It's Your F#%^%&* Nightmare!

Ahhhh, I finally get to do a rock blog. I'm home for once. I just returned from the Rockstar Energy Drink UPROAR tour and my ears continue ringing, which is the sign of a great freaking concert.

To start things off, the event had to be split to two (neighboring) venues, the Lifestyle Communities Pavilion and Nationwide Arena. Apparently there was a large demand for tickets, so the larger bands were moved to the larger arena. For bands like Disturbed and Avenged Sevenfold, it was understandable.

Today's line up:

Jagermeister Second Stage:

XFactor1

Jackie

New Medicine

Hail the Villain

Airbourne

Rockstar Main Stage:

Halestorm

Stone Sour

Avenged Sevenfold

Disturbed

HellYeah was supposed to be on the tour as well, but rumor has it that drummer Vinnie Paul (formerly of Pantera and Damageplan if you didn't know) will not play Columbus since it was where his brother, Dimebag Darrell was shot and killed in 2004.

I went with my friend Collin and his girlfriend, Lynda. Collin and I tend to frequent rock concerts together so we figured we'd keep the tradition alive, especially with Avenged Sevenfold being there.

I didn't get there until late because my boss wanted me to come into work early, so I only got to see 1.25 acts on the Jagermeister second stage at the LC Pavilion. I sat through all of Hail the Villain's set and one song of Airbourne's.

I loved Hail the Villain's music, the lead singer Bryan Crouch's on stage antics kind of made me wonder though. Not that I'm against a high energy show, which he totally gave out. He just had some weird thing with baring his teeth like a pissed off dog and moving his hands in very strange motions.

Top song, I'm going to vote as "Runaway." The crowd was into it almost as much as their single, "Take Back the Fear." They had the crowd yelling along with the line, "when I say GO!" It was the most lively the second stage seemed. P.S. I found a new ringtone in this song :)

Airbourne I can't really say a whole lot about. I only got to see one of their songs because I wanted to hop over to Nationwide to see Halestorm. From what Collin told me though, the lead singer, Joel O'Keeffe, decided to climb some of the off-stage set up at the LC, including walking over an archway to get into the pit. He didn't skip a beat on playing his guitar either.

As Lynda and I were on our way over to Nationwide for Halestorm's set, we obviously walked by some people. A pair of 30-something guys decided to start yelling cat calls at us, which I proceeded to give them dirty looks. Then these two girls walked by us with their shirts flipped up to show their stomachs. It was 75 degrees out. I could understand if it was blazing hot at 95, but these girls decided to flip up their spaghetti strap shirts when it was cool outside. There was no need other than for them to get attention. Lynda and I proceeded to make fun of them because we were that amused at their attempts to get attention.

Anyway, back to the music. Halestorm was up next for me. We didn't get to the LC in time to get floor tickets at Nationwide (they only let the first 2,000 that got to the LC get wristbands), so we were stuck with sitting in the lower bowl. Not that it really mattered, I could still see the stage pretty well.

I had seen some of the band's opening before, so I wasn't surprised when singer Lzzy Hale began belting out "It's Not You" a capella.

I can understand why a lot of the crowd wasn't into the show, not that I didn't LOVE every second of it. But Halestorm isn't as heavy of a sound as the rest of the bands that were there. Not too many people in the stands wanted to stand up and sing along to their songs, and I'm pretty sure I was the only one in my section who knew every word to their songs.



Top song: The one part of Halestorm's show that everyone loved was when they brought out the big trash cans and played together like it was Stomp (look it up if you don't know what I'm talking about). It began with drummer Arejay Hale (who blew my freaking mind) playing a solo, then Lzzy, Joe and Josh all brought out the trash cans and played together. Arejay made his way back to his drum set and the rest of the band continued playing along with him.

It was during the Halestorm set that I noticed the over-weight man sitting next to me kept looking back at me during the show. This was so beyond irritating. I thought he was going to try something, like grab my butt as I was walking away. So, I made sure I wore my big, bulky Avenged Sevenfold ring visibly to leave a good mark if necessary. He got lucky, because I didn't have to use it. He kept looking back during certain songs though, especially if I was singing along.

