Metallica fans got an unscripted moment in Dublin this week after guitarist Kirk Hammett took a spill during the band’s performance of Seek & Destroy, and somehow turned it into a punchline within hours.
The moment happened during Metallica’s first of two nights at Aviva Stadium on Friday (June 19th) as the band tore through one of their most reliable set closers, video captured from the crowd appears to show Hammett stepping near the edge of the stage before losing footing when part of the staging shifted beneath him.
Thankfully, it wasn’t the dramatic ending the footage initially suggests, fans nearby helped Hammett back up almost immediately and the guitarist continued the song without missing much of a beat, with the performance carrying on as planned (per NME).
Slip and Destroy
Later, Hammett acknowledged the moment himself with exactly the level of self-awareness you’d expect from someone who has spent decades surviving stadium tours, posting footage to Instagram Stories, he captioned the clip simply:
“Slip & Destroy.”
The fall arrives during a busy stretch for Metallica’s M72 World Tour, which continues to pull huge crowds across Europe with the band’s “No Repeat Weekend” setup, a format that sees completely different setlists and support acts across two-night stadium runs.
The incident also landed only days after Hammett found himself unexpectedly pulled into online discourse after fans reacted to a T-shirt worn during a recent European show, Hammett has not publicly commented beyond the conversation that played out online.
For Metallica though, the bigger story remains momentum, the M72 cycle continues to expand with more US dates added later this year, a Las Vegas Sphere residency planned into 2027, and renewed attention around Reload (Remastered), which arrives this week packed with demos, live cuts and previously unheard material from the era.
One thing remains unchanged though, after more than four decades, Metallica are still finding new ways to make moments people talk about, whether planned or not.
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