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Virginia has been shaken this month, we had a 5.8 magnitude earthquake on August 23rd, Hurricane Irene on August 27th, but we were thoroughly rocked and brought to our knees on August 31st as the Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Tour came to Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, Virginia.

Nine hours (yes, nine) of total Rock. Two stages, 10 total bands. It was an unbelievable afternoon and night of music and entertainment, the likes of which I had never experienced, but I damn sure would again if given the chance.

First I would like to mention the band that started off the whole day. Battle of the Bands winner, “Sky Came Burning” from Baltimore Maryland. They were good, they have a heavier sound than I normally listen to but I liked it. I couldn’t understand a word he was saying but who cares, it was still good. I didn’t see the other bands in the battle but these guys deserved the chance they got.

Hell or Highwater

These guys were the second band out. They came storming out with “Crash and Burn” from their recently releases CD, “Begin Again”. Front man, Brandon Saller, immediately gets the crown loud and pumped. Next songs were “Gimme Love”, “Hail Mary”, “Terrorized in the Night”, and “We All Wanna Go Home”’

Hell or Highwater, consists of Brandon Saller (Vocals), Matt Pauling (Guitarist), Neal Tiemann (Guitarist), Joey Bradford (Bassist), and Kyle Peek (Drums).

Good music, good times. I like the music they have put out and they seem to enjoy sharing that with the crowd. I look forward to hearing more from them and seeing them live again.

Art of Dying

Let me say right off that I was excited to see these guys again. I had the pleasure of seeing them on the Avalanche Tour and I also was able to meet and talk to them. They are a great group of guys, very personable and I like their music. I have a copy of their CD which stays within my reach in my car at all times. There have been quite a few morning and afternoon drives spent jamming to their music. They open up their set with “Get Through This”. The next song was “Raining” and Adam Gontier from 3 Days Grace surprised the crowd when he showed up on stage and started to belt this song out with the guys to which got the crowd even more jacked up than they already were, then Johnny Hetherington addresses the crowd, “Virginia really knows how to throw a party!” then he start’s pouring Jack Daniels down Tavis Stanley’s mouth much to Tavis’s enjoyment which gets the crowd even more ecstatic to hear more.

Next up is “Best I Can”. The harmonies that are sung in this song are fantastic; this song is one of my personal favorites. They finish off their set with “Whole Worlds Crazy” to which the crowd is really digging the song and Johnny takes the time to ask the audience three questions:

1. “What’s the name of this band?” The audience shouts back “Art of Dying”.
2. “If we fell off the stage will you catch us?” They respond “Hell Yeah”
3. “Can we stay the whole night and raise hell?” The crowd tells him “Hell Yeah”

I was impressed by this show once again. Like I said previously, I really like them and their music and judging by what I saw from the crowd they are gaining in popularity and quickly at that. I have no doubt they made even more fans from today’s show too.

Bullet For My Valentine

This is my first experience seeing these guys live. To be honest, I haven’t really heard a lot of their music either, until today that is, now they are in the rotation in my car.

First on tap is “Your Betrayal” off of the “Fever” CD. Lead singer, Matthew Tuck told the audience “If you’re sitting down, get the Fuck up!”. They went straight into “Pleasure and Pain”, also from the Fever CD. Tuck asked the audience, “Whats up” and told them “Thanks for coming to Uproar fucking 2011” to which the crowd cheered immensely. Next up was “Waking the Demon” from the “Scream Aim Fire” CD and then “The Last Fight”, also from the Fever CD. I have to add here that ever since they started the last song, there have been 4 ejections of audience members because of the moshing which I don’t always agree with but understand it is for the safety of all the people that were front and center. We got treated to an awesome “Star Spangled Banner” guitar solo before moving on to “Scream Aim Fire”, “Tears Don’t Fall”, and “Alone”.

I find it funny that these guys are Welsh and they are the band that I have understood the most. They definitely get the crowd amped up and in a frenzy. Like I said, this was my first time seeing these guys live and hearing their music for that matter. I like the way they bring the audience into the show and get very personal with them. I had no idea I would end up liking their music as much as I do. I was very pleasantly surprised by these guys and I can say for certain, there wasn’t one song that they played that I didn’t like. They have a harder sound than I am used to listening to but like I said I liked it a lot and will definitely be acquiring more of their CD’s.

I have to add this to my review. There was one member of the audience, evidently a lady who brought her kids to the show with a couple more parents and a few more kids. As soon as they started playing, she walked out shaking her head and saying “No”. Ok, this is my opinion here, she had to know what these guys are like if she has any involvement in what her kids are listening to so she should have known a little about how they sound. I find it hard to believe that with so much information available to people these days that she was surprised by how hard hitting the music is. If I was going to bring my child to a rock concert, I would have done my homework on who he or she is listening to. Hell, if it was me, I would be right there banging my head right alongside of him or her. Anyway, just had to vent on that for a second. I found it somewhat humorous honestly.

