Hear Metallica cover House of the Rising Sun on their half-acoustic/half-electric livestream

Saturday night (November 14) saw Metallica perform a live set from their HQ in San Rafael, Northern California, as part of its Helping Hands Live & Acoustic From HQ livestream – and the setlist was full of surprises.

For starters, although the event was billed as an acoustic evening, it was in fact composed of an acoustic and electric set.

The acoustic part of proceedings featured the band’s 2020 take on Blackened and an acoustic version of Creeping Death, as well as Deep Purple (When a Blind Man Cries) and Bob Seger (Turn the Page) covers.

Once the band fired up the amps – or, more likely, Axe-Fx – they rattled through a few more unexpected cuts, including a dirgy take on the Animals’ beginner-guitar staple House of the Rising Sun – and even a heavy electric version of the acoustic version of Disposable Heroes... which isn’t confusing at all.

Other classics peppered throughout the sets include The Unforgiven, Nothing Else Matters, For Whom the Bell Tolls and Master of Puppets.

Joining the band were mandolin player and multi-instrumentalist Avi Vinocur and keyboard player Henry Salvia, while James Hetfield’s son Castor and Lars Ulrich’s son Layne added backing vocals and percussion to the acoustic version of All Within My Hands.

You can watch a preview of the performance above – including clips of Disposable Heroes and House of the Rising Sun – and head to Metallica.com and nugs.net to watch the full stream. All proceeds will benefit the All Within My Hands Foundation, which raises money for a number of charitable causes.

The band will also be auctioning off a variety of Metallica items and experiences, including Hetfield’s signed Martin D-28 guitar. This is in addition to the one-of-a-kind Godin A5 Ultra Bass Rob Trujillo played and signed at the show.

The full livestream setlist is below:

Acoustic set

1. Blackened
2. Creeping Death
3. When A Blind Man Cries (Deep Purple cover)
4. The Unforgiven
5. Now That We're Dead
6. Turn The Page (Bob Seger cover)
7. Nothing Else Matters
8. All Within My Hands

Electric set

1. Disposable Heroes
2. House Of The Rising Sun (The Animals cover)
3. Wasting My Hate
4. For Whom The Bell Tolls
5. Master Of Puppets
6. Enter Sandman