Nightmare After Christmas Tour
US Bank Arena
Cincinnati, OH
1/29/2011
Another weekend, another road trip, another great concert. A handful of friends and I were able to catch the Nightmare After Christmas tour in Cincinnati this past weekend. Not only did it give me an excuse to see some friends that live there, but it also happen to feature two of my favorite bands….one of which is Avenged Sevenfold.
This show proved to be one that I’m glad I didn’t miss.While I was very excited to see A7X again, I was a bit nervous about this concert. I’ve seen them before, but this was the first time since their legendary drummer passed away in December of 2009. I was quite interested to see how the band was progressing, and how their show had changed since the loss of a founding member and legendary drummer.
The History:
I’m embarrassed to admit that the thing that got me interested in Avenged Sevenfold originally was not their music at all, but their hometown. I lived near Huntington Beach for a brief stint, and LOVED it, so decided that since the city is awesome, this band must be awesome as well. I remember the first Youtube video I watched of them, performing Critical Acclaim at a concert in 2007. I was hooked. A7X quickly climbed the ranks of my favorite bands.
As with any great band, their sound comes from the combination of good individual musicians. If you break the band down and look at the band members individually, it is quite the all-star cast. In fact, I’d put their original “big three” (M. Shadows on vocals, late The Rev on drums, and Synyster Gates on lead guitar) up against any “big three” out there today. I also believe that the rhythm guitarist, Zacky Vengeance, is an integral part of the band, and while I have trouble comparing rhythm guitarists, he was a founding member of A7X and has great stage presence, so I have every belief that he is great at what he does.
My first live experience with A7X was at Rock on the Range in 2009. As a whole, the band was really good, they just weren’t great. However, I do remember being completely mesmerized by The Rev. His skill alone on the kit, along with watching him provide backup vocals, completely stole the show for me. I was mesmerized. I got hit twice in the head by a crowd surfer because I was deer in the headlights. Very impressive. All in all, my first assessment was that they were good at what they did, but I wasn’t blown away. Certainly not disappointed by any means, but it didn’t make me run out and buy albums and t-shirts, and their live show was a bit overshadowed by the other bands at Rock on the Range that year (I.E. Slipknot).In addition to liking their music right away, as I listened to A7X more and more, and learned more about the band, I found that there were a lot of intangibles that I really liked as well. They released their first album, Sounding the Seventh Trumpet, before they even graduated high school, which I think is cool. Several of them went to the same high school and they are all essentially childhood friends, which shows a certain degree of loyalty that I believe is rare in this industry. Finally, while they claim adamantly not to be a religious band, their lyrics, song titles, and even the band’s name, directly reference the Bible and have multiple times inspired me to read passages and think about the Bible as compared to what they discuss musically. Very inspiring and thought provoking.
Tragically, for all of us millions of fans, the metal community, and especially for his life-long friends and bandmates, this would be the last show that The Rev played. He died in December of 2009 of complications of alcohol and several different prescription pills. Truely one of the saddest things ever, and a huge hit to the metal community. In 2010, just months after his death, they released their fifth studio album, titled Nightmare. The album was written primarily by The Rev, and features him on several of the songs that they had completed before his death. It is a GREAT album, and since that album, I have listened to A7X quite a bit more.
So, as I approached this concert, I was excited and thankful that the band has decided to continue in memory and honor of The Rev, but also a bit apprehensive about the whole thing. I didn’t want my perception of the band to change, and I wasn’t interested in seeing a “new” A7X. I liked the old one. Quite frankly, I was afraid that there wasn’t a drummer in the world that could keep up. You just can’t replace Michael Jordan.
The Venue:
I had never heard of U.S. Bank Arena, and was quite concerned that it would end up being the home of one of the professional teams from Cincinnati that I can’t stand (like the Bengals. WOOF). However, as we walked through downtown Cincinnati (which turned out to be a pretty cool city), I learned that it was the home of a semi-professional hockey team.
U.S. Bank Arena had been converted quite nicely into a concert venue, and was the perfect size for a show like this. It was big enough that there were tons of people there, but it was small enough that it had a great atmosphere and extremely controlled acoustics. The acoustics at this venue sounded MUCH better than several other venues that I’ve been to lately, usually which are too big for their own good. (See: Lucas Oil Stadium, Wrigley Field, and even Columbus Crew Stadium).
I usually comment here about the staff, crowd control, and how the venue “handles” different situations, but I will leave that for discussion later in the blog with this teaser: I have NEVER, in all of the concerts I have ever been to, had to do more work and jump through more hoops, to see a concert.
I will say that it this is the first venue I have been to in a while where the crowd noise overtook the band at some points. The fans at this show were just VERY loud (but interestingly enough, not that “active”). I think my brain was scrambled a bit when everyone shouted “It’s Your F****** NIGHTMARE.”
The Show:
I think everyone in attendance knew that A7X would open up with Nightmare. That being said, they certainly started the show with a “wow” moment……
I’m not going to explain how the show opened up in detail, because I’m still a bit uneasy about it, but I’ll just say that they depict their “Nightmare” as a guy hanging by a noose from the rafters. (If you want to see it, it’s on YouTube here.) I’m not squirmish, and I don’t pretend to be blind to the point they were trying to make, but having a real person hanging there for 5 plus minutes was very awkward to me, and the band has to know that there is a demographic of their fan base that will be affected very personally by this. I don’t want to make a big deal about it, but it certainly did hinder my enjoyment of one of my favorite A7X songs, and I was bummed by that.
However, that will be the ONLY negative thing I say about the show. Moving on, their set was relatively simple, but very cool. There was a massive backdrop that changed several times throughout the show, and three big pillars, that spelled out A. 7. X. across the stage. My first impression was that it was awesome, but just a touch too simple. I remember thinking “I bet that something else happens here.” About halfway through the second song, when the entire thing caught on fire, I was proven right.