Seether

We have had the opportunity to cover these guys a couple of times now. They treated the audience to a set with a really good mix of their music. First off was “Fur Cue” from their album titled “Holding On To Strings Better Left To Fray” and followed it up with “Rise Above This” from “Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces”. Shaun Morgan (lead singer and guitarist) took a moment to thank the crowd and told them to “Get the fuck up” before going into “Gasoline” and “Fine Again” both from the “Disclaimer” album. Once again Morgan took a minute to thank the audience for coming out to the “Uproar” tour. He moved on to “Broken” from “Disclaimer II”, and “Tonight” and “Country Song” from “Holding On To Strings Better Left To Fray”, “Fake It” from “Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces”, and ending the show with “Remedy” from “Karma Effect”.

While I like quite a few of their songs, their stage presence and live shows leave a lot to be desired. Normally I have a lot to say about things that were said or done during a concert, something to describe my experience and give a taste of what it was like to be at the show. I am not able to do that with this particular band because the most that came out of this night was 4 thank you’s, 1 song introduction, and “get the fuck up”, except at the end when Shaun Morgan told the crowd “You guys have been great, thank you to all the bands, make some noise for Rockstar, and Good Night”. There was not a lot if any audience interaction from any of the band members, the most action the stage really saw was from Bass Player, Dale Stewart moving around on stage a bit. To say that I am disappointed in the lack of energy and enthusiasm is an understatement. The stage set is the same as the last time we saw them and again the performance was lacking.

Fans pay money, sometimes a lot of it to go to concerts to see their favorite bands play the music they love. They not only want to hear that music but see a good show and interact somewhat with the bands that play that music. They feed off of that personal experience, it can transport you and if it’s done right, you leave there with ringing ears, sometimes a sore throat from screaming your approval, and a feeling that you had a great time sharing a few hours with one of your favorite bands. I don’t feel like Seether delivers that to their fans, sue me if you feel differently.

Three Days Grace

Strobes popping off and the video counted down. “DC, make some fucking noise”, “Let me see you mother fuckers” was the opening for Three Days Grace, then they went straight into “The Good Life” and “Break” from their “Life Starts Now” album. Lead singer Adam Gontier is immediately engaging the crowd with “Whats up”, “DC, let me hear you make some fucking noise” and telling them to “Get the fuck up”. He’s working all angles of the stage and bringing the audience right into the show, right off the bat. He tells them to “let me see you fucking jumping, I know you know this fucking song”. Next up was “Pain” from the “One-X” album. He tells the audience that they are “fucking awesome” and tells them if they don’t know the next song which is “I Hate Everything About You” from the debut “Three Days Grace” album to “mumble some shit, even if you don’t know it”. The whole group, Neil Sanderson (Drums), Brad Walst (Bass), and Barry Stock (Lead guitar), interact with the crowd and each other, putting a lot of energy into their performance, making sure the audience is having a good time and working them into a frenzy with each song.

The next song was a cover of Apocalyptica’s “I Don’t Care”, followed by “Home” from “Three Days Grace”. Gontier asks the crowd, “DC, you guys ready to have a little fucking fun with me now” and he starts rapping. I never thought I would hear that at a hard rock show, but he is performing “Lose Yourself” by Eminem. The crowd goes nuts, bouncing, and singing along. He asks them “How loud can you get?” and counts down, 3-2-1 and the place blows up. The crowd loves these guys and it shows in the enthusiasm in their responses and energy.

They move right into “Never Too Late” from “One-X”. Gontier starts shaking hands with audience members and tells them they have been “fucking amazing”. He tells them to “shout out a request” and then tells us “We were told that we can’t play Riot”, and, “if someone told you the one song you couldn’t play, I’d say…” and the crowd yells back “fuck you”, he tells them “louder” and they go louder, he says “louder” one more time and unbelievably they obey. Gontier stands on the riser center stage, spinning his guitar around his waist and screams “DC Fuck You!”. “We got time for one more and we’re gonna go out with a bang DC, come on!”, they end the show with “Animal I Have Become” from the “One-X” album. During the song Gontier leaves the stage and goes out and walks around the audience shaking hands, “Hi, How ya doin’”, then he gets back on stage and proceeds to have a conversation with the microphone like a parent to a child and builds it up before going into the last chorus of the song. He thanks the audience for coming and just like that, it’s over.

