Taylor Swift’s Eraser Tour broke countless records. To name a few, on the opening night of the tour in Glendale, Arizona, she became the artist with the highest audience, managing to gather 69,000 people. Swift also broke the record for the artist who generated the largest demand on the Ticketmaster platform in its entire history: 3.5 million people attempted to get tickets at the same time (US only). What’s more, Taylor is on the verge of breaking the record for the highest-grossing tour of all time, which Elton John still holds at $939 million, surpassing the billion-dollar mark.
In this context, it seems that the rest of the artists around the world can only remotely recognize the resounding success of Taylor Swift. But against all odds, there’s still one band cheekily dubbed “the music industry” who can fight back: Metallica.
The main thrash metal group performed at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, the venue where Taylor performed the last six shows of her tour of the United States and has hosted various Hollywood personalities such as Sofia Vergara, Sarah Paulson, Amy Adams, Alexandra Daddario, Brie Larson, and Elizabeth Banks. Swift managed to draw 70,240 spectators to SoFi Stadium, which sold out nightly, while Metallica drew 78,000 fans, breaking Swift’s record at the Rams’ home stadium.
How was it possible for Metallica to break that record when Swift sold out? The answer lies in the scenario the group came up with for their new tour, the M72 World Tour. The stage is notable for bringing the band to the center of the stadium with a ring-shaped platform. This way, the fans are surrounded by the band in a small hole, allowing more people to enter the concert.
The venue already acknowledged Metallica’s achievement with a brief congratulations on two purely historic evenings.
“Metallica now holds the attendance record for a single concert at SoFi Stadium. Thank you for two incredible nights with sold-out tickets!
As explained by Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, this setting is inspired by restaurants because, according to the band’s manager, in the ’80s “you were in the craziest restaurants, if you could somehow get into the kitchen and eat in it, where all the action was.” Was. So the San Francisco residents figured they could create a stage where fans could go “straight into the kitchen” and see, hear, and feel the group’s monstrous team up close.
In short, Metallica has thrown everything on the grill for this tour, including the backdrop. To move and install all parts of their show, the band and their crew travel in a total of 87 trucks, 45 of which are for the group and their assembly, while two groups of 21 trucks are intended exclusively for the stage.
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