In an Instagram post from Thursday, March 14th — the 37th anniversary of Metallica’s first show ever — the band’s drummer and co-founder Lars Ulrich shares memories of the momentous gig. The concert took place at Radio City in Anaheim, California, and featured a nine-song set including just two originals (“Hit the Lights” and “Jump in the Fire”) among an array of NWOBHM covers.
“As you can tell from the notes in my diary, it was my first gig ever and I was ‘very nervous.'(!),” the percussionist recalled with obvious nostalgia. He continued, “Additionally, you eagle-eyed observers may notice that there’s not a lot of ‘Tallica originals being performed here at the first outing, but almost all NWOBHM covers, most of which ended up being recorded later along the way and showing up on various Garage releases…”
The main photo in the post shows a young Ulrich manning the drum kit he played at that inaugural show, though the picture itself is from a gig that happened later that year, as none exist of Metallica’s first live performance. He also included the event flyer for the show, which describes the band — at the time, Ulrich, James Hetfield, Dave Mustaine and bassist Ron McGovney — as “the young metal attack,” as well as a hand-written set list.
Additionally, Ulrich shared his diary entry from that day, which outlines the details of the gig, from the crowd capacity (75) to the band’s pay for the show ($15), along with his critique of Metallica’s performance: “played so so.” See the full post below.