If day 1 wasn’t enough for you, day 2 of the Aftershock Festival was only a quick sleep away from taking over your lives for an entire day. This day featured mega-headliners Five Finger Death Punch, Volbeat, A Day to Remember, and Avenged Sevenfold, and that was all at night!
We had arrived in time to watch the closing set of Falling in Reverse on the North stage (aka, the teenage stage) and got up at the barricade to watch All That Remains. What we saw wasn’t All That Remains, but a band called Nothing More who had played the day before on the Ernie Ball stage; a first in Aftershock history. We waited it out because you can’t say no to the barricade, but luckily this band was total surprise to see live.
Falling in Reverse
At one point during their performance, they had connected the bass to a drum set and the lead singer was occasionally playing on it. The bass and guitar player would both play the bass at the same time and played a very trippy prog. song. If two people playing the bass wasn’t enough for you, then how about 3 people on one bass! This actually happened and it was incredible and fresh to witness. Look out for Nothing More, we have a feeling they’ll be making big news soon.
Not moving from our perfect spot on the barricade, we watched Asking Alexandria on the teenage North stage. While we aren’t complete fans of their music, we can say they have improved since we last saw them at Mayhem of last year. Heidi Shepherd of the Butcher Babies came up on stage to do a few songs with the band, and it was almost as if Heidi was returning a favor to Danny Worsnop who had performed with them at the last date of this year’s Mayhem. Heidi Shepherd added some much needed enjoyment to an otherwise stale ‘Alexandria set’.
Over on the South stage was the “love-metal” group HIM. While their type of music isn’t exactly for us, it was pretty entertaining and we can see why they have a huge female following. We did however dig the Wicked Game cover that they finished with. Make sure to see HIM as part of the Rock Allegiance tour with Volbeat if you’re into Finnish “love-metal.”
Halestorm and Volbeat were up next on the next bill, while we were able to see them, we have a more in depth review of both of their Los Angeles shows on the site, so make sure to check them out here: https://onceno.com/0ther/soundcheck411/rock-allegiance-tour-featuring-volbeat/ Halestorm https://onceno.com/0ther/soundcheck411/halestorm-2/
Halestorm
Volbeat
The time for the heavy hitters is finally upon us, and first off was the all mighty Five Finger Death Punch from Las Vegas, Nevada. We’ve seen this band grow and reach an extremely large fan base since we first saw them in 2007, and we are proud of their success. This goes to show you that hard work pays off. In our past experiences with FFDP, the crowds have calmed down and have turned to one of the most intense shows to watch, into one of the most singing, friendly shows on the current touring market. Our expectations of this show were wrong. Sacramento brought their A-game and destroyed everything in their path, and it was all thanks to the intensity of Five Finger Death Punch. This band has grown into a mad powerhouse of a live band. If you were at this show, you knew your safety came second, and the head banging came first.
The moment of Aftershock has finally arrived- Avenged Sevenfold hit the stage with a bang. Opening with Shepherd of Fire, Sevenfold had a giant skeleton king (the rejected album cover skeleton king) towering over the stage as fire surrounded the stage as they performed the opening track from their newly released album Hail to the King. We now find ourselves on a journey with one of the world’s biggest metal bands, and we are willing to go through every obstacle to complete the trip.
There’s no doubt that Avenged Sevenfold was the main reason for people to buy tickets and help sell out the second day of the festival, but what would be their reaction to the band when they actually preformed? We walked around for a bit to see people’s reactions, and for the most part, the real action didn’t take place unless you were close enough to the stage. While we checked out FFDP before A7X, the crowds over at the Death Punch side seemed more energetic and alive as opposed to the Avenged Sevenfold side where less action was happening. It’s understandable that people were tired after 2 long days of music, but some of us here at Soundcheck 411 were on day 3 of music festivals and still raging at the end of this night. We aren’t saying everyone wasn’t energetic, but for the most part, it seemed that way. At least the first 25 rows of people had enough energy to keep Aftershock alive.
The crowds weren’t as great as we thought they would be, but at least Avenged Sevenfold held it together and delivered an outstanding show full of guitar solos, thunderous drums, and climatic vocals that would make any metal head, head-bang the night away. To those who haven’t seen Arin Ilejay’s drumming in person and critique his style, we would advise you to see how far he’s come as a drummer for this band. If you were a non-believer this night, then you definitely became a fan, especially after hearing all the Hail to the King material. Be sure to check out Avenged Sevenfold with Deftones and Ghost B.C. this fall at a city near you.
So, there you have it. Aftershock 2013 is in the books. The show only went over one minute after curfew, but Avenged Sevenfold knew it would be worth the fines to satisfy the crowd. Can we justify the price of admission for one or even two days of this festival? Every single penny was totally worth the price of admission. Don’t miss out on 2014’s Aftershock if there’s one announced (we wouldn’t see why it wouldn’t be), you’ll regret it if you are left out of the dark.
Review by: Alex Lucero
Check out our coverage from Day 1 of Aftershock here: https://onceno.com/0ther/soundcheck411/aftershock-festival-2013-day-1/
They weren’t mentioned in the review but here is A Day to Remember
