Twenty or so minutes into his band’s first ever performance at Madison Square Garden, M. Shadows decides to cast light upon magic. Avenged Sevenfold, he explains, almost didn’t make their appointment at the “world’s most famous arena” on account of cancelled flights and other travel snafus. As if this weren’t quite enough, the singer’s admission that their very presence onstage is attributable entirely to the genius of their road crew ensuring the show goes on begs numerous questions. Here’s two of them: is the often-muddy sound attributable to the acoustics of an ageing arena, or has half of the backline gone missing in transit? And is the decision to light the musicians so dimly (and almost never from above) the result of an art-house aesthetic, or is this the best the riggers could do with only limited equipment?
Either way, Avenged Sevenfold at Madison Square Garden is not quite the triumph it ought to have been. And, for sure, it’s not a fitting showcase for the Orange County quintet’s brand new album. Because as well as being the band’s best and most ambitious LP, Life Is But A Dream…, unveiled at the start of the month, is perhaps the most inventive and fearless creation of its kind released this century. Certainly, as a statement of intent from one of the world’s most popular loud bands, its qualities are such that it is neither idealistic nor optimistic to envisage its 11 songs being performed in their entirety, front to back, by music-makers who must surely know they have created something truly special. Instead of this, though, New York gets half the LP smattered (overwhelmingly and confusingly) at the front and back of the set. Worse still, the vocals for night’s opening two songs – Game Over and Mattel – are lost to a PA that sounds as if it’s been salvaged from the Staten Island Ferry. “Turn your fucking mic up!” screams an exasperated audience member near the front of the stage. And so say all of us…
