Metallica rocks The Opera House, donates proceeds to Daily Bread Food Bank
Metallica superfan says concert helped a charity that's near and dear to his heart
Paul Steinberg was one of the lucky ones who scored a ticket to an exclusive Metallica benefit show for the Daily Bread Food Bank Tuesday night at the Opera House. He's been a Metallica superfan for decades.
"I haven't missed a tour since ...And Justice For All back when I was a teenager. I'm 45 now," Steinberg told CBC Toronto.
He's also never seen them in an intimate setting like the Opera House, which has a capacity of 950 people. The band only announced they were adding the show to their tour last Monday and when tickets went on sale, they sold out in minutes.
Steinberg says the show had extra special meaning for him, in addition to seeing Metallica, he also helped a charity that is near and dear to his heart.
"I'm a kid who grew up in government housing and having to live relying on the food from food banks." Steinberg said.
'It really meant a lot to me'
"To have one of my favourite bands playing in my town and for this cause ... it really meant a lot to me."
Metallica donated all proceeds from this concert to Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank. Many fans also brought non-perishable food items with them to donate.
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Benita Aalto, the media relations co-ordinator for the Daily Bread Food Bank, says a show like this will give the charity a huge boost at a time it needs it the most.
"Especially at Christmas time, this is like an amazing gift for Daily Bread to have this concert happen right now."
Aalto says right up until show time last night, fans were calling the food bank offering to make donations in exchange for tickets.
What those fans didn't realize is that Daily Bread had nothing to do with organizing the show. In fact they found out about it through a tweet. Aalto says when she read the tweet, she wasn't sure if it was even true.
"I lost my mind and ran around the office saying, 'Who set this up? This is amazing.' And no one did; it was just this incredible surprise." she said
The Daily Bread Food Bank is hoping to raise $1.5-million and 1.5-million pounds of food by the end of December. Aalto says the help they get from this concert will go a long way to helping them reach that goal.