While Metallica have been selling out stadiums all over the world, they have not done a proper tour, in the States at least, in seven years… 2009 to be exact.
Instead the band has been sticking to doing huge one-offs in stadiums, like this week at U.S. Bank Stadium, and doing a great job of packing these places. But what about the arenas? What about the secondary markets? Well, with a new album on the way, Metallica promise to make it to a town near you. Talking to Rolling Stone earlier this week, drummer Lars Ulrich said:
"We did 180 shows on the Death Magnetic tour in two-week periods over three years," says drummer Lars Ulrich. "That's what works for us. We're going to start pretty much full-on touring in January and are looking to figure out what we're doing in North America, but there will definitely be some pretty extensive touring in America."
Lars also notes the band are itching to play new songs live:
"We're itching to play them," the drummer says. "Right now, every day when we get into the Tuning Room we're just playing the new songs. Then we're like, 'Wait, we gotta get out there and play 'Master of Puppets.'"
"Some of the stuff on Death Magnetic was pretty cerebral," he says. "You had to really think about what the next crazy part is that was coming up. Some of the songs from the new record are a little more physical. It's gonna be a lot of fun to play this. Also, some of these songs are a little shorter than the ones on Death Magnetic. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun to throw many of these songs in, but we'll change the setlist every night like we always do."
Is Metallica going to be playing arenas in early 2017? Or are they going to start their touring overseas and save their big US tour for the summer, and bring back their epic Summer Sanitarium tour? OR are they going to play smaller venues first, undersell them and THEN play arenas?
The options are endless, but one thing is for sure…
They're comin' for you!
