Metallica’s Music Festival
Admittedly, I’m not the biggest Metallica fan, especially anything post-…And Justice For All, so when I heard that they were being given the opportunity to curate their own festival, I have to say, I cringed. The Orion Music & More Festival, a reference to a Metallica song off of Master of Puppets, will take place in Atlantic City June 23 and 24, but that’s not the crazy part. The news story here is who Metallica handpicked to be on the bill for the two-day festival.
Titus Andronicus, Modest Mouse, A Place To Bury Strangers, Black Angels, F****ed Up, Best Coast, and the newly reformed Hot Snakes are just a few of the selections. Wait. What? James Hetfield knows who the Hot Snakes are?! In truth, these selections have made me want to reevaluate my thoughts on Metallica as a bunch of once-great aging thrashers who are doing everything in their power to stay relevant by refusing to experiment with their sound only to sound louder, dumber, and ultimately less convincing. Did you hear the Metallica-Lou Reed collaboration album? I rest my case.
Apparently, Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino had similar thoughts, calling LOUtallica, “the worst thing (she’s) ever heard.” Ironically enough, Best Coast was selected by Hetfield and his crew to play the festival. This brings up an interesting question, though; did they not see Cosentino’s comments? Are they good sports and can see past artistic differences? Or have they actually gotten some perspective on the project and realized that, yes, it is awful? In any case, I feel like I need to toast Metallica for putting together one of the most exciting bills in rock’n’roll at the moment.
As pointed out by Pitchfork, Lou Reed was curiously left off of the Metallica-curated bill. Considering that their collaborative album, Lulu, was only released in October, it seems pretty weird that neither Metallica nor Reed would want to promote the album by playing it live. It’s yet to be seen if the album gets any kind of tour support, but if a year from now there hasn’t been any, I think it’s safe to say that neither artist loves the record as much as they thought they did.
Despite some of the potential drama brewing underneath, The Orion Festival sounds like a perfect way to spend a couple days in New Jersey. Metallica has stated that they will play The Black Album and Ride the Lighting in their entirety over the course of two nights; this also might be your last chance ever to see the criminally underrated Hot Snakes.