I have waited 3 years to see these guys live. It was worth it! They kept the audience involved the whole time by physically interacting with them and each other on stage and involving them in the show as much as possible. I can’t wait for them to come back to Virginia because I will definitely be there again.

Last but not least:

Avenged Sevenfold

The arena blows up when flames start erupting behind the black curtain. Moments later, the skull/bat has fire in its eyes and Avenged Sevenfold takes the stage that is adorned with rock and skulls and flames. Of course they open the show with their huge hit, “Nightmare” from the “Nightmare” album. The crowd seems to know all the words and sings along almost drowning out lead singer, M Shadows or Matthew Sanders. All three guitarists, Zackary Baker (Zacky Vengence), Brian Haner Jr. (Synyster Gates or Syn), and Jonathan Seward (Johnny Christ) take their places on the risers as they move on to “Beast & The Harlot”, from the “City of Evil” album.

“Well,Well,Well” , you hear from “Shadows”. He asks the crowd “What the fuck’s wrong with you?”, “You’re too fucking quiet” and then thanks them for letting them play Uproar Festival for the second year in a row. He gets into “Welcome To The Family” from the “Nightmare” album next. The music sounds great, just about every song so far has me bouncing my head and hands in rhythm, of course, and I’m definitely not the only one. Next up was “Second Heartbeat” from “Waking The Fallen”, “Afterlife” from “Avenged Sevenfold”, and “Buried Alive” from “Nightmare”.

Shadows tells the crowd “Oh, I smell marijuana”, and the crowd screams, he says to them “Obama must be here” and tells the crowd he “fucking loves them” and that the next song is for the best friend that they lost, which, as you know is “So Far Away” from “Nightmare”. The arena becomes bic central, there are lighters lit all over the place and whoever didn’t have a lighter, used their cell phones. Shadows proclaims, “It’s a beautiful night, with beautiful friends and family, we are gonna celebrate his life here tonight, I love singing this song on nights like this”. The crowd respects the somberness of the song and sings along with Shadows and when it was over he said “we’re gonna do one more of this old school shit” and says “Chapter 4 anybody?”, playing “Chapter Four” from the “Waking The Fallen” album. He tells them “hands in the air everybody, raise your hands, one more night, feel the power!”.

These guys are putting on one hell of a show. They move around on the stage, interacting constantly with each other and the crowd. Shadows tells the audience “either you guys are just very polite or you are just fucking tired”. Which it’s probably the latter, this is the last show in what was a 9 hour day packed full of rock and roll.

He goes on to tell the crowd the story behind “Little Piece Of Heaven” from “Avenged Sevenfold”, it goes like this, in his words, “a guy married this girl, killed her, fucked her when she was dead”. “She came back to life, killed him, and fucked him when he was dead”, “he kills her again and they become reacquainted in the afterlife”. He goes on to fill the audience in with “a word to the wise”, “everybody’s gotta die sometime”. Great story huh?

Next up was “Bat Country” from “City of Evil” and “Unholy Confessions” from “Waking The Fallen”.

Shadows pauses in the middle of the song and gives props to the mosh pit and encourages the crowd to make it “bigger and better”, and tells the people standing around it “if you’re scared, get the fuck out of the way!”, then he tells them “Let’s fuck this shit up”, to which they finish the song and the set for the night.

All in all, this was a great day. 9 hours, 10 bands, nonstop rock. Although it didn’t sell out, which I can’t understand except for the fact that it was a work day, the crowd that did come definitely got their money’s worth. In my opinion, the bands that played the second stage made it an even better experience for the crowd by taking the time to get out after their respective sets and meeting the crowd. The headlining bands on main stage rocked the shit out of these people with one exception.

I left that place thoroughly rocked and completely exhausted but my god what a day!

We would like to thank everyone at the Uproar tour for affording us the opportunity to come out and spend the day with some amazing bands and a great crowd with a special thanks to Kristine Ashton-Magnuson with AM Media for making it all possible.

Live review by: Melissa Gibson, All Access Magazine contributing writer.
Photography by: Stephen Gibson Photography

TRACK IS THE SECOND CHART-TOPPING SINGLE AT THE FORMAT FROM THE BAND’S NO. 1 GOLD ALBUM NIGHTMARE 

February 9, 2011 — Los Angeles, CA — “Welcome to the Family,” the new single from Avenged Sevenfold’s gold album Nightmare, has climbed to No. 1 at BDS Active Rock format in the U.S. this week. This is the band’s second No. 1 at the format from Nightmare, which earned A7X its highest-ever debut on the Billboard album chart when it bowed at No. 1. Nightmare also topped Billboard’s Rock, Hard Rock, and Digital charts. “Nightmare” was one of the most played current songs at Media Base Active Rock for 2010. The band continues to sell out arenas around the world. 

