As I'm typing this, my legs are still aching from standing and jumping for two hours non-stop, and my eyes can barely keep themselves open, but it doesn't matter because I JUST CAME BACK FROM THE A7X CONCERT. This has been a long time coming for Bryan, Joshua, You'en and I, and now that it's over I think I can safely say on their behalf that it exceeded all our expectations.
Since this was my first rock concert, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. The venue, The Hard Rock Coliseum at RWS, was much smaller than I had imagined, but I soon realised that that didn't really matter once the lights went down and everyone started jumping all over the place. Everyone was already super-hyped even before A7X showed up, singing along to the Metallica songs being played over the speakers and chanting "SEVENFOLD" in between the songs. Then the band finally appeared and everyone went wild. The flow of the concert was pretty fluid as well, with M. Shadows pausing at opportune moments to make small talk with the audience before proceeding with the next song. Execution of the songs was, needless to say, nearly flawless, as is standard procedure with Avenged Sevenfold, and The Rev's temporary replacement in this performance, Arin Ilejay, is pretty good drummer in his own right, so kudos to him for that.
And now, without further ado, the concert proceedings:
It all started with the lights turning off, followed by the familiar bells signaling the start of Nightmare, and at the end of that song while everyone was cheering, it took a while for us to pick up on the pipe organ at the start of Critical Acclaim. After that headbang-intensive song, they took some time to introduce us to the new drummer, leading pretty appropriately into Welcome to the Family. Then there was silence, until M. Shadows started chanting "I'm not insane," getting the crowd to join in, and finally going into Almost Easy, followed by Buried Alive. They then dedicated So Far Away to The Rev, followed by Afterlife, and then kicked it old-school with Beast and the Harlot. After that, Matt said that we looked too tired to continue and side-tracked into a love story. The crowd was confused at first, but the moment we heard that he "must have stabbed her fifty f***ing times," we knew that A Little Piece of Heaven was next. Then Matt asked how many of us had gone to America before, then how many have been to Las Vegas, and how many have been to this place right next to Sin City, a little place called Bat Country. That was supposedly the last song, and the band walked off the stage. Left to their own devices, the audience started chanting "we want more," then "5 more songs," and even "what the f***," until the band finally came back up on stage to perform Fiction. After that, Matt told us an anecdote about how he met a few fans in the elevator and they gave a song request, and they decided to fulfill it. That song, much to my surprise and delight, was Second Heartbeat, and it was even better than the LBC version because this time it was the full version, complete with the breakdown and drummer-boy guitar solo parts, which the song really isn't complete without. At that point I was already completely satisfied with my life, but they decided to squeeze in one more encore, Unholy Confessions. Right before the end of the song, they told us to form a venue-wide mosh pit so they could get footage for their upcoming DVD, which we promptly did, as they teased us with the intro riff from Crossroads, before finally concluding the concert.
All in all, a great performance by an amazing band, spent in the company of good friends and fellow fans. Totally worth the $110, and I would probably have paid double if I knew how good it would turn out to be :D
PS:
That's right; like this, but better.
EDIT
PPS:
Found a recording of the Singaporean version :D
