First Tour

As we all started to wake up, we looked out the windows of our first tour bus. We had never been in this area before and were interested to see what was around us. Maine was a lot different then California. We were just pulling up to the venue and I could feel myself growing more and more nervous. This was going to be our first real gig. Of course, we've done private gigs before, for our friends and family and even played small bars in our hometown of Huntington Beach, but other then that we were new to this.

We were set to be the third act of the day, and were supposed to go on around four o'clock, this went on all day for the whole weekend. This was a tour mostly for new bands, of any genre, that were trying to become more popular. We had just released our first album, 'Sounding the Seventh Trumpet', and we wanted to promote the album to try and get us going as a band. No one really knew about besides the people from our hometown, who made us one of the biggest local bands. We didn't want to be local anymore, we wanted to be world wide, we wanted to fulfill our dreams of being famous rock stars. This was the first step we were going to take.

Since no one here really knew us, we could walk around all day until it was our time to perform.

We had our own table set up where we stayed most of the day; talking to people who were at the event, selling cds, t-shirts, and posters to anyone who was willing to buy them. The t-shirts and poster were ones that we had made ourselves, and the cd's were made on an indie label back in Huntington Beach, that no one knew about, and they did it for free just because we were the only band at the time that they thought had any chance of making it.

Some of the more hardcore kids and metal heads had started making their way over to us. Since we were the only heavy band there, they were attracted to us. They were the only ones interested in us, since the other people we here were more into pop-punk, and poppy shit that in my opinion, sucks.

It was three twenty and we had to do a quick sound check before we went on. There was about a thirty to forty minute break in between bands. While we waited to go on, we paced around the backstage area. We were so fucking nervous. We had never played anything this big before, and most of the people here weren't even into our type of music, it seemed anyway.

It was finally our time to go on and we walked out on stage instruments in hand. I consider my microphone an instrument.

"I'm M. Shadows and we're Avenged Sevenfold!" I screamed into the mic before the music started. "We'd like to first say that we are here to help promote our first ever album titled 'Sounding the Seventh Trumpet'! You should all check it out. Here's a song from that album called 'We Come Out At Night' I hope you all like it!"

Zacky Vengeance and Synyster Gates came in first with their guitars, next came The Reverend Tholomew Plague's drums and Johnny's bass. My screams came in shortly after 'black and grey clouds willow in the balance as the sun falls, rain plays a heart warming tune on the pavement...'

There wasn't much of a reaction from the audience... yet. They just kinda looked at us with blank faces, they sort of looked confused.

As the song continued on with 'clouds swallow the moon, and I'm alone thinking good times, and why'd they go...' the silence of the crowd grew into a roar, but not in a good way. They were yelling at us to get off the stage. I heard a few 'you sucks' too, and they started throwing shit at us, empty bottles, cans, anything they could find.

As the song finished I looked out into the audience and my focus went straight to the metal kids we had been talking to earlier. They were cheering for us, horns in the air. We couldn't let those few kids down, just because everyone else was being assholes.

The song finished.

"I'm sorry that we aren't a shitty pop 'band' like everyone else here. You guys must just not know what's good when it comes to music. If it weren't for those few kids in the back" I said pointing to the metal kids, who I now considered fans "we'd be gone already, but we're gonna stick around and play for them. Oh, and to piss you guys off, since you pissed me off. This next song is called 'Lips Of Deceit'."

We started the song and looked back at our 'fans' who were all freaking out. It was like we just made their whole lives for them. They started their own little mosh pit, probably the smallest I've ever seen at a concert, but who cares!? They were having a good time.

After our set ended we went back to our table. The 'fans' rushed over in excitement. "That was awesome!" one girl screamed.

"What was? Our set or me flipping out on the audience?" I said with a bit of sarcasm.

"All of it! I'm Grace by the way, not that you guys care."

"We care. It's nice to get some fans!" Zacky said.

"I'm M. Shadows" I started "and that's Synyster Gates, Johnny, The Reverend Tholomew Plague, and Zacky Vengeance." I said going down the line.

"Cool. So are you guys gonna keep playing for the rest of the weekend, despite what these brainless assholes think?" Grace questioned.

"Are you guys gonna be here for the rest of the weekend?" I asked back.

"Yeah." They all said nodding their heads.

"Then hell yeah we're gonna keep playing!" I cheered.

They all seemed happy to hear that.

"You are the only band here that's worth a shit." Grace said honestly. "Like you said the rest are just shitty pop 'bands'." She continued, making air quotes around 'bands'.

We laughed. "Yeah. So, do you guys wanna hang out here at our table for the rest of the night? You can help us try to sell some merch, if you want. I mean, if there's even anyone else here that'll buy it. Are you guys the only smart ones here?"

They smiled and shrugged at my second question, but were excited that we invited them to stay with us for the rest of the day.

"I'll take a t-shirt" Grace said "and a copy of your cd, and a poster. Will you guys sign my poster? I brought my own Sharpie." If you can't tell, Grace is crazy.

We all took turns with the marker and signed her poster. She could be our biggest fan ever. Hopefully we'll get more fans like her someday soon.

The day was finally over and we packed all of our equipment and merch back onto our tour bus for the night. Our new fans helped us and we said good bye to them until tomorrow.

Once we were done putting everything back on the bus we all got a water out of the cooler, see, being as we are a new band we have no money, no food, nothing. We have water because the tour provided us with a cooler and unlimited water. We were lucky to make forty dollars a day which went towards gas, and maybe a bag of chips or something at the gas station which we all shared. We were starving, poor, and exhausted. Oh, and we smelled pretty bad, being out in the heat all day with no place to shower, we felt gross. We knew this was going to be a long weekend. We talked about how hard just this day was. We all agreed that becoming famous was going to be extremely hard, but worth it in the end. To make it we're going to have to put up with a lot of shit and work our fucking asses off. Like we saw tonight, there's going to be people who hate us, but also people who will love us. We'll have to deal with it. Our time will come. We want this more than anything and we aren't going to let anything, even rejection get in the way.

Within a half an hour we were all passed out from exhaustion. I was on the 'couch' if you could call it that, Zacky fell asleep in a chair at the table, and the rest of the guys were on the floor. It sounds terrible, but it's better than no sleep at all.

When we woke up the next morning we felt like shit. We were hot and sweaty. We felt like we hadn't slept in a year, even though we got some sleep the night before. Our stomachs were crampy, and aching from not eating. We felt like we were dying, but we knew we had to do this, it would be worth it in the long run.

We set up our table again, laying all of the shirts and cds and posters out, knowing that no one was going to buy them. We didn't see any of our new fans yet, and it was almost time for us to go on.

We went back for sound check, and went out on stage for our set of the day. As we were playing I looked out into the audience trying to find our little metal heads. 'There they are!' I said in my head once I found them. They were in the same spot as they were the day before, cheering us on once again. The other people ignored the fact that we were even there, and shot death glares at the kids who liked us.

I kinda felt bad for the kids who were being hated just for liking us, but then I thought about it, and they don't care. They're fans of our music and they don't care what other people think. We didn't care much either of what these people thought. When we were at our table people would walk by and tell us we sucked, but we didn't care we'd just flip them off. This just wasn't our scene, we'll find were we belong eventually.

The day slowly passed by, and we spent it the same way we spent the day before. With the few fans we had made, not selling much, starving, and so tired we could probably sleep for a week straight.

We did notice that there was an extra person in the group of fans today. Some people bought tickets for the whole weekend and some people bought tickets for just a day or two.

The day finally came to an end, and we went through the same routine; packing our stuff onto the bus, drinking a ton of water, counting our money, we made twenty-seven dollars today, talking about how much pain we were in and then finally passing out again. We really were in a lot of pain. Our sides ached, our feet were sore and blistered, we were so weak and our bodies were pretty much completely drained.

When we woke up the next day, we were excited. It was our last day of this, for now. We got up early, around nine o'clock. A lot of people were just starting to get there, and a lot of people were outside walking around trying to sell there tickets. Not our fans though, they were all gathered together in the parking lot waiting for everything to get started, it looked like they were up to something.

This must happen every year where people try to sell their tickets, because there was a lot of people around looking to buy them.

We went back to set our table up for the last time on this tour. You don't even know how good it felt to know we could leave this place soon, no one liked us anyway.

The shows were about to start, and everybody made their way through the gate. Our group of fans that was about six people before, had almost twenty kids, now. I know, twenty fans, big deal. To us it was a big deal. They all came over to our table to say 'hi', and yes, Grace was still there.

"Hey uh, Grace?" I said a little bit confused. "Where did all these people come from?"

"These are some of our friends. When we got home last night we played your cd for them and they loved it! We told them to come along with us today, because there's always people outside on the last day trying to get rid of their tickets. Fucking losers get tired of their shitty music."

We all started laughing.

"So guys, this is them, Avenged fucking Sevenfold! They're the only good band here, but it's totally worth it to stay here the whole day just for them." Grace said to her group of friends.

I could tell that today, the last day of this tour, was going to be the best. The first two days were pretty brutal, and today would be too, but not as bad, I could just tell.

"Hey, you guys wanna give us a hand laying all our shit out on this table?" I asked the group.

Of course, they said 'yes' and rushed over to help. Once everything was layed out, I thanked them, and we went off for our sound check.

Once it was time for us to play we went out on stage and this time, instead of getting booed, the crowd went wild. Well, not all of it, of course, but our little group. They took over the whole fucking crowd while we were playing. They were singing along, which made us feel really good. They were moshing, dancing, and just having a great time. And, when anyone tried to give them shit about it they'd just flip them off and scream 'fuck you!' in their face. That got to them. The sensitive little pussies can't handle us or our fans.

Next time we go on tour it should be something heavier, somewhere that we actually belong.

When our set was done, we went back to our table and our group of fans followed. Since this was the end of the tour and we wouldn't need our equipment anymore, we packed it all onto the tour bus, with some help. We figured no one would be buying any of our merchandise, so we put that into boxes too, and loaded it on to the bus.

The day was quickly coming to an end, when some guy came over and asked to talk to just us, with no fans around. We said we'd talk to him, and stepped just outside the gate.

"I'm Michael Ryan, from Hopeless Records. I personally loved you guys, and think you would fit very nicely on our label."

The five of us looked around at each other when he said this. We were very surprised, in a good way.

"Wow, really? Thanks. We'd love to join onto an actual label." I replied. "What would we have to do to get on?"

"Well first, we'll re-record that cd of yours, just to fix it up a little, and we'll see where it goes from there."

"Sweet man, that sounds awesome!" I said shaking his hand.

"So here's my card" he started while handing me something "give me a call in the next week or so and we'll set up a time for you guys to get in the studio."

"Alright, thanks." I said happily, and he walked away.

We went back to our table and told our fans what just happened. They seemed almost as excited as we were. We were all jumping around and celebrating.

"We'd offer to take you guys out tonight to celebrate, but seeing as we have no money, we can't." I said and I felt like I was ruining the moment.

"We understand." Grace said "We know it's hard in this business. Why don't you guys all come back to my house? My parents are out of town, and we have a huge back yard with a swimming pool."

We thought about her offer and said that we couldn't do that, but she insisted that it was no big deal, and that she'd feed us dinner.

"Now, how can we turn that down? Especially when we haven't had a thing to eat this whole weekend. To Grace's!" I said, and we were off to her house to celebrate.

"See guys, this tour may have sucked at first but if we hadn't stuck around we wouldn't have been offered to sign to an actual record label." Zacky said.

"Yeah, and we wouldn't have met all these awesome people and made fans. Fans are family motherfucker!" The Rev added.

Things were going to get a lot better and a lot easier. It would take time and hard work, but it was going to happen. We're going to be rock stars.