Metallica played Rasputin’s Records on April 16, 2016, and it was blistering hot. Rarely does a band of this magnitude play a small venue like this, so the ticket was rare and the place was packed. The reason they did it? Record Store Day and they were the ambassadors for San Francisco.
Metallica Plays Rasputin Records in Bay Area
The band performed only songs off of Kill ‘Em All and Ride The Lightning that day since they had just remastered and re-released both albums. In line for the event were Bay Area Thrash rock legends like Chuck Billy of Testament, Tom Hunting of Exodus, Mark Osegueda from Death Angel and Mike Bordin of Faith No More. Cliff Burton’s dad, Ray Burton, even made an appearance watching the entire show from the 2nd floor.
Rasputin Records in Berkeley
According to Wikipedia, Rasputin Music is the largest independent chain of record stores in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. It was founded as “Rasputin Records” in 1971 in Berkeley, California by entrepreneur Ken Sarachan. It is named after 19th century Russian religious figure Grigori Rasputin.
Rasputin Music currently operates seven locations around the Bay Area: the flagship Berkeley store at 2401 Telegraph Avenue, San Francisco, Newark, Campbell, Pleasant Hill, San Lorenzo, and Fairfield. There are also three locations in the Central Valley cities of Modesto, Stockton and Fresno.
