Oscar The Third: It's a curse that makes this world so hopeless

This was one of those concerts where I was more psyched to see the opening bands than the main act. I had already seen Disturbed once in my life and I was relatively unimpressed by them, so when they announced another tour in 2011, it didn't really capture my attention. That is until, I found out that their supporting acts were going to be As I Lay Dying and Trivium! This pretty much blew my mind and I was now 100% commited to getting Disturbed tickets again. Now, this actually wasn't the first time I'd been in a situation where I was more psyched for an opening band and coincidently, it was Disturbed who were the main act the first time it happened too. Back in 2007, I was attending my first concert ever, Disturbed were headlining but I was 1000x more excited to see their opening band, Alter Bridge. Anyway, back to 2011, I got in line for Trivium/AILD at about 9 in the morning. It was freezing cold and raining pretty heavily but I was lucky to be undercover at the front of the line. Noboby else showed up for a long time, due to the fact that Disturbed were doing a signing at a store in the city that day (I had no need to go because Trivium were not going to be there), but that just made it easier for me to get front of the line. I waited around and after many hours the Disturbed fans started to show up, they were all coming straight from the signing and then the weirdest thing happened to me. I recieved a text that claimed there had just been a tornado in Albany (the context being that I attend a Design University in Albany and was meant to be in class that day but was skipping so that I could line up for the concert). Eventually I was able to confirm that there actually had been a tornado that had destroyed part of the shopping mall near my University, and New Zealand is not a country that is known for tornados. so it was extremely freaky. In a way, I guess Trivium could've saved me from a devasting tornado...who would've thought. The excitement of all that happened made time go by really quickly and before you know it, it was time to go in. I got front row centre (of course) and As I lay Dying opened the show and put on one hell of a performance, I managed to catch Tim Lambesis' drink bottle but unfortunately their was no water left in it. Then Trivium came out and exploded into Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr, and then straight into A Gunshot To The Head Of Trepidation. It was the perfect start to a show and the setlist really was amazing that night. At one point, the drummer even broke his double-kick pedal, thats how hard they rocked. As usual, Matt Heafy was electric and he even poked his tongue out at me while I was filming at one point, I felt so privilaged. I was lucky enough to get 3 guitar picks from their set, 2 were just spares but 1 was the pick Matt Heafy used for the entire show! After Trivium left the stage, I was exhausted and dehydrated so I got pulled over the barrier and headed to the back for some relaxation. Disturbed were pretty average, and they didn't even play stricken! In my mind, that show will always feature Trivium as the headlining act, though some thanks does have to go to Disturbed (Trivium never could've played an arena like Vector otherwise).

Trivium w/ As I Lay Dying (supporting Disturbed). 3/5/2011. Vector Arena, Auckland, New Zealand.