It’s no secret that a live Metallica show is a total bone-shattering monolith. The thrash-rock stalwarts have truly used their status to push the boundaries of what’s possible in a live music setting.
Chad Zaemisch, the longtime guitar tech of James Hetfield for over 16 years, has seen the ins and outs of the odyssey that is putting on a Metallica show. In a new interview with Ultimate Guitar, Zaemich has offered an illuminating insight into the Metallica live show production, reflecting on the performance he deems to have been the most “dangerous.”
Reflecting on the “sketchiest” live performance he’s had to work on, Zaemisch reflected on a performance that was set to grace New Delhi in India— that was ultimately cancelled because it was deemed too risky.
“Apart from severe weather, the most dangerous situation was the show near New Delhi, India that we had to cancel,” Zaemisch revealed. “Our security team had been trying to work with the local promoter to shore up the barricade for two days. They couldn’t pull it off and it was ugly.”
Ultimately, Metallica and the crew determined that it would be too risky to perform without an appropriate barrier, and discretely packed up the show whilst punters were already at the venue. Naturally, upon announcing the cancellation, all havoc broke lose.
“That barricade would have impaled some young kid and it wasn’t worth it. When we found out the show wasn’t going to happen, the kids were already in the stadium,” he added. “We very discreetly put the band gear back into the shipping containers without anyone seeing what was happening. When the announcement was made, the kids stormed the stage and backstage area. Some of us were thrown into some van and were raced back to the hotel.”
He continued, “We returned later to assess the damage to the set and the video and sound gear. We still have a Ziplock bag filled with broken knobs pinned to the wall of the band’s studio. I’ve been on a couple sketchy bus and taxi rides in faraway places but none that beat that day.”
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Elsewhere in the interview, Zaemisch reflected on the band’s once-in-a-lifetime performance in Antartica.
“Antarctica was a very interesting trip,” he mused. “There were a lot of technical and logistical challenges with that one, but I only have fond memories of that part of the planet.”
He continued, “I feel very fortunate to have been a part of that. It’s not every day you pass by whales in an inflatable raft to get to work. We were solar-powered, and we were not allowed to make the kind of racket we’re used to with speakers.
“We kept the disturbance to the environment to an absolute minimum including noise pollution. As it turns out, the penguins are not too keen on the metal.”
The implication that penguins are not keen on metal suggests that penguins have a propensity for music of another genre, but we’ll save that investigation for another ay.
