Tales of the Unknown

How long was this queue? I thought the queue for Lostprophets was long, but this? This was monumental. As I looked behind us, I could see a line of people stretching up the road for several hundred metres. We were a few of the lucky one’s who had the audacity to turn up for the gig several hours early so we could get near the front.

Avenged Sevenfold aren’t that well known around here, so the amount of people who had turned up had surprised me. They were currently touring their fourth, self titled album. We had to seize the chance of them playing in Birmingham as they didn’t come often. Layla’s friend had come over to visit from Canada and was subsequently coming to see them with us.

We had been standing in the queue since midday and it was gradually nearing seven o-clock, the time at which the tickets stated the doors would open. Pippa turned towards me and started talking.

“Ohmigod! I’m so glad I moved up here from Wales!” She gushed.

“You’re lucky that Layla and Amy showed you around ‘cause if it was two chavs, you probably wouldn’t be standing here with us today.” I laughed.

“I heard my name?” Layla enquired, turning away from her conversation with Jenn and Danielle.

“Yeah, you did. I was talking about how you and Amy showed Pippa around the school and saved her from a fate worse than death.” I told her.

“Ahh yes. Strange first impression. ‘She’s welsh, and an emo.’” Layla reminisced.

“Yeah, you and Amy went and told people that and they immediately got a mental image of an emo sheep.” Pippa giggled.

“OHMIGOD! The doors are open!” Danielle squealed as we all retrieved our tickets from our pockets.

We were quite near the front of the queue and consequentially it only took us five minutes to enter the venue. We had to walk down several flights of stairs to reach the room where, in half an hour’s time, we would see our heroes play for maybe the only time we ever would. I looked around the room that was gradually filling up with people of our generation mainly, with a few people in there twenties but no older than that, and I saw two people hiding in the shadows at the back of the room who looked suspiciously like The Rev and Johnny Christ. I turned away to tell Danielle but by the time I turned back again, they were gone.

The lights gradually dimmed, descending the floor into darkness, and we could see four shadows make there way across the stage and freeze as they reached their designated spaces. A tall, muscular man strode onto the stage and stopped when he reached the drum riser. He stood with his back to us and his arms in front of him. The haunting sound of an organ playing filled the venue and light flooded the stage. The first guitar and drum beat caused him to raise his arms in a V shape. On the next beat, he turned around and prowled towards the edge of the stage.

After about a minute a voice emitted from the microphone situated next to the drum riser:

“Shhh…quiet you might piss somebody off.”

This was followed by the man who had been previously standing in front of the drum riser beginning to sing:

“Like me motherfucker you’ve been at it for too long,
While you feed off others’ insecurities,
You stand in front of me and bite the hand that feeds.
Self-righteousness is wearing thin.”

The last line he sang was cross-faded by the voice from the drum riser:

“Lies inside your head, your best friend.”

After this line had been sang, the other man began to sing again.

“Heart bleeds but not for fellow men.”

The vocals once again transferred to the drum riser, but not returning to the main vocals straight away.

“Broken glass, your fake reflection.
I’ve has enough,
It’s time for something real,
I don’t respect the words you’re speaking,
Gone too far,
A clone.”

After the drummer had sung the chorus, the vocalist took over again:

“So how does it feel to know that someone’s kid in the heart of America has blood on their hands, fighting to defend your rights so you can maintain a lifestyle that insults his family’s existence? Well, where I’m from we have a special salute we aim high in the air, towards all those pompous assholes who spend their days pointing fingers.”

“Shhh…quiet you might piss somebody off.” The voice from the drum riser whispered again.

“Like the heartbeat of this country when antagonised too long,
I’ll be damned if you count me in as part of your generous hypocrisy,
Collecting enemies.
Tabloid gossip queen worthless man.”

“There’s no need for us to bury you.”

“Selfish agenda once again.”

“Right this way you’ve dug your own grave.
I’ve has enough,
It’s time for something real,
I don’t respect the words you’re speaking,
Gone too far,
A clone.”

“All the way from the east to the west we got this looking down on their very foundation, constantly reminding us that our actions are the cause of all their problems, pointing their fingers in every direction and blaming their own nation for who wins elections, they’ve never contributed a fucking thing to the country they love to criticize.
Excuse the obscene, ignore the untrue,
Depictions we see try and get through,
Admitting mistakes can hurt,
I’m not the last but I sure ain’t the first.”

