Hardwired- The Castle Theatre

By Syd Corpora

On March 28th, Collette and I attended the Hardwired Metallica tribute concert held at the Castle Theater in downtown Bloomington. It was a fun night surrounded by diehard fans of both Metallica, and just live music in general. The low stage at the Castle gives more opportunity to feel like you are part of the energy the band is bringing– and Hardwired brought a lot of energy. Their set was incredible! They brought the songs that so many people have dreamed about seeing live in concert to life.

The band was made up of four men of all different ages. It was so interesting to see how the different age groups interacted at this show. I think a lot of people, myself included, think of Metallica as “dad rock” or “geezer rock” but the truth is that Metallica’s music is timeless and incredibly iconic. Yes, there were a lot of dad’s and geezers there, but there were also people as young as 13 attending and headbanging just as hard. It goes to show that music brings people together. Bonding over a band and getting to see those songs live builds a connection between the original artist, the tribute band, and the audience. It also connects the audience to each other.

The environment felt like I was in a tight knit crowd and that everyone was there for the same experience I was– to listen to some music. The people were generally kind and talkative. We made several new friends that night. It’s striking to me how connected the audience feels at every show at the Castle Theater I have attended. While this isn’t always the case for every concert, I feel like the Castle generally draws in such a good crowd.

The band definitely used that to their advantage by interacting with the crowd as much as they could. They wished a concert goer happy birthday and dedicated a song to her, they started taking requests partway through their set and gave some people the chance to hear their favorite songs live. They fist bumped a guy in the audience and Collette even snagged the guitar player’s pick! I loved how the band used the space and the energy to create such an immersive set. It was incredible to watch.

Hardwired was the only performer of the night, so their set got to be nice and long. It was full of insanely skilled performances. The drummer blew my mind with his talent and the guitar parts sounded pure– it was like I was actually hearing Metallica play the song. The bass player brought a cool confidence to the stage and rounded out the band’s presence. Overall, the show was fantastic. They played a wide range of songs from Metallica’s discography and ended the show on a few crowd pleasing bangers. I would definitely go see them again!