Who were the first band to play on every continent?
Music is the most powerful and universal language on the planet. No matter where a person finds themselves in the world, they can freely communicate with locals through their shared love of a song by bands such as Metallica, and acts can travel to every corner of the world to perform their repertoire of material in front of adoring fans from the other side of the globe.
While the native tongue of South America isn’t English, that doesn’t stop bands from America or Britain from playing at sold-out stadiums in the region who know the words to every song in their setlist. However, the opportunity to play every continent on the planet is a privilege only awarded to one iconic act.
Countless artists have played shows in Europe, North America, Asia, Oceania, Africa and South America. However, performing a concert in Antarctica is an almost impossible proposition. Not only is the weather and lack of infrastructure a major issue but the only people who live there are seasonal workers involved in research tasks.
Therefore, there’s very little point in a band booking a show on the continent if there’s no way to stage it and, of course, no people to attend. However, in 2013, Metallica were presented with the chance by Coca-Cola to perform in front of 120 people in the region. The concert was later released as a live album titled Freeze’ Em All.
Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich looked back on the gig during an episode of the podcast Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend: “We flew down. Talk about bringing different nationalities together, we were on a Russian icebreaker, anchored off a Chilean research base playing to Argentinian, Chilean and Brazilian Coca-Cola contest winners in a space that was maybe twice of the room we’re in right now [a small space].”
He continued: “It was a tent that was set up and on top of that, everybody in the audience had headphones on because it was silent-disco style.” Ulrich also said of their set-up: “Part of the deal was we couldn’t disturb the environment; the penguins and all the incredible wildlife down there. So the only thing you could hear in that tent were acoustic drums and James’s [Hetfield] vocals.”
“Everything amplified; the guitars, the bass, etc, were all going through boxes into everybody’s headphones,” he added. “So you put all those elements together and that was one of the most unique three or four days ever”.
What other strange locations have bands played?
While Metallica remains the only band traipsed to Antarctica for a concert, their feat has been one-upped by Queens of the Stone Age, who have the honour of playing the most underground show of all time.
In 2007, they travelled to Sondershausen, Germany, and descended 2,300 feet underground into a salt mine where 300 people in hardhats watched on in awe. Unfortunately, despite being recorded, the performance has never been released to the general public due to Queens of the Stone Age’s departure from Interscope Records.
Additionally, although Kraftwerk didn’t go to space themselves, through the wonders of technology, they linked up with German astronaut Alexander Gerst. He was stationed 400km above sea level in 2018 and joined them for a rendition of ‘Spacelab’ at Stuttgart’s Jazz Open Festival.
Watch Metallica perform in Antarctica below.