After he finished singing, the guitars launched into a solo where the two guitarists stood back-to-back on the riser in the middle of the front of the stage. At the end of the solo a voice rang out from the drum riser again:

“Shhh…quiet you might piss somebody off.”

Once again, this was followed by the vocalist:

“Self-righteousness is wearing thin.”

“Lies inside your head, your best friend.”

“Heart bleeds but not for fellow men.”

“Broken glass, your fake reflection.
I’ve has enough,
It’s time for something real,
I don’t respect the words you’re speaking,
Gone too far,
A clone.”

This signalled the end of song and the entire audience erupted with screams and applause until the vocalist silenced us.

“So how’s everybody out there doin’ tonight?”

This being followed by even more screams.

“We’re Avenged Sevenfold and that was Critical Acclaim.”

Cue more screaming.

“For our next song we’re gonna go way back. Right back to our first album. I don’t know if any of you know it, it’s a song called The Art of Subconscious Illusion. But there’s a female scream in there somewhere and, as you can see, none of us up here are girls, so audience participation time. Hands up who knows the lyrics.” He spoke into his microphone.

The five of us raised our hands, as did several other people. But, the majority of the crowd had never heard the song, as you could tell by the expressions on their faces.

“Outta the people with their hands raised, who of you can scream it right?”

The other four put their hands down, as did the rest of the people who had raised their hands. I attempted to put mine down as well but, Pippa and Layla grabbed my arm and kept it raised in the air.

“You’ll thank us for this later.” Pippa whispered in my ear.

“Well then little lady, if you’d like to make your way up here to the stage to assist us.” He said, gesturing to me and then to security to help me over the barrier when I reached it.

As I was hauled up onto the stage, I suddenly became aware of the t-shirt I had on. We had each personalised our tops and had one of the band on out front, along with their name and a quote. Unluckily for me, the person who was on my front, helped to pull me onto the stage. He just cocked his eyebrow slightly and said nothing about it.

“Think you can handle this?” I was asked by the vocalist.

“Fuck yeah!” Was my simple reply. He nodded and began to sing.

“A living nightmare,
Asleep but still aware.
The endless torture.
The painless pleasure.
I grasp myself.
Trying to regain control.
I experience and learn.
In another faction of my mind.
So confused.
But everything makes perfect sense.
Can’t feel the pain.
Emotional pain’s so much deadlier.
Lost,
You’ve just been raped.
Pain.
Your friends can’t help you.
Why won’t they help you?
Another reality.
This can’t be happening.
Why is this happening?
Who the fuck are you?
Who the fuck?
Trying hard to figure out what’s done.
I scramble but know I run.
The images in my head.
All the problems that I’ve been fed.
Problems I’ve been fed.
Images in my head.”

As he finished singing this, I got incredibly nervous as my part was approaching rapidly. I stepped up to the spare microphone and began to scream:

“Punching slowly my mind can’t change the speed.”

“As my victims bleed.”

“No matter what I do or how hard I try.” I stepped away from the microphone and towards the side of the stage where the rhythm guitarist was standing.

“As my victims bleed.
No matter what I do or how hard I try.
I can’t use my abilities.
Use my abilities.
Art of Illusion.
My razor sharp knife’s edge,
Pierces my victim’s body.
But I can’t take their soul.
Punching through jello,
Stabbing not killing.
Disappointment.
Discomfort.
My razor sharp knife’s edge,
Pierces my victim’s body.
But I can’t take their soul.
Punching through jello,
Stabbing not killing.
Disappointment.
Discomfort.”

Whilst the vocalist had been screaming, the rhythm guitarist was talking to me whilst he was playing, above the music.

“You here with your friends?”

“Yeah, you can see two of them from here. There’s Pippa, she’s the one with the purply red hair, shit loads of eyeliner and A7X drawn next to her eye. Then there’s Layla, she’s the one with red hair tied up in a ponytail, with three piercings in each ear and purple eyeliner. Jenn and Danielle are down there somewhere but I can’t see them at the moment.” I explained.

“Awesome. When this is finished, don’t leave the venue, hang around in here for a while and I’ll send one of the Berry’s out to get you all. I’m sure someone up here will be rather interested in your top.” He told me

“Cool. I think Pippa wanted to hang around anyway and see if she could somehow get M. Shadow’s autograph.” I replied. Before he had a chance to reply the song was finished and the vocalist was thanking me.

