This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of Metallica’s creation, an accomplishment that the band is celebrating by playing a series of shows for Met Club members at the Fillmore in San Francisco this coming December.

Metallica headlining at the Big 4 festival in Indio, CA. 23 April 2011.

Taking place December 5, 7, 9 and 10, the shows will be open only to Met Club members and will include rare songs, special guests and varied set lists.  Tickets for the shows are 1980s-cheap, with tickets to individual shows going for just $6.00 and four-pack tickets (that’s one per show) running $19.81, the group’s year of inception.

Tickets are available to club members via the Met Club site where they can reserve their own combos of passes.  Reservations are being taken through August 8.

This announcement comes just a month after the band announced that they will be releasing an album with former Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed.  Reportedly a mixture of Reed’s Berlin and Metallica’s Master of Puppets, the album will feature 10 songs composed by Reed and arranged by Metallica.

There is currently no release date for the as-yet-untitled collaboration, but the band recently revealed that it had been in the works since they met up with Reed for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 25^th anniversary in 2009.

Source.