Moving on to Stone Sour (unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture), I haven't listened to them more than their singles so I wasn't sure what to expect. I definitely was not disappointed. I felt stupid for not knowing more of the lyrics, but I still enjoyed their show.



Top song: "Through the Glass."  I know it's their most popular song, but it garnered the most crowd involvement. Everyone in that entire arena was singing along, including me (the one song I knew every word to).

Avenged Sevenfold was next up! We had to wait for at least 45 minutes if not an hour after Stone Sour ended their set. They had to build more of a set for the headliners.

I haven't seen A7X since November, 2008, and I was overly excited to see them again. The curtain dropped and the crowd erupted. There was a platform at the top of the stage, where a man was standing. We saw a rope drop to the floor of the platform. He proceeded to put the rope around his neck and "hang" himself (there was another cord holding him up so he was not actually hurt). You see guitarists, Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance, bassist Johnny Christ and fill-in drummer Mike Portnoy begin playing the intro to "Nightmare."

It's about this time that I notice the set looks like it's straight out of a Tim Burton version of Psycho, with the building as a back drop, and three cemetery gates with A-7-X printed on each. I loved this, mostly because I'm obsessed with Halloween and spooky things.

Of course leading singer M. Shadows comes in and breaks that focus with one note screaming, "NIGHTMARE!" After their opening song, Shads makes an announcement they have to stop the show for a couple seconds because the force of the crowd broke the barricade at the front of the pit. It took a good five minutes for people just to move back enough to let the security fix it. It was probably frustrating for people on the floor, but even more frustrating for us sitting up in the stands because we wanted more Avenged and couldn't do anything about it!



I'd never seen Avenged use pyrotechnics in their show. I've seen their Deathbat come to life at the end of Bat Country before, but nothing like what they had go on during this show. The cemetery gates caught on fire, the poles had candle-esque fire balls on top of them, and once in a while fire would shoot up in front of the gates. At the end of Almost Easy (which was the last song of the night) they even had a fire work shoot off at the center of the stage.

Top song: "So Far Away." For those of you who don't know, A7X's drummer, Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan, passed away this past December, and they had him as the back drop for this song, dedicating it to him. At the end, M. Shadows asked everyone to hold up their lighters and cell phones so he could "see us." I won't lie, I teared up a little. Not because I was emotionally attached to The Rev or anything, that'd be kind of weird. I mourned for them and the loss of their friend. It was a great tribute to him. Every time one of this singing solos from their self-titled album came up, they didn't have someone else sing it. They had a recording of him singing, and everyone would point up for him.

The one thing I was disappointed in was that they did not play Bat Country. It was the single that helped them hit the airwaves like a freaking rocket, but not one note of that song was played.

It was 10:00 by this point, and everyone was getting tired. But, we still had one more show to go. Disturbed.

I figured they would have just as much pyro  in the show, as not to be upstaged by Avenged. I am ashamed to say, I am a Disturbed fan, but don't have their last two albums. I knew the words to their singles, but that was pretty much it. My favorite album that I do have (Believe) they did play a couple songs off of, so I didn't look too bad.

The show opened with a scene in a mental hospital, with what it seemed like as lead singer David Draiman having some sort of medical emergency with flashbacks to an abusive father on a child. He was in an ambulance, and as he flat lines, the doctor shoves something in his heart. As Draiman comes back to life, he starts attacking the doctor, and EMS that are transporting him. This was when he came out and broke into "The Game" from their debut album, "The Sickness."




Disturbed did something completely different than the other bands with their visuals. Other than just using the pyrotechnics, they also used video. I'm not just talking they played their video on the back screen, which they only did for one song. They had a video camera and during "Ten Thousand Fists" they turned it on the crowd and showed everyone in the crowd pumping their fists to the song, making it quite literally ten thousand fists.

I hate to be obvious on these, but...
Top Song: "Down with the Sickness." This had the entire place going absolutely ballistic. There's way to describe it. The floor was moshing, everyone was screaming the lyrics, and we thoroughly had our faces rocked off.

After my ears continue to ring (even almost 24 hours after the show, should I see a doctor?), I am very happy with my experience there. Next time I go though, I will be in the pit. No questions about it. Hope you all enjoyed this one!