Produced by Mike Elizondo (Dr. Dre, Eminem) and mixed by notedengineer Andy Wallace, Nightmare was in the works when the band’s beloved drummer, Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan, passed away. The Los Angeles Times has praised Nightmare’s “elegiac power ballads,” and called it “the band’s most personal effort yet.” USA Today declared, “A7X has as broad a musical palette as any act in metal, with soaring guitar melodies and sorrowful ballads that offset growling metalcore vocals and Metallica-like jackhammerrhythms.” 

Avenged Sevenfold are currently on the road for their “Nightmare After Christmas” Tour, which wraps up on February 13^th.
www.avengedsevenfold.com

Read what critics have been saying about Avenged Sevenfold live!

“Their set was easily one of  the most impressive performances I’ve seen in a very long time.” — Seattle Post Intelligencer

“The band sounded tighter and more focused than ever.”  — Arizona Republic

“Aside from the energy present in singer Shadow’s delivery, the guitar work of Avenged is top notch. Both Zacky Vengeance and Synyster Gates do some mind-bending solos, but more impressively they perfectly harmonize many of the complicated leads” — OC Weekly

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STATES – BAND’S FIFTH STUDIO ALBUM BOWS AT THE TOP OF THE BILLBOARD ALBUM
CHART, THEIR HIGHEST DEBUT EVER

NIGHTMARE ALSO DEBUTS AT NO. 1 ON BILLBOARD’S HARD MUSIC, DIGITAL, INTERNET AND ALTERNATIVE ALBUM CHARTS

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TUESDAY, JUNE 29TH

ITUNES EDITION INCLUDES FULL DIGITAL ALBUM, NON ALBUM EXCLUSIVE BONUS TRACK AND PHOTOS, THE “NIGHTMARE” MUSIC VIDEO AND MORE

Burbank, CA – An exclusive digital edition of Avenged Sevenfold’s upcoming album Nightmare will be available for pre-order beginning on Tuesday, June 29th, on the iTunes Store. The Southern California band’s fifth studio album, produced by Mike Elizondo, is due from Warner Bros. Records on July 27th.   In addition to the full Nightmare digital album, this very special iTunes edition is jam-packed with features including a non album exclusive bonus track (“Lost It All”), 20 exclusive photos, the “Nightmare” music video plus its written treatment, behind the scenes footage from the video shoot, the “Nightmare” lyric video, an audio interview with album producer Mike Elizondo, type-set lyrics with hand-written notes for “Lost It All,” and sketches of the album art concept.   Avenged Sevenfold are riding high on the success of Nightmare‘s first single and title track, which has enjoyed airplay at Active Rock, Mainstream, and Modern Rock radio stations across the country and was the No. 1 Rock Song on iTunes in the U.S. and the U.K. in its debut week. A lyric video of “Nightmare” that premiered via YouTube on the band’s website received more than 275,000 plays in 24 hours and has since racked up more than two million views.   In August, Avenged Sevenfold will set out co-headlining the first annual Rockstar Energy Drink UPROAR Festival with Disturbed. Also on the bill are Stone Sour, Halestorm, and Hell Yeah. The UPROAR tour, which will hit amphitheatres and arenas, marks the band’s first tour since the passing of beloved friend and drummer Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan. Mike Portnoy from Dream Theatre plays drums on Nightmare and will also tour with the band for UPROAR. Please visit  

Pre-order Nightmare here:

 Nightmare (Deluxe Version)

www.avengedsevenfold.com

NIGHTMARE WILL BE RELEASED BY WARNER BROS. RECORDS ON JULY 27TH, 2010

Burbank, CA – Southern California’s Avenged Sevenfold have announced the title and release date for their upcoming fifth studio album: Nightmare will be released by Warner Bros. Records on July 17^th, 2010.    The album’s explosive first single (and title track) hits radio today and will be available from all digital service providers tomorrow. Nightmare was produced by Mike Elizondo (Dr. Dre, Eminem) and mixed by noted engineer Andy Wallace.    In August, Avenged Sevenfold will set out co-headlining the first annual Rockstar Energy Drink UPROAR Festival with Disturbed. Also on the bill are Stone Sour, Halestorm, and Hell Yeah. The UPROAR tour, which will hit amphitheatres and arenas, marks the band’s first tour since the passing of beloved friend and drummer Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan. Mike Portnoy from Dream Theatre plays drums on Nightmare and will also tour with the band for UPROAR.     More details about Nightmare will be available in the coming weeks.  

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 www.avengedsevenfold.com