These are the Insane Numbers Behind Metallica’s Summer Stadium Tour
Rolling Stone has posted an extensive feature on Metallica’s current summer stadium tour, and contained within are some mind-boggling numbers about each show’s production that’ll make your head spin. Some quick stats:
- The stage production travels between cities on 48 trucks
- Each show takes three days to set up
- More than 40,000 individual speakers deliver over 350,000 total watts of audio
- The stage features 83 laser fixtures, which took a combined 640 hours to program to the band’s songs
- Each night, the show generates 2.5 megawatts of power, which is enough to power 1,800 homes for a month
Like I said, insane.
But such is the business of stadium touring, which has become an extreme rarity in metal these days. Elsewhere in the feature, Kirk Hammett wonders aloud why that is: “There are a few bands still doing it on a level that’s similar to back in the day. There’s Guns N’ Roses, Tool, I wanna say Rage Against the Machine, but I’m not sure what their status is right now. But it’s weird. Like, what happened to everyone? Did they just fade away, give up? Did they lose interest? Did the audience lose interest? Why did the audience lose interest? There are a bunch of different questions on why they’re not here now and why are we.”
How will those numbers translate into dollars and cents for Metallica? The ongoing Guns N’ Roses reunion tour, which kicked off last year and is also mostly playing stadiums, has grossed over $230 million to date on last count so it’s not unreasonable to expect Metallica to meet or surpass that, although limiting themselves to 50 shows per year might make that tough. Still, on a per-show basis, I’m sure Metallica will give GN’R a good run.
Read the full feature at Rolling Stone. Thanks to The PRP for the link.
