Metallica have played thousands upon thousands of shows, but it's a rarity when the band unplugs and that's what they did Saturday night for the first of two evenings playing the Bridge School Benefit in Mountain View, Calif. The event is put on annually by Neil Young, who joined the metal icons for a collaboration to conclude the night.

Metallica ended their nine-song set by taking on the Buffalo Springfield song "Mr. Soul" with Young, a former member of that band, handling a majority of the vocals. Though Metallica primarily served to back up Young during the performance, save for some James Hetfield vocal work, Young seemed to delight in getting into a guitar duel with Kirk Hammett.

"We don't jam too often, so this is pretty cool," stated Hetfield, prior to the performance. And after the song was complete, all four band members hugged Young and took a bow with the singer.

The band's Saturday performance looked quite different from Metallica's typical set list. The band opened with their cover of "Whiskey in the Jar," and also worked in covers of Deep Purple's "When a Blind Man Cries" and The Clash's "Clampdown" in addition to the Buffalo Springfield finale. The group also worked in more standards like "Hero of the Day," "Enter Sandman" and "Seek and Destroy," while the new song "Hardwired" also got an acoustic adjustment.

This marks Metallica's third appearance at the Bridge School Benefit, having previously played in 1997 and 2007.

See Where Metallica Landed on the Top 50 Hard Rock + Metal Bands of All Time

Check Out Loudwire's Metallica Videos

More From Q 105.7