The Oncenter in Syracuse, N.Y. was rocking loud and proud as AVENGED SEVENFOLD and HELLYEAH rocked a near capacity house. It was Heavy Metal arena rock at its finest as both bands put on powerful performances. The bill was missing ADRENALINE MOB who had to cancel their remaining tour dates due to a car accident that left the band beat up but alive. We wish them a speedy return to health.
HELLYEAH is a Heavy Metal supergroup with an extremely heavy sound. Former
MUDVAYNE frontman
Chad Gray sporting quite an electric Mohawk put on a show encouraging fans at every chance with a barrage of 'f-bombs' that were met with raucous cheers. The band had wicked low-end that had the house shaking and the crowd, split in the middle by barricades, moshing on both sides. Former
PANTERA drummer
Vinny Paul laid down some seriously powerful skins and tossed several drum sticks to the crowd. The louder and rowdier the band got, the louder the fans roared and the bigger the circles grew during the set. The addition of guitarist
Chris Brady only enriched the sound and power of the band as they pummeled the arena with a blistering set.
Chad Gray spoke at length on how Heavy Metal saved his life and that there were thousands in attendance with the same story to thunderous cheers as the band went into
"Band Of Brothers". After all the bands biggest tunes were played it was their first single and fan favorite
"You Wouldn't Know" that ended the night.
Brady let his guitar tech who is local to Syracuse get on the guitar during the song and they finished up strong and with high fives all around.
Setlist:
1. Cowboy Way
2. Matter of Time
3. Sangre por Sangre (Blood for Blood)
4. War in Me
5. Drink Drank Drunk
6. Band of Brothers
7. You Wouldn't Know
8. Hellyeah!
After a fairly long stage turnover, the last recorded song cranked up loud and had the crowd head banging along to AC/DC's "Back In Black", and the lights went down as the roars grew louder. I was curious how AVENGED SEVENFOLD would follow-up such a strong performance by HELLYEAH but they killed it. The stage slowly illuminated in reds as the drummer raced up the steps and took his spot as the guitar sounded the arrival of AVENGED SEVENFOLD and the song "Shepard Of Fire". These guys just destroyed the place with killer song after song rumbling the core of everyone there and saw a sea of arms waving and shaking horns up in unison. The bands stage is constantly changing behind them with castle walls that also serve as live screens to show the band even more to the arena. They had a stationary camera behind the soundboard and I counted three camera operators in the pit getting all those live shots of the band onstage.
Both bands delivered killer sets and had the fans tired, ears ringing, and what is now generations of metal fans rocking out together. It was good to see Metal rule the old
War Memorial (now
Oncenter) once again, so thanks
Livenation. If you get the chance to see this show near you get to it! We get
HELLYEAH back again with
FIVE FINGERS DEATH PUNCH,
VOLBEAT, and
NOTHING MORE on September 23
rd .
Setlist:
1. Shepherd of Fire
2. Critical Acclaim
3. Bat Country
4. Hail to the King
5. Doing Time
6. Buried Alive
7. Fiction
8. Nightmare
9. Burn It Down
10. Guitar Solo
11. Afterlife
12. This Means War
13. Almost Easy
14. Unholy Confessions
15. A Little Piece of Heaven
