and touring behind them, we just kind of took it for granted. It was just like, ‘All right, we did that. Let’s go on to the next thing.’ We never sat down and really thought about the accomplishment that we made, right? And so, 40 years later, I’m able to do that and go, man, we really pulled something off.”
Watch Radio Sara‘s interview in its entirety below, and stream the podcast here. Keep your eyes on our Concert Calendar for Metallica’s eventual return to Philadelphia, and in the meantime, you can see Brent Porche’s show recap from Night #2 at MetLife Stadium here.
