{"id":8212,"date":"2025-10-16T17:35:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T17:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/8212\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T17:35:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T17:35:07","slug":"metallica-performs-at-dreamforce-concert-in-san-francisco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/8212\/","title":{"rendered":"Metallica performs at Dreamforce concert in San Francisco"},"content":{"rendered":"

The average T-shirt breakdown at a Metallica concert<\/a> goes something like this: 94 percent Metallica<\/a> shirts, 2 percent Iron Maiden, 2 percent Black Sabbath, 1 percent Slayer, 1 percent Slipknot and .00001 percent Britney Spears\/Taylor Swift. (You always have that one guy being ironic with his shirt choice.)<\/p>\n

The fact that there were far more button-ups and polos than concert T\u2019s to be seen in the Metallica<\/a> crowd on Wednesday night \u2014 probably by a ratio of 100:1 \u2014 clearly underscored that the biggest Bay Area band of all time wasn\u2019t playing one of its regular shows at Chase Center in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

No, the hard-hitting quartet \u2014 featuring vocalist-guitarist James Hetfield<\/a>, drummer Lars Ulrich, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo \u2014 had arrived to perform a massive corporate gig during Saleforce\u2019s Dreamforce conference. This Dreamfest concert, which doubled as a benefit for UCSF Benioff Children\u2019s Hospitals, was astronomically priced, with tickets starting (!) at $1,500 a pop and then quickly moving up from there in a manner that resembled a Richter scale.<\/p>\n

Dreamfest always gets huge-name acts \u2014 with past participants including Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers and U2 \u2014 and this year\u2019s fandango not only featured mighty Metallica<\/a> but rising pop star Benson Boone, who performed across the street from Chase on a stage erected at Bayfront Park. The sets took place at roughly the same time, giving fans the choice between Hammett guitar solos and Boone backflips.<\/p>\n

In other words, the choice was pretty simple:<\/p>\n

Metallica<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The band \u2014 which was playing its third Dreamfest gig, following bookings in 2011 and 2018 \u2014 treated the techies to a \u201cgreatest hits\u201d style show that ran some 90 minutes and included a dozen songs.<\/p>\n

Performing in-the-round, with concert-goers lined up on each of the four sides of the relatively no-frills stage, Metallica came out the gate with a head of steam and hit the crowd with a ferocious version of the \u201cRide the Lightning\u201d favorite \u201cCreeping Death.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSing it,\u201d Hetfield demanded of the crowd. \u201cDid you bring your voices?\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, the attendees brought their voices. But the problem is that \u201cCreeping Death\u201d isn\u2019t \u201cEnter Sandman,\u201d so many of these casual fans \u2014 who are in San Francisco to attend the conference \u2014 probably didn\u2019t know the words.<\/p>\n

Sure, it\u2019s unavoidable that these things have a bit of a \u201ccorporate gig\u201d type feel to it, but that didn\u2019t stop anyone from having a grand time \u2014 and it certainly didn\u2019t keep Metallica from putting its all into the performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are hear to have some fun tonight,\u201d Hetfield remarked. \u201cSo, join us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ulrich, in particular, seemed to be pushing for greatness from the first swing of the drumstick until the last note of the night, powering the band through such marquee numbers as \u201cFor Whom the Bell Tolls,\u201d \u201cFuel\u201d and \u201cWherever I May Roam.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hetfield was in typically good humor, goofing with the crowd and remarking that he was curious about what was happening on the other Dreamfest stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, is that Benson Boone guy on right now?\u201d Hetfield said of the young pop star, who packed Chase Center on his own earlier in the month. \u201cI want to see it. I want to see the backflip.\u201d<\/p>\n

He even told one lighthearted joke at the audience\u2019s expense.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many tech guys does it take to screw in a light bulb?\u201d the singer asked. \u201cNone. They call a tradesman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mainly, he just kept right on rocking \u2014 just like he does at every gig, be it a stadium show on the group\u2019s ongoing M72 World tour or a corporate gig for Silicon Valley types \u2014 sounding great on the microphone as he crooned through \u201cNothing Else Matters,\u201d \u201cThe Memory Remains\u201d and others.<\/p>\n

Hammett was pure mastery on guitar throughout the evening, really turning heads with his leads on \u201cThe Unforgiven\u201d and \u201cMaster of Puppets,\u201d while Trujillo thundered through the groove in all the right ways.<\/p>\n

Fans had been waiting all night for \u201cEnter Sandman\u201d and they\u2019d finally get it as a closing number, which prompted one of the worst mosh pits of all time \u2014 basically like three guys running around and occasionally almost bumping into each other \u2014 and sending everyone back to their hotels with smiles on their faces.<\/p>\n

Metallica setlist:1. \u201cCreeping Death\u201d2. \u201cFor Whom the Bell Tolls\u201d3. \u201cFuel\u201d4. \u201cThe Memory Remains\u201d5. \u201cThe Unforgiven\u201d6. \u201cSad but True\u201d7. \u201cWherever I May Roam\u201d8. \u201cNothing Else Matters\u201d9. \u201cSeek & Destroy\u201d10. \u201cOne\u201d11. \u201cMaster of Puppets\u201d12. \u201cEnter Sandman\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally Published: October 16, 2025 at 9:48 AM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The average T-shirt breakdown at a Metallica concert goes something like this: 94 percent Metallica shirts, 2 percent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[184,7,8256,2644,967,181,330,395,8257,8258,2570,101,396,103,102,104,106,105,420],"class_list":{"0":"post-8212","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-chase-center","11":"tag-concerts","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-music","15":"tag-peninsula","16":"tag-pop-music","17":"tag-rock-music","18":"tag-salesforce","19":"tag-san-francisco","20":"tag-san-francisco-county","21":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","22":"tag-san-francisco-news","23":"tag-sf","24":"tag-sf-headlines","25":"tag-sf-news","26":"tag-things-to-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}