I just watched Metallica play in front of a few hundred people including Paul McCartney, Michael J. Fox and Sylvester Stallone - here's what it was like

It’s a family affair — if your family reunion was gatecrashed by the biggest metal band on the planet and they decided to turn your garden tent into ground zero for riffs. That’s what Metallica’s one-off at Stephen’s Talkhouse feels like: a neighbourhood bar suddenly hijacked by giants.

Only Metallica can pull off a show this small yet this seismic. The Hamptons sun is blazing outside, and inside the backyard tent it’s pure furnace heat. No support act. Just 95 minutes of undiluted Metallica, hammering through thirteen of their biggest anthems with the kind of feral joy you don’t get in stadiums. “This reminds us of the club days of course, when we’d get all hot and sweaty. Close and personal. And everyone just having a great time. Super loud. Everyone feels safe, and like they belong,” James Hetfield grins - and he’s not wrong.

Metallica are celebrating the launch of their new 24-hour satellite radio channel Maximum Metallica on SiriusXM and have invited just few hundred people for the occasion. There’s Paul McCartney, Chad Smith, Michael J. Fox, Sylvester Stallone and other well-known faces alongside hardcore fans and Metallica’s own families and friends.

The set is loose, loud, and lethal. Kirk and Rob lock horns in their trademark circling duel, a whirl of riffs and low-slung bass thunder. James and Rob climb up on Lars’ riser like mates goofying around in rehearsals. From the front rows you can actually see individual sweat beads dripping down their faces - a reminder that this is still a band that bleeds for its music no matter the size of the stage.

Then there’s the irreverence only Metallica can summon: Kirk points at “the guy in sunglasses over there, the guy named Howard” in the crowd - Stern, of course - saying the next bit is Howard’s idea, before he and Rob launch into a spirited doodle of Crazy Train. “Ozzy, we love you, and we miss you” Kirk says, and the tent erupts.

This is their first live hit-out since they shared the stage with Ozzy Osbourne at Back to the Beginning, and one of the smallest shows of their career. But the sound is colossal, the vibe electric. Even Metallica’s families and friends shake their heads in disbelief, telling me they “can’t remember the last time we saw them like this.”

Dream gig? More like a living, breathing reminder that Metallica don’t just play shows. They shapeshift—titans filling a small space, transforming a simple tent into an otherwordly experience that is somehow both epic and intensely personal.

Metallica Stephen Talkhouse Setlist

Creeping Death
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Wherever I May Roam
Fuel
Fade to Black
Sad but True
The Unforgiven
Whiskey in the Jar
Nothing Else Matters
Seek & Destroy
Master of Puppets
Enter Sandman