Welcome To The Family

Last night I went to the Avenged Sevenfold concert in Sydney (for free because I won tickets). I had a blast. It was really quite insane and intense, though. 😰 Dylan and Rachel were able to give me some tips on how to deal with the mosh and all that shit. Fuck, it was really mad.

I met Dylan before the show and he brought his friend Jessie. We went in through the glass doors a bit after everyone else because our tickets hadn’t arrived yet… oh well. We prepared ourselves before we went through the doors to the stage. I could have put my bag in the cloakroom for free, but I felt a little lost without it, so I left it on me. It was just a really small shoulder bag but I really could have gone without it, hah. O_O

This was my first time going to a rock concert at all, so I tried to prepare myself and expect the worst. I suppose it’s fair to say I got a bit nervous. Obviously I made sure I was well hydrated and went to the toilet beforehand. I sneaked in some chocolate bars (which I ended up eating before the opening act was even on stage) and a camera. I think we were allowed to take cameras, but I was trying to hide mine from the security guy at the doors.

The opening act was a local band called Dream on Dreamer. I’d never actually heard their stuff before, but I’m always keen on listening to new music. Dylan mentioned that they probably wouldn’t be the kind of genre I’d like very much. I could feel the beat in my chest because it was really loud. They were pretty hardcore and the vocals were mostly screaming. I have to admit that it was tolerable. I kind of like death metal (to a certain extent), and their music had a kind of unique edge to it. I couldn’t quite hear, but the lead singer pointed at the keyboardist and said he was Jesus. It was a bit of a running joke throughout the night, and some guy yelled “Messiah”. The crowd got pretty insane during the intermission, before Avenged Sevenfold came on. We had to stand there for an hour and I wasn’t that close to the stage at this point. I think I made a mental note that I would try to get closer to the front.

It fucking sucks being short, because you can’t see shit at a concert. This is one of those times I wish I were tall, to be honest. I used to hate being short up until a few years ago when I took it to my advantage. The only good thing about being short and thin in this case is that you can squeeze or wedge between people… but you can’t fucking see. Dylan helped me out and pointed out where to go - where all the short heads were, so I could see over them.

When Avenged Sevenfold came out everyone started going crazy and pushing everyone forward (this completely as I expected as Dylan had warned me). I didn’t like that. I guess it wasn’t a good way to begin because despite being mentally prepared, I physically wasn’t. My shoelace already came undone and after a minute getting annoyed about it, being squished up against everyone, I decided, “fuck it”. There was no way in hell I was worrying about a shoelace. If I lost my shoe (and it nearly fell off my foot), whatever. XD I had tied my hair up as well but it came undone and I lost my hair tie.

Avenged opened up with their song Nightmare. It was insane, the crowd was going mad. I realised there was probably no way I was going to be able to take photos but I was enjoying the music far too much anyway. At some point I felt like I was going to puke because some guy near me really stunk (I know, I guess no one thought of wearing deodorant because it’s winter, but with all the people in there you get pretty hot). That really wasn’t pleasant at all. /poo After some time I realised I was standing behind a girl whose hair actually smelled like she’d just washed it. Haha. Because I’m so small and skinny, I wasn’t very comfortable being squished. No one is, really, but I think I got it pretty bad because there was a point I was wedged between taller people and had to stick my head up out of the crowd to breathe normally. Ugh. :P For one moment, I legitimately thought I was going to die.

Fire was shot from the back of the stage for special effects. Or it could have been to make us hotter… nah, just kidding. After a few songs pretty much walking all over everyone’s feet and trying to get closer to the front and screaming and jumping to the music, I tried to take a few photos. Most came out blurry but I got pretty good photos of Zacky and Johnny. Oh and the thing about screaming… this was seriously the one time I could scream as fucking loudly as I could with no consequence. I don’t care if I deafened the guy behind me, that was totally my intention. Well, not really, but he was elbowing me and pushing me when I was already really squished to a guy on my left. I kind of spread my arms and elbows to the sides to push the people next to me so that no one behind me would roughly shove past. I know I was shoving forward too, but some people were really obnoxious about it.

Oh my god, Zacky was so cute. 🥹 I probably saw him most of the time since I was more towards the left and that’s where he usually plays. Dylan carried me at one point and I got a good view of everything, but I didn’t try to take any photos then. I probably should have, but like Dylan said as he pointed to his head, “All my concert memories are in here”.

I ended up in about the third row with Dylan behind me. This was a pretty good spot as the security guards handed out cups of water every now and then. And I could fucking see Zacky. HAHAHA. I’m glad Brian (Synyster Gates) moved to the left of the stage so I could get some eye candy too, heh.

They put on an amazing show, and played A Little Piece of Heaven. It wasn’t originally on the setlist so it was unexpected… except when Matt said “this is for those of you who have ever wanted to be married” I just freakin’ knew they were going to play it. Man, it was intense and it was insane. The entire show was just fantastic. I didn’t catch any of the stuff they threw. I wasn’t even close; I was looking all over the floor later but someone else picked up one of Brian’s guitar picks. Ah well. I didn’t get to meet them either, but that’s alright. :)

I’m all fucking sore and shit and I had a sore throat before I went, which has now gotten worse. My neck hurts and it hurts to cough and yawn. It was worth it though. :D My arm got slashed or something, and near my elbow I’ve got a long cut, but whatever. Good memories. Haha. I’m definitely not doing that again any time soon though. I think it beats being up the back. It’s the experience that counts, I guess. I was so tired and thirsty by the end of it. @_@