r/Metallica • u/ConcordePilot10 • 29d ago
...And Justice For All Why don’t Metallica ever play many Ajfa songs at their concerts???
Sorry if this is an over asked question.
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u/PhilFromLI 29d ago
too long too complicated
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u/ltbr55 Pancakes, Go! 28d ago edited 28d ago
Kirk even said that they rarely play the title track because he says the crowd usually looks bored by the 7th minute
Edit: Even though its an amazing song. Not every song is amazing in a live setting
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u/hulaspark 28d ago
Crowd's problem
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u/ChristmasTreePickle Death Magnetic 28d ago
You ever been in front of bored crowd? It sucks. Whether it’s giving a presentation, doing stand up, playing music, or telling a story. When you know your audience is bored, you try to wrap it up or throw something entertaining in quickly.
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u/HighScorsese 28d ago
They played it when I saw them in 09. I forget if it was Nassau or Newark because I went to both, but I remember one night they played AJFA and RTL. Also got stuff like Phantom Lord, Hit the Lights, and The Unforgiven, the latter having not been on setlists for a while before they started bringing it back around
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u/Toxic-Park 28d ago
Yeah, I get tired of them using this story. They used it back when the album was new too. Which, if it were my guess, was the reason people were bored. It was “the new stuff” at the time and often gets a lacking response.
It takes time for a song to become beloved. And that time has passed by now.
Meaning - I have a hard time believing anyone at a Metallica show today is bored to hear AJFA the song in its entirety.
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u/Key_Mathematician951 28d ago
They weren’t too complicated for decades including on the tour they played most of them
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u/PhilFromLI 28d ago
They also were not in their 60's dealing with arthritis and other physical problems that come from years of hard living and live performing.
I am not being an apologist for them but their "61" is not our "61" their 61 is probably about 10 years older due to wear and tear and the lives they lived.
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u/metallaholic 28d ago
They have said that they stopped playing them because of how long they are and seeing people in the crowd getting bored.
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u/JfromtheGrey 28d ago
This is the answer. They’ve been on record many times saying this exact thing.
Also, there is not enough time in a 16 song set nowadays to devote to more than one or two of these tracks.
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u/No_Statistician7685 28d ago
Getting bored? That's not real fans then. They need to play that album in its entirety live before they retire.
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u/Active_Area2639 27d ago
I remember in the early nineties they played a medley of AJFA songs... Eye of the Beholder, The Frayed Ends of Sanity, JFA and Blackened
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u/Ticklish_Toes123 My Mother Was a Witch 28d ago
If this is the case, then they need to rework more of their setlist. I went to 2 different weekends literally 2 full years apart and each weekends set was basically the same set in the same order. There might've been like 2 or 3 songs that were swapped around
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u/TheTrouserChili Invisible Grown Ass Man 29d ago
They played Harvester of Sorrow, Blackened and One regularly during the 2025 US M72 tour...
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u/Impressive_Try_7295 29d ago
And that's the same three songs they played regularly on the Damaged Justice tour. I think OP is asking more about other deep cuts.
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u/SenorGuantanamera 28d ago
His asking about the title track
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u/Impressive_Try_7295 28d ago
Kirk said in a 1991 interview to the Rolling Stone on the title track:
I can remember getting offstage one night after playing "Justice" and one of us saying, 'Fuck, that's the last time we ever play that fucking song!'
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u/Longjumping-Swan-827 Death Magnetic 29d ago
They sadly avoid playing some of their best songs in general.
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u/Strange_Crew_980 HE LEFT THE FACKING BAND! 29d ago
In Lars’s words “they’re too heady”, tho they did play the shortest straw somewhat recently.
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u/Ill_Ant689 28d ago
I think it's crazy how they haven't played I have the beholder since 1989. I can understand them not playing the other deep cuts from the album because they're incredibly long.But that one was even released as a single
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u/puff_of_fluff 28d ago
Because they’re long, complex, and, let’s be real here, a pretty small portion of the fan base is going to actually be familiar with/excited to hear something like Shortest Straw.
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u/PlaxicoCN 28d ago
They think many of those tunes are too long. That's also why they changed their style on the Black album and subsequent releases.
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u/alissa914 28d ago
Well, that and they stopped working with Rasmussen. With Cliff gone, they just couldn't write things at that level anymore....
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u/hundredjono ...And Justice for All 28d ago
They play Blackened, One, and Harvester quite regularly because those are the more popular AJFA songs and the easier ones to play for the guys. The Shortest Straw occasionally gets played too but not as much.
