The almighty Metallica are releasing a box set comprised of all their Australian and New Zealand shows from 2010-2013 entitled 25 Nights Down Under. Each show is a double disc recording. As the title implies, it’s 25 shows, so that gives you 50 discs of live Metallica to listen to for the price of $395. A list of the cities/shows the recordings are from, songs performed and a few thoughts can be found after the jump.
Shows:
September 15, 2010 Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, Australia
September 16, 2010 Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, Australia
September 18, 2010 Acer Arena, Sydney, Australia
September 21, 2010 CBC Canterbury Arena, Christchurch, New Zealand
September 22, 2010 CBC Canterbury Arena, Christchurch, New Zealand
October 13, 2010 Vector Arena, Auckland, New Zealand
October 14, 2010 Vector Arena, Auckland, New Zealand
October 16, 2010 Entertainment Center, Brisbane, Australia
October 18, 2010 Entertainment Center, Brisbane, Australia
October 19, 2010 Entertainment Center, Brisbane, Australia
October 22, 2010 Burswood Dome, Perth, Australia
October 23, 2010 Burswood Dome, Perth, Australia
November 10, 2010 Acer Arena, Sydney, Australia
November 11, 2010 Acer Arena, Sydney, Australia
November 13, 2010 Acer Arena, Sydney, Australia
November 15, 2010 Entertainment Center, Adelaide, Australia
November 16, 2010 Entertainment Center, Adelaide, Australia
November 18, 2010 Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, Australia
November 20, 2010 Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, Australia
November 21, 2010 Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, Australia
February 23, 2013 Soundwave Festival, Brisbane, Australia
February 24, 2013 Soundwave Festival, Sydney, Australia
March 1, 2013 Soundwave Festival, Melbourne, Australia
March 2, 2013 Soundwave Festival, Adelaide, Australia
March 4, 2013 Soundwave Festival, Perth, Australia
Songs Performed:
All Nightmare Long, Am I Evil?, …And Justice for All, Battery, Blackened, Blitzkrieg, Breadfan, Broken, Beat & Scarred, The Call of Ktulu, Creeping Death, Cyanide, Damage, Inc., The Day That Never Comes, Die, Die My Darling, Disposable Heroes, Dyers Eve, The End of the Line, Enter Sandman, Fade to Black, Fight Fire with Fire, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Four Horsemen, Fuel, The God that Failed, Harvester of Sorrow, Helpless, Hit the Lights, Holier Than Thou, I Disappear, The Judas Kiss, Jump in the Fire, Last Caress, Leper Messiah, Master of Puppets, The Memory Remains, Metal Militia, Motorbreath, My Apocalypse, My Friend of Misery, No Leaf Clover, No Remorse, Nothing Else Matters, Of Wolf and Man, One, Orion, The Outlaw Torn, Phantom Lord, Ride the Lightning, Sad But True, Seek and Destroy, The Shortest Straw, Stone Cold Crazy, That Was Just Your Life, The Thing That Should Not Be, Through the Never, Trapped Under Ice, Turn the Page, The Unforgiven, The Unforgiven III, Welcome Home (Sanitarium), Wherever I May Roam, Whiplash
Now, Metallica are no strangers to selling their live performances. From posting up all of their live shows for sale, which was a natural extension into the digital age of when they would allow people to bring tape recorders to their shows and bootleg them, to their awesome, professionally recorded Live Shit: Binge & Purge box set and numerous DVDs and CDs, the band are not one to shy away from their live presence even as they’ve aged. With such wide availability of their already previously released material performed live over the course of nearly three decades, I can’t help but ask the question, “Did anyone really need this?” Box sets are usually meant for collecting rarities/entire albums in a nice, usually enhanced package that can often be picked up by newer fans of the band for a (sometimes) reasonable price. This just seems to be exploiting a collector’s need to collect and not asking, “Is this necessary?” I honestly can’t think of anyone who would need/want this besides the aforementioned hardcore collectors and super fans. Cash grabs are inevitable, especially from a band and business as big as Metallica, but this one feels particularly shameless as it caters to almost nobody, not even the people who attended these shows. If you attended one of the shows, chances are you won’t want the show before it, the show after it and the one after that one. You would only want your show to possibly relive that moment in your life, not one that you had no attachment to where material is going to repeat. As someone who obsessively collected Metallica albums/singles, live shows on DVD/CD and even subscribed to MetClub for a year, this just feels like it has no place being included in Metallica’s physical discography and even slightly disrespectful to the bands diehard fans. Aside from a few live rarities, I’m sure these shows can’t all be so special that they warranted collecting in a box set. If you have an intense feeling of nationalism in regards to Metallica playing in your home country of New Zealand or Australia and need to hear every show they played in a three year span, then this is for you. If you are not one of those people, please ignore this and make sure your money stays as far away from it as possible.
-RC