Aug 29, Metallica hosted a drive-in concert called “Pandemica,” a live concert streamed to drive-in movie theaters. They held over 300 drive-ins, all over the United States and in Canada. Tickets sold for $115 per vehicle, which allowed up to six people to be in one car. Locally, the Admiral Drive In, located in Tulsa, hosted the event and every car space was filled. Some came in trucks and sat in the back, but plenty of people sat on grass or in lawn chairs. The concession stand was also taking extra precautions by making people wear masks, stay distant and limiting the people allowed in the building.

Metallica was supposed to play at different festivals like Louder The Life Fest, but unfortunately it was canceled due to the Coronavirus. Instead Metallica improvised, and came up with the idea to do a concert at drive, for the safety of their fans. With everything that is going on in the world it is important to be creative. Plenty of artists are doing live stream concerts or releasing youtube videos of them performing their songs. 

“Three Days Grace” opened the show with some of their biggest hits like “I Hate Everything About You” and “Animal I Have Become.” After they performed, it was time for Metallica. They opened with a song off of their most recent album “Hardwired,” and the crowd was amazed. Some might think that the energy would not be as intense on screen versus in person, but it was. 

When Metallica played “One” it was like everyone was stunned by the emotion expressed through the song. I could feel the power and emotion that was radiating from the crowd. The most influential song they played was ‘The Unforgiven’ and when the intro started the audience went wild. Everyone was screaming the song with a passion. 

Lead singer, James Hetfield spoke from Colorado about the amount of drive-ins that the concert was being broadcast, while the rest of the band guessed which state had the most drive-ins.

Metallica ended the concert with an all time favorite, “Enter Sandman,” leaving the crowd ecstatic. Even though it was pre-recorded, it felt live, the main takeaway from the concert was to have a good time while social distancing. It was such a great way for fans to see Metallica. Even though they could not tour, they did the next best thing to make it about the fans.

Contact Hailey Paddock at [email protected]