“I don’t know about y’all, but I think this girl here did incredibly well. And without her, that song would have been fucked up ‘cause we sure ain’t girls. So thank you!”

While this was being said, the two guitarists and security were helping me down of the stage, back to my friends. I was immediately greeted by four smiling faces.

“OHMIGOD SOPHIE! THAT WAS AMAZING!” Jenn exclaimed.

“Erm, thanks. It wasn’t my best though.” I admitted.

“It was better when we tried to do that song in music.” Pippa laughed.

“Have you been practising?” Layla asked, mock accusing me.

“I may have been listening to that song rather a lot recently.” I replied mysteriously.

“Trust you Sophie. But OHMIGOD! You were onstage with Avenged Sevenfold!” Danielle shouted excitedly.

“Haha, yes I was. Jealous?” I giggled.

“What d’you think? We’d all give anything to be up there with them!” Jenn told me.

Whilst our conversation continued, Avenged Sevenfold went on to play Afterlife, Beast and the Harlot, Scream, Seize the Day, Brompton Cocktail, Bat Country, Almost Easy and Unholy Confessions. For their final song they chose the slightly more mellow sounds of Gunslinger. The vocalist managed to get the entire crowd to sing along melodically, like it was a national anthem. When they had finished, he screamed into the microphone before walking offstage:

“Thank y’all, and goodnight!”

This was followed by a loud scream that erupted from each and every audience member before they all rushed to get out of the seemingly tiny doors that made up the exit to the venue. Whereas we stayed put, having explained to them that we had to wait, but not why we had to wait.

We had been standing in the middle of the floor for about ten minutes when a guy came up to us.

“You’re the girl who was onstage earlier?” He asked me.

“Yeah, I am. You’re one of the Berry’s right?” I enquired.

“Indeed, I’m Matt Berry. I’ve been told to bring you all backstage.” He said, motioning for us to follow him as he turned on his heel and started walking towards a door.

When she was sure that he was out of ear shot, Pippa leaned over and whispered to me:

“You sneaky girl! You never told us we were going backstage!”

“Yeah well, when you can scream like that and have the guitarist’s face on your top, how can they not let you come backstage afterwards?” I giggled.

Pippa didn’t have a chance to reply as we had reached a door and Matt Berry was standing beside it, with his hand on the door handle.

“You girls ready to go in?” He asked us. We were too nervous to speak so he just received a series of nods. He opened the door and ushered us inside. I looked at the others and it seemed as if they had suddenly become aware of what we all had on our fronts. As we entered, I could feel five sets of eyes lock onto us.

“Matt got you here okay then?” Zacky Vengeance asked, while he studied Layla’s top, with a look of confusion.

“Yeah, do our tops confuse you or something?” I enquired.

“Only slightly.” The Rev laughed.

“I’ve been wondering since I helped you onstage why you’ve got me and a quote from Afterlife on your top.” Synyster Gates added.

“Well you see, yesterday we were extremely bored and we had a pile of black tops that needed decorating and we wanted to give Jenn something to remember us by when she returns home next week so Pippa came up with her strange idea.” I explained.

“Riiiight. Makes some sense now, except for why Jenn needs something to remember you by.” Synyster Gates mused.

“Yeah well, she’s going back to Canada next week and we probably won’t see her again for years.” Layla told them.

“Canada?! That’s kind of a long way to come to a gig and see some friends.” Johnny laughed.

“They’re all awesome and Layla didn’t tell me that we’d be coming to see you guys until she came and collected me from the airport.” Jenn retorted.

“Oookay, I’ve heard several names but I only know who Jenn is ‘cause of her sexy Canadian accent. So d’you feel like enlightening us.” The Rev pointed out.

“Oh right, yeah. I’m Sophie. The girl Zacky was staring at when we walked in is Layla, the tall blonde is Danielle, Pippa’s the one with A7X written across her face and, as The Rev so eloquently put it, Jenn’s the one with ‘the sexy Canadian accent’.” I replied, lifting their confusion.

“Ooooh. Dude, I’ve just realised, you’re all still standing in the doorway! Come sit down!” Synyster Gates said, inviting us over to the sofa for what would become the most memorable night of all our lives.