Can't Make It to Metallica's 30th Anniversary Concerts? Celebrate at These Shows Instead

slaughterbythewater.com

Witchaven headlines MetClub's 30-year celebration.

​If you aren't a member of Metallica's fan club and didn't succumb to a scalper, chances are that you aren't going to catch the Bay Area metal titans' 30th Anniversary concerts at the Fillmore this week. But even if you can't make those, you can still soak up the headbanging spirit at a couple smaller Metallica-related shows in S.F. Here's a quick guide to the festivities.

Metallibash on Thursday, Dec. 8, will be the last ever metal-oriented show at Kimo's, which is closing at the end of the year, to be reborn as a DJ-powered cocktail bar. The site of secret Metallica shows of yore, this year's tribute features the American debut of Latvian band Relicseed, which has marked the occasion with the above video. The event begins at 7 p.m., with a book reading and signing by Lonn Friend, talking head in all those Behind the Music specials, as well as author of Sweet Demotion: How an Almost Famous Rock Journalist Lost Everything and Found Himself (Almost). Admission is $10 and includes more, unbilled bands as well as a Metallica jam band comprised of various players. Apparently actual Metallica members have popped up at past Metallibashes, though the event's Facebook page goes out of its way to state that this shouldn't be expected.

The next night (Dec. 9), the Northern California chapter of the Metallica Club (or MetClub for short), called For Whom the Bay Tolls, offers its own anniversary-marking shindig at Thee Parkside at 9 p.m. with bands Witchaven, Exmortus, Midnight Chaser, and Tinnitus all peppering sets with Metallica covers (and actual Metallica songs and bootleg videos playing in between and in the background). "We chose these bands because we feel they embody the spirit of early Metallica," writes a fan club rep. "Uncompromising, hungry, and ripping!" Admission is $5.

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