Metallica's shred maestro Kirk Hammett and bassist Rob Trujillo play a whole lot of shows together, and do a lot of onstage doodling in the process, but even in scheduled off days on 'Tallica's WorldWired Tour they still find the time to jam.
On 26 July, they pitched up at retail giant Cosmo Music's Cosmopolitan Music Hall, in Ontario, Canada, to play a very special show as The Wedding Band.
The event saw Hammett and Trujillo joined by Whitfield Crane of Ugly Kid Joe fame on vocals, former Queens Of The Stone Age and Danzig drummer Joey Castillo, and Doc Coyle of metal supergroup Bad Wolves on guitar for a set of classic covers. And Cosmo Music posted pro-shot footage of the band playing Black Sabbath's War Pigs – a tune Trujillo should know front to back from his time playing with Ozzy. Likewise, Crane, whose Orchestra Of Doom project pays tribute to Black Sabbath and others with some 30-odd musicians lending the formative metal canon a uniquely classical bent.
But The Wedding Band plays more than just Sabbath and AC/DC. Their set covered Chic and, given their name, the thematically appropriate Billy Idol. As Hammett explains in a segment shot by Cosmo Music as part of their Rockstars In Cars interview series, The Wedding Band allows him and Trujillo to jam on all kinds of styles.
"For Rob and I, it's cool because we get to indulge our love of funk and punk," said Hammett. "It's really funny because I was listening to all sorts of crazy music in the '70s – a lotta funk, R&B, and so I have always had a real appreciation of the music of that time, and when I found out that Rob did we started playing our favourite songs. Funk from the '70s is so unique and it's almost a lost art."
Metallica's WorldWired Tour heads to Australia and New Zealand next month before recommencing in Chile for a South American run next April. See here for all the dates.
