Avenged Sevenfold and Sullivan King Unleash Sonic Fury in Pittsburgh!

By Dave Parsons

Playing an amazing mix of classic and new songs, Avenged Sevenfold brough their Life Is but A Dream tour to PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Monday, March 25, 2024.

It had been a decade or so since the last time I saw them live, but the band never missed a beat or drifted from that memory. 

The band entered the large stage to a soft recording as the lead singer sat on a chair wearing a black ski mask.  Avenged Sevenfold came together to rip into Game Over, which is the first song on their latest CD, also titled Life Is but a Dream…  The second song Mattel, was also from the new CD.  They started digging into their long recording history with Afterlife, and followed it up with the crowd favorite Hail To The King.

This tour was well thought out as the pictures on the screens fit in with the songs they were performing, giving the songs a visual aspect. While they did play songs from their entire catalog, almost half of the setlist was from the new CD.  The crowd predicably responded more to the older songs like their breakthrough hit Bat Country, which also had some swirl pits start on the half standing/half seated floor.

Despite the long nod to the latest recording, and it being a Monday night crowd in an arena, Avenged Sevenfold, worked the crowd into a frenzy more than once, at one point prompting the band to salute the crowd calling Pittsburgh, “The most energetic crowd we have seen on this tour.” 

Opening the show was Sullivan King, who has a very unique live show.  Alternating between genres as a disc jockey, atop an enormous juke box surrounded by video screens, he takes time to shred some riffs, add some live vocals, and gets the crowd warmed up for the evening to come.

Sullivan King Setlist

1         Bad Times

2          Thrones Of Blood

3          Codename: Reckless

4         The Dead March

5          Self-Destruction

6          Let Me Go

7          Don’t Get Loose

8          The Death Of Peace Of Mind

9          Blame

10        Bass To The Dome

11        Unbound

12        Domination

13        Laserbeam

14        Riot

15        Watch the Crown Fall

Avenged Sevenfold Show Setlist:

  1        Game Over

  2        Mattel

  3        Afterlife

  4        Hail To The King

  5        We Love You

  6        Shepherd Of Fire

  7        The Stage

  8        Roman Sky

  9        Blinded In Chains

10        Bat Country

11        Nobody

12       Nightmare

13        Unholy Confessions

14        Save Me

15        Cosmic