Ahead of Metallica‘s residency at the Las Vegas Sphere, Lars Ulrich has looked back at being there for U2‘s opening night at the state-of-the-art venue.
The drummer was there for the Irish band’s historic opening night at the Sphere in Las Vegas, and, speaking to U2 guitarist The Edge during his Close To The Edge show on SiriusXM, he said seeing it live made him reconsider what was possible on stage.
“I was there opening night and was so just fucking awestruck, inspired, energized – all of it,” Ulrich said. “It was just, like, ‘Holy shit, this is somehow another frontier’.
“Obviously, you guys were the first ones in, and it was just so incredible to see that night,” Ulrich continued. “So, in that spirit, three years later, when we start here in a few months, we’re so excited and definitely have heard from a few folks about the filming and all of it.”
Metallica are set to embark on their own residency at the Sphere this autumn. When the metal icons first announced their stint at the high-tech venue, the ‘Life Burns Faster’ run was initially slated for an eight date run between October 1 and October 31. After overwhelming demand from fans, the residency soon expanded to an extensive 24 nights and will now run weekly in two-date increments from October 2026 through March 2027.
“It’s gonna be challenging,” Ulrich said of the upcoming shows. “And obviously, like everybody else I’ve talked to about it, it’s overwhelming and fucking intimidating.”
“But hopefully when we step out on stage that first night, we’ll have it somewhat together. And as you know, that’s a place maybe we don’t end up in often enough, because we have a tendency to put ourselves in environments that we completely control and know. And so I think it’s really good to be able to throw yourself for a loop like that.”
The Sphere features massive wraparound 16K screens as well as a cutting-edge sound system, and has become a coveted destination for the biggest names in rock, with Metallica following U2, Phish, Dead & Company, and the Eagles in hosting a residency at the Sphere.
Last spring, Kirk Hammett spoke about the possibility of playing the arena, saying it was a “great example of how venues are changing”. He continued: “That’s using modern technology to the fullest, to really up the levels of production and entertainment, connected to AI and making it a crazy experience.”
Ulrich later revealed that the group were considering the Sphere, explaining that he would “fucking love to do it”. Robert Trujillo, meanwhile, said the “possibilities are endless” at the venue. “No heavy rock band has done this,” he added.
Ahead of their Sphere show, the band made a stop in London to wrap their mammoth ‘M72’ tour. The thrash metal icons took to the stage in the capital as part of the last UK and Ireland leg of their huge world tour, which kicked off back in April 2023 and celebrated the release of latest album ‘72 Seasons’.
London dates came following shows in Dublin, Glasgow, and Cardiff over the past couple of weeks, and the first of the two shows at London Stadium was played at the start of the month (July 3), where James Hetfield and co. broke out hits including ‘Master Of Puppets’, ‘Seek And Destroy’ and ‘Sad But True’.
Their last new music was the ‘72 Seasons’ album which dropped in 2023, although they did recently rerelease their 1997 album ‘Reload’ (Remastered)’, with previously unreleased demos, rough mixes, live performances and more.
The “Kirk and Rob Doodle” part of their live shows has recently seen them cover songs by The Pogues, The Proclaimers, a-ha, and ABBA, and even Tom Jones’ ‘Delilah’ in Cardiff’ – despite the song being banned from the Principality Stadium.
Metallica have also drawn attention for Kirk Hammett wearing a “Taylor Swift Is A CIA Psyop” shirt on stage, urged fans to donate blood and plasma by becoming the first-ever metal group to collaborate with UK blood services, and also donated £20,000 to a foodbank in Cardiff.
