Lets have a party - Metallica's 30th Birthday

When many bands hit their 30th anniversary, the conventional wisdom is to commence prepping for the retirement/retread circuit.  Metallica, as is their M.O., opted to do otherwise.  The Big 4 tour, featuring the Bay Area legends plus fellow thrash pioneers Anthrax, Slayer, and Megadeth, had a successful second run this year including a grand finale at Yankee Stadium.  Conversely, their collaboration with Lou Reed, Lulu, managed to offend everyone on the planet along with a few neighboring galaxies (although I still insist there was a redeeming moment or two).

As a grand finale to their 30th year, the Godfathers of Thrash announced a series of intimate, fan-club only shows at the Fillmore in their native San Francisco.  The minute the shows were announced the speculation started as to what they'd play, who would show up, would Dave be there, how about Jason, etc??  As shown over the past week, these were shows that won't soon be forgotten.  While the shows were a celebration of Metallica's storied career,  the band, in many ways, took a step back and put the spotlight on their influences, friends, and bands that they cut their teeth with back in the day.

Here's a breakdown of who was there each night:

December 5th: Apocolyptica, Jason Newsted, Biff Byford (Saxon), John Marshall, Brian Tatler/Sean Harris (Diamond Head) -

December 7th: Armored Saint (opening band), Marianne Faithful, Ray Haller (Sweet Savage), John Bush (Armored Saint), Kid Rock, Lou Reed, Jason Newsted, Mercyful Fate

December 9th: Laaz Rockit (opening band), Jerry Cantrell (Alice In Chains), Animal (Anti-Nowhere League), Gary Rossingon (Lynyrd Skynyrd), Pepper Keenan (COC, Down), Jim Martin (Faith No More), Glenn Danzig (Misfits/Samhain/Danzig), Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Jason Newsted

December 10: Death Angel (opening band), Bob Rock, Jason Newsted, Ozzy Osbourne (who this guy), Geezer Butler (Ozzy's partner in crime), Hugh Tanner (James' original bandmate), The original Metallica (Hetfield, Ulrich, Dave Mustaine, Ron McGovney + Lloyd Grant).  

As you can tell by the participants, these were shows transcended even the host band.  This became a living, breathing history of heavy metal going back to those ominous rain drops and church bells on side 1, song 1 of Black Sabbath to current day metal.  For 30 years,  Metallica has always worn their influences proudly on their sleeves and for these four shows, they offered up their stage to them.

"We never stop, we never quit, cuz we're Metallica"