Local favorite Metallica was overlooked for the halftime show at Sunday’s historic Super Bowl 50, with the hosting committee choosing England’s Coldplay to perform in their place. However, Metallica exacted their revenge with their edgy, exciting performance thrilling a huge, eclectic crowd during their allotted Saturday night show at AT&T park, likely giving the hosting committee some feelings of remorse.
According to Peter Hartlaub, the San Francisco Chronicle‘s pop culture critic, the iconic American band offered two heartfelt speeches which addressed the Super Bowl snub with singer/guitarist James Hetfield saying “I think it all works out for a reason. We got to play a whole show … and one more thing I’d like to say is GIMME FUEL GIMME FIRE GIMME THAT WHICH I DESIRE!”
Torches of fire burst sky-high and images of dancing flames on several screens lit up the stage, as the band played songs like “Creeping Death”, “Enter Sandman” and “Master of Puppets”.
The band is reportedly working on a new album and planning a yet-to-be solidified tour. In sum, Hartlaub suggested it might have benefited the hosting committee to have Metallica perform today’s halftime show at Levi’s Stadium, providing the following analysis:
Metallica hasn’t mellowed, as much as their once-outlaw brand of musical badass-ery has caught up to the mainstream. There were plenty of children at the show. And while a Metallica concert still isn’t a high percentage place to meet your future wife, the male/female ratio has reached the point that we might see a line at the women’s bathroom before the band’s 40th anniversary.
In other words, they probably should have been playing on Sunday as well.
On the business side of things, Super Bowl 50 is being touted as a tremendous opportunity for businesses–both big and small–to piggyback off of the publicity it will bring, with an estimated million people likely to descend upon the Bay Area for the event.
Residents who were looking to bank on one of the most expensive weekends of the year by placing their listings on Airbnb, however, are in for a not-so-pleasant surprise. According to TechCrunch, a disproportionately high number of residents in Santa Clara–where Levi’s Stadium is located–have listed their properties for rent on Airbnb (a staggering 86% more listings for Super Bowl weekend than other weekends) which has flooded the marketplace with an excess of supply and not enough demand to sustain the higher prices and additional revenue a host could have potentially made.
In sum, individuals listing their places on the popular app will likely need to lower their prices, making them more competitive, in order to lure consumers in due to the large number of listings they will be competing with. TechCrunch notes that the shifting pricing is “further evidence of the fundamental shift that our broader economy is going through.”
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz.