I went to see the Uproar Festival last night, which featured the bands Halestorm, Stone Sour, Avenged Sevenfold and Disturbed on the main stage. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control, I was only able to catch the second half of Stone Sour's set and all of Avenged Sevenfold, before having to leave. One might think that was a waste of a 50-something dollar ticket, but truth be told, Avenged Sevenfold's hour on stage was worth the price of admission alone.
Old school pyro throughout the show, the graveyard set up, and hell, the show itself started with a member of the crew faking hanging himself, dropping from a light fixture at the top of the stage. Dude even hung there for the entire opening number, "Nightmare."
Say what you will about A7X, but the songs they play are heavy, they are diverse (some would label it progressive), and I haven't seen guys play with that much energy since Sevendust back in the early 2000s. It was an incredible and emotional performance that really stole the show. A few people I talked to said that while Disturbed follows with a great set and stage of its own, A7X upstaged them completely. I don't doubt it in the least.
I can't tell you every song they played. I am a recent A7X fan, having checked them out about six months ago, enjoyed the albums, and now consider myself a solid fan of theirs. There is just too much not to like (other than the ridiculous look some of the guys on stage have, which the mostly 20-somethings all tried to emulate). I know they played NIghtmare, Almost Easy, Beast and the Harlot, a few of the new songs, and then some of the recognizable old ones. I knew the tunes, just not the names.
As expected, I spent a great deal of time watching Mike Portnoy. It was extremely weird to hear M. Shadows talk about him and not say "of Dream Theater" when introducing Mike. As much as I was critical of the way MP publicly talked about his split with DT, it still bothers me that he's not in the band any longer. That said, however, I clearly saw Mike interacting with people with DT shirts on, putting his hand on his heart, and at times, banging the side of his head when interacting with those same people. I wonder, maybe MP realizes his mistake -- I'm probably stretching. But that was what it looked like.
Performance-wise, MP was MP. Spit galore, great drumming. No vocals. He interacting a ton with the crowd, and played catch with the techs on the side of the stage with his drumsticks throughout one song.
Anyway, A7X is the real deal folks. If you haven't really listened to them yet, just sorta dismissed them like I did for a few years, you're making a mistake. Sit down with City of Evil or the self-titled, and immerse yourself. Headphones would be great if you had them. It's an immensely creative and talented band, who deliver in an old school way on stage.