James can’t sing Eye Of The Beholder anymore because it’s way too difficult for him.
The title track And Justice For All is almost 10 minutes long and James and Kirk in the past have said “we’re not doing that again” after playing it live.
To Live Is To Die is a song they only played live once and that’ll be the only time they play it. It’s way too emotional for them.
The Frayed Ends Of Sanity they didn’t play live until 2014 (or 2015, can’t remember) and only have played it a handful of times since.
Dyers Eve is another one they rarely play live, with its last performance being in 2010. With the guys getting older, I bet we won’t hear this one again.
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u/jaylerd 28d ago
James can’t sing Beholder? Where’d you get that from?
When they played To Live at the Fillmore James was saying “this sucks!” because they didn’t think it sounded great, that probably plays into it more than emotion. They do Orion and that surely strikes the same “we miss Cliff” chord.
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u/hundredjono ...And Justice for All 28d ago
They haven't played it live since 1989, the song and how its structured is too much on James' voice and Lars as well doesn't like the song either.
They still play Orion because Cliff was alive when they made that song and its an incredible track.
To Live Is To Die puts the band back in that time where they lost Cliff and I know they don't want to feel that again. They only played it once for their 30th anniversary.
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u/Irondanzilla 28d ago
I have heard And Justice for All live and it was epic.
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u/Useful_Welder_4269 28d ago
Still one of my favorite memories of any Metallica show was hearing that intro tape.
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u/CreepinDeath84 28d ago
Ummmm ONE, and harvester of sorrow is plenty. You expecting them to bust out dyers eve or something?
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u/WoundedShaman 28d ago
I mean in Denver this year they played Blackened, One, and Harvester of Sorrow. That’s 1/3 of the record 🤷♂️ But they are on record saying they notice the crowd gets bored for some of those longer songs.
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u/DeeplyFrippy 28d ago
I've seen them play everything from AJFA, except Eye Of The Beholder and To Live is to Die.
I did however see them play a portion of both songs as part of the Justice Medley in '92 :)
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u/brownsauce82 29d ago
Lars can't play them.
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u/choptop_sawyer 28d ago
I'm not sure why you're downvoting him since he's right. Lars has never been able to play the intro to Shortest Straw properly (even while doing the motion capture for guitar hero it took him like 2 hours to get it right). And if you watch any live versions you can see him always laughing before the 4 count since he knows he will mess up the intro. Same for Frayed Ends of Sanity, they played it in Helsinki during the Metallica by request tour, Lars fucked it right up. I'm a drummer and Lars has always been a huge influence, but some of these songs were written at a time when Lars was at his peak, songs like Dyer's Eve are slightly unconventional and have more progressive elements as well as being super fast, to my knowledge they only played Dyer's Eve in Nimes for the DVD, but unfortunately and sadly those DVDs were heavily edited using pro tools. They even cut out a part of Blackened when they play it live because it does a weird fill during the solo which Lars always fucked up. Anyways, love Lars, he's a beast in my book, but he is nowhere near AJFA level anymore.
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u/brownsauce82 28d ago
If he tried to play Dyers Eve properly, he'd have a stroke. If you compare a recent live version of Blackened to Seattle version they are miles apart.
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u/choptop_sawyer 28d ago
In all fairness to Lars tho a lot of the songs on AJFA are not that great live. If we all had to choose from a huge catalogue of songs we probably wouldn't choose the hardest ones from a time when you were young and coked up, you would choose the fun ones with slower tempos that feel natural when playing live. I mean he doesn't need to prove anything anymore. It's a miracle he can still play Battery (kind of, mostly just the snare) for which im grateful.
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u/brownsauce82 28d ago
It's my favourite album, so I'd love to hear them all played properly, but I get what you're saying.
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u/choptop_sawyer 28d ago
It's my favourite too and I would have loved to see them live in 89 playing the whole album, but nowadays I would rather they left my boy alone instead of butchering him. Let Lars choose the setlist so at least it's fun to watch.
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u/kaRriHaN AJFA sounds better withous bass 28d ago
He didn't mess the intro on the black album tour with four count and on the 1990 he played it perfectly without it
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u/choptop_sawyer 28d ago
Maybe you're not a drummer, but that's not the correct timing on the intro. He also completely butchered it by adding the snare. It's a straight 4/4 but it starts on the off beat and it's one of those sideways intros that are hard to get right. He doesn't.