Another impressive tidbit on this show was the lighting. They used lighting perfectly to direct the focus of the fans on precisely what they should be listening to. When the whole band was playing, they had great mix of moving lights that added a bit of fluidity to it, and I was quite impressed. I don’t typically recognize the lights, they are usually just kind of there, but A7X did a great job with them. I wasn’t the only one in my group to comment on this.In addition to the fire you see above, there were three fire pillars surrounding each instrument that went off timed to the music. Very cool stuff. At one point, they wanted to accentuate the drums, and so the color of the flame in those pillars changed to white and blue, contrast to the normal yellow and orange fire everywhere else. It was really cool. There’s nothing better than feeling the beat of the song correspond with the heat hitting your face.
On to the music!
The show itself, from a theme and song selection stand point, was quite different than the other A7X shows that I have seen (one in person, and several online). They focused heavily on their newest album, and while they still played a handful of hard-hitting classics, the show itself was much more harmonious and less metal-core than what I anticipated. The five album releases by A7X have been quite different genres, Nightmare being no exception, and their show clearly depicted this.
Don’t get me wrong; the energy was extremely high, and songs like Critical Acclaim, Bat Country, and Afterlife kept the show up-beat and the mosh pits a-moshin, but they also played a lot of slower tracks with a slower pace that featured M. Shadows on clean vocals. I was quite impressed by the dynamic feel of show, as it was constantly changing pace, but very gradually. I talk in some blogs about other bands ability to change pace (such as my Sevendust blog and the current one I’m writing on Stone Sour), but those shows changed rapidly to show contrast and focus on a slow song or two. This show was different in that there was fast and slow elements but there was also everything in between.
As an example, I’ll look at the way the show closed:
- Their last song was Unholy Confessions, which is a classic A7X mosh song off of an album primarily composed of metalcore songs. This song had everyone jumping to the beat, and was the apex of pure energy for the show. One of the highlights for me for sure.
- Their first encore, however, was Fiction off of their most recent album. This song features The Rev on vocals and piano, and is a ballad in every since of the word. Another highlight, as the band chose not to have anyone play The Rev’s part in the live version, but rather to let his original work play prerecorded. They brought a piano out on stage, back facing the audience, so you couldn’t see who was behind it. It was as if you were hoping that he might just be behind there, playing, and smiling as he always did. The end of that song features The Rev on vocals a capella, and during the show, the entire band just stood there and looked at the piano. Awesome moment.
- Their second encore, and final song on stage, was Little Piece of Heaven, which is considerably faster than Fiction, but still not a true metal song. It’s more of a fun, upbeat hard rock song, and it worked as a closer, even though it’s kind of goofy and reminds me of a circus.
The highlight of the show for me was about halfway through, when the backdrop changed to the picture shown below, and M. Shadows gave quite a heartfelt dedication to his late best friend. After a few touching statements, he sang the song that he wrote in memory of The Rev, called So Far Away. As he sang the lyrics “How do I live/ without the ones I love” you could see the emotion on his face. It was quite real.
I’ll apologize for so much of this blog focusing on The Rev, but he epitomizes what this band is for me, and I have trouble separating from that. I think that one of the reasons I liked this show so much is how well they have handled the loss of their friend. So many bands make rash decisions that I just don’t understand (for example, Snot refusing to ever perform again after Lynn Straight’s death). A7X continues to share their gift, and play for their fans, but continues to have The Rev as part of their lives, their music, and their live shows. This live show, in particular, was very, very good. I won’t say it is in my top 5 shows of all time, but it sure isn’t far off.
Finally I’ll mention that new drummer, Arin Ilejay, did quite well (although thanks to my friend Louis, I noticed one part where he played something different than The Rev used to). He had an impressive kit, and sounded quite good. While I’ve never heard of his previous band, Confide, anyone who can step in and play those songs must be pretty damn good.
Final Thoughts:
1. During his dedication before So Far Away, M. Shadows said the following:
2. The night started out PARTICULARLY bad when we got to the venue and found out that the tickets that I bought off of craigslist were fraudulent (lesson learned). Quite thankful to a buddy of mine who had enough cash on him to pick up some cheap tickets off of a guy on the street and get us into the show. We then proceeded to spend the entire first two sets (missing New Medicine and Hollywood Undead completely) scheming on how to get 6 people on the floor with only 3 floor seat wrist bands. We developed a quite successful plan that involved cutting one of the wrist bands off, and using the “two in, one out with both wristbands” technique. I believe at one point one of us referred to it as “The underground concert railroad.” Not sure that I got that completely, but it made me laugh. We did have one scare, between Stone Sour and A7X, when security came around checking bands and found three of us on the floor without bands. How my friend was able to convince the head of security that three people from the same party ALL lost their wrist bands in the mosh pit during Stone Sour, and that they should ALL get new wrist bands instead of getting thrown out, is beyond me. Props to the McCauley siblings for pulling that one off.
3. Props to my friend Shane for getting kicked out of the second concert in a row. His argument that his wristband fell off a second time did not work…..Good work dude.
The After-party:
Surprisingly enough, I felt quite good after this show. Other than a sore throat and horse voice, I was relatively put together. That didn’t stop me from attempting to wind down when we got back from the concert, but I was informed that the party was not over, and, we’ll say, “encouraged” to continue drinking. I made it a few rounds of Kings and lasted through a few ridiculously good shots of Red Stag mixed with Hot Damn, before deciding to call it a night.
The highlight of the after-party? Four huge pieces of leftover La Rosa’s pizza. Jackpot.
“And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” – Genesis 4:15 (NIV)