A7X Experience

I think it was around three or four years ago that Jex and I were talking about how awesome it would be to be able to watch Avenged Sevenfold live. We became fans of the band by discovering "Bat Country" from a Devil May Cry AMV. After being able to "play" their songs on Rock Band 2 Jex became a fan of The Rev because he was the better drummer on game between the two of us. I became a fan just because they made awesome music. Unfortunately, The Rev died even before we even heard of rumors that the band was touring to Asia. Jex and I were sad because we'll never get the chance to watch him play with Avenged Sevenfold live.

A few months ago I saw some tweets on my feed about Avenged Sevenfold coming to Manila for a concert. I went crazy. I told Jex "WE HAVE TO WATCH. IT'S A ONCE IN A LIFETIME EXPERIENCE!" The only other time I reacted that wild to an upcoming concert was for the 30 Seconds to Mars concert last year (which we watched!) There was no argument needed really. We were watching the concert!

On April 26, 2012, we both went to the office, like any other work day. We did our work and tried to finish our tasks. And that night we rocked our hearts out during the Avenged Sevenfold concert.

If there's that much space in front of me, there isn't enough people

I didn't expect the venue to be full, just like in the 30 Seconds to Mars concert. We went in at around quarter to 8 and the Patron standing wasn't even half full. Other seating areas were occupied, though, but it still wasn't a lot of people. We sat down and waited for the concert to start.

I never tried to find out who the front act was. A band started setting up on stage and started playing. Jex asked me who they were, but I didn't know them. The crowd seemed to know their songs, though. I was pretty sure that I knew about them, but I just wasn't familiar with their songs. True enough, at the end of their performance they said "Thank you guys, we're Slapshock!..." I laughed out loud at the realization.

Slapshock on stage as front act

After Slapshock finished playing it was a while again before Avenged Sevenfold eventually started playing. Jex and I ran towards the stage when the band started playing and the lights started turning off.

I didn't bring my point and shoot camera because I couldn't find its battery charger. I settled with taking a few shots with my phone's camera and just enjoying the whole experience. No regrets.

The band was epic. Shadow's voice is awesome and sounds just like you're listening to the album. Zacky, Gates, and Johnny were rocking their instruments. Arin did not disappoint on the drums. It's so weird, but the whole experience really was a dream come true.

They played a good mix of songs from their three latest albums. I wasn't familiar with all of the songs, except for my selected favorites. The one track that I really wished they played was "Trashed and Scattered". I'd love to hear them perform it live. Nevertheless, it was still an epic night with lots of jumping and headbanging...and being hit by a stray person from the moshpit (it didn't hurt, I was just surprised).

Even though the audience wasn't that big and was divided by venue sections and ticket prices I think they were better than the crowd we were with during the 30 Seconds to Mars concert just because of the energy they had. So, thank you, too, fellow Avenged Sevenfold fans in Manila for making it an enjoyable night.

See how happy I was after the concert?

Jex was happy too