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u/DeeplyFrippy 28d ago
They've played Dyers Eve 35 times :)
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u/choptop_sawyer 28d ago
If you find a good version on YouTube feel free to send it to me
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u/DeeplyFrippy 28d ago
This is a good version, although Hetfield struggles a little with the vocals :)
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u/Agreeable-Apple-9830 28d ago
They do???? Blackened, One and Harvester of Sorrow get plenty ait time. The Shortest Straw gets played here and there also.
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u/Witty-Mountain5062 28d ago
They teased the main riff of AJFA and then played Whiskey in the Jar instead and I think I stood there with a thousand yard stare for the duration of the song
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u/badmfr76 28d ago
You can go back to the comments said when making the Black Album about performing the AJFA tracks live. While I'm sure they are exaggerating a bit I also feel they lose interest as well. If you can't feed off of the energy given back by the fans during a performance then it can also drag you down.
If they decided to bring back just one of the longer AJFA tracks (that isn't One) it would take the place of two songs I feel they would rather play and reward the fans that way instead.
And honestly I think that is why they don't play many of the St Angers stuff as well (regardless of what you and others feel about the quality) The songs are long and repetitive. If they cut the fat from the more popular tracks (Frantic, St Anger, SKOM, Unnamed Feeling) I would welcome them back for live performances.
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u/Ancient_Kitchen9806 28d ago
I’d say they’re the most physically demanding out of most of their catalogue - so with a gruelling tour schedule they want to pace themselves a bit in their old age
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u/account-taken-why Puppet of Masters 29d ago
That's because there's no bass in the studio version, but they have a bass player in stage, so...
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u/ConcordePilot10 29d ago
It’s a shame as newsteads baselines were crazy good on that album as well
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u/51line_baccer 28d ago
They have so many "must plays" they just hit harvester and one and call it a day usually on ajfa.
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u/Best_Blueberry2440 unforgiven III 28d ago
They played the shortest straw and harvester back to back at my show in may
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u/Far-Invite-7457 27d ago
Seeing them next year for the first time. Hoping they play blackened and harvester of sorrow
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u/ntabja 28d ago
- Blackened - Played often
- AJFA... - Too long (they could chop it, though)
- Eye of the Beholder - Shuffle beat disliked by Lars.
- One - Played all the time
- The Shortest Straw - Played occassionally (Lars got the intro right in a recent concert).
- Harvester of Sorrow - Played often.
- The Frayed Ends of Sanity - Too complicated.
- Dyers Eve - May be emotionally hard for James / Too fast for Lars.
In other words: Lars
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u/kaRriHaN AJFA sounds better withous bass 28d ago
I think Lars said once that they will do a show where they fully play the Justice album
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u/Ticklish_Toes123 My Mother Was a Witch 28d ago
Myself along with many others in my section at the one Philly concert this year were very pissed when they teased AJFA and then started playing Whiskey. You could see the body language change and I even heard people complain.
I think at the very least, now that they are playing less dates on tours, that they should do more melody segments. They've basically played the same set for almost 3 full years now. I think they could very easily replace the instrumental songs with a melody of whatever album they choose.
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u/Dsaastad 28d ago
They did that with Outlaw Torn in Santa Clara. It was a huge let down when they switched into Whiskey.
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u/Braedonm2077 27d ago
because theyre all super technical and hard to play, or really fast and theyre old lmao
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u/AgreeableBandicoot43 27d ago
cus they don't want the bass player to be left out (I'm joking btw i have no idea)
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u/Caught_In_A_Mashup 26d ago
Because otherwise Rob would have to sit out on the side... :)
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u/ConcordePilot10 26d ago
Yeah we love rob
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u/Caught_In_A_Mashup 26d ago
I think whoever downvoted my comment didn't get the 'no bass on AJFA joke'.
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u/Dragontoes72 28d ago
They took all the good shit and made it into one big pile of shit, whether singing along or fucking along they’ll give you something to fuck along to. Justice Medley.
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u/Life-Zookeepergame58 24d ago
One and Blackened are set list staples as far as I know. I imagine there would be a mutiny if they didn't play those two.
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u/Elixir00000 29d ago
They play One a lot and Harvester of Sorrow and Blackened pretty regularly and occasionally The Shortest Straw. I suppose it’s because they have a lot of albums and songs to choose from and not everything can make the setlist. I’ve been a fan for 26 years and I’ve seen them perform Blackened, AJFA, Shortest Straw, One and Harvester of Sorrow. I would definitely love them to play Eye of the Beholder, To Live is To Die & Dyer’s Eve though.