Metallica has spent five decades in the business of making an audience feel something. On December 13th at YouTube Theater in Inglewood, the band did it again – and did it on their own terms, in a room of roughly 6,000 people, for a cause that has quietly become one of rock’s most consequential philanthropic efforts. The 4th biennial All Within My Hands Helping Hands Concert and Auction was, by any reasonable measure, one of the most musically remarkable Metallica evenings Los Angeles has ever witnessed.
The All Within My Hands Foundation, established by the band in 2017 as a vehicle for giving back to communities that have supported them throughout their career, has now raised over $15 million – delivering more than $8.2 million in grants to career and technical education programs through the Metallica Scholars Initiative, over $3.6 million to combat food insecurity, and more than $3.5 million in disaster relief. The Helping Hands concert is its flagship event, and this fourth edition, hosted once again by Jimmy Kimmel, raised every expectation the previous three had set and cleared them comfortably.
The evening was structured in two distinct halves – an acoustic set and an electric set – each accompanied by collaborators Avi Vinocur and Henry Salvia, whose contributions gave the night a chamber-music intimacy that Metallica’s standard arena productions cannot replicate. Before the band took the stage, attendees were treated to a set by Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani, and Kenny Aronoff, a supergroup pairing that warmed the YouTube Theater crowd with a generosity of spirit that set the evening’s tone perfectly. Jason Momoa introduced the band with an enthusiasm that suggested he had been waiting considerably longer than the audience for the show to begin.
The acoustic set opened with a genuine rarity: “Low Man’s Lyric,” the closing track from 1997’s Reload, performed for the first time since September 1998 in San Diego – a gap of over 26 years. Its appearance, delicate and unhurried, reminded the room that James Hetfield’s voice carries as much weight in quiet registers as it does at full volume. That was followed by an acoustic take on Diamond Head’s “Helpless,” last played acoustically in Tokyo in 1998, and the live debut of a cover of Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “Away From Home” – a song from 1975 that Metallica had never before performed in concert. “If Darkness Had a Son” and “Nothing Else Matters” completed the acoustic portion, the latter serving as an emotional anchor for a room that contains multitudes of Metallica generations.
The electric set was where the night shifted into something approaching historic. “Orion,” the wordless instrumental from Master of Puppets, opened the second half with an authority that reminded the audience what Cliff Burton’s loss has meant across four decades. “The Shortest Straw” followed – its first live performance in nearly three years – and “Until It Sleeps” marked its first Southern California appearance in over 25 years. “Screaming Suicide,” from the 72 Seasons album, received its Los Angeles debut. And “The Unforgiven II” appeared for only the seventh time in the band’s entire live history, having last been played nine years prior in Quebec City – a moment that left seasoned Metallica chroniclers visibly stunned.
Two moments defined the electric set’s upper register. Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament joined the band on 12-string bass for “Hit the Lights,” the opening track from Kill ‘Em All and a song that represents the very beginning of Metallica as a recorded entity. Ament’s presence brought an unexpected cross-generational charge to a track that already carries 40-plus years of accumulated weight. And during “Master of Puppets,” Jason Momoa – who had introduced the band with characteristic intensity – returned to the stage with his children in tow, the family rocking out in front of Hetfield for the song’s duration in a moment equal parts absurd and genuinely moving.
The electric set closed with a reimagined version of “Fuel” – its live debut in this new arrangement – featuring Hetfield on baritone guitar, a configuration that gave the track a darker, more deliberate center of gravity than its recorded counterpart. It was a fitting conclusion to a set defined by the willingness to interrogate a catalog most bands would simply coast on. Metallica could fill SoFi Stadium on a Tuesday with a standard setlist and still sell every seat. That they choose instead to close each touring cycle with an intimate benefit concert built around rarities, covers, and genuine musical risk-taking says something about who they are after five decades in the game. The Helping Hands Concert is not an afterthought – it is a statement. On December 13th at YouTube Theater, Los Angeles got to hear exactly what that statement sounds like up close. It sounded like nothing else.
Setlist: Low Man’s Lyric // Helpless (Diamond Head cover) // Away From Home (Bachmann-Turner cover) // If Darkness Had a Son // Nothing Else Matters // Orion // The Shortest Straw // Until It Sleeps // Screaming Suicide // The Unforgiven II // Fuel // Hit the Lights // Master of Puppets