As many might have guessed, Day 2 of the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco was all about Metallica. Given that Golden Gate Park was likely the only hometown venue the Bay Area quartet hadn’t performed at during its 31-year career, their day-capping show took the cake for most historically significant of the weekend.

Click here for more photos from Outside Lands.

Though it’s certainly debatable, I’d say the outfit’s two-hour, pyro-packed, fireworks-filled set – comprised chiefly of highly regarded ’80s classics – easily beat out Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s powerhouse performance on Friday and is likely to trump Stevie Wonder’s sure-to-be impressive event-closing concert Sunday night.

Frontman James Hetfield, guitarist Kirk Hammett, bassist Robert Trujillo and drummer Lars Ulrich were clearly out to prove something with selections that began and concluded with their oldest and most thrash-focused material, avoiding anything post-’97 save for “Hell and Back,” from last December’s Beyond Magnetic EP.

Read more on Outside Lands on the Soundcheck Blog.

Article and photos by David Hall, for the Orange County Register.

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