AVENGED SEVENFOLD Performs With New Touring Drummer For First Time (Video)

January 21, 2011

AVENGED SEVENFOLD kicked off the "Nightmare After Christmas" tour with STONE SOUR and HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD on Thursday (January 20) in Reading, Pennsylvania. The show marked AVENGED's live debut with Arin Ilejay, formerly the drummer for Los Angeles-based Christian rock group CONFIDE, who is sitting behind the kit for AVENGED's upcoming tour dates.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD's setlist was as follows:

01. Nightmare
02. Critical Acclaim
03. Welcome to the Family
04. Danger Line
05. Buried Alive
06. So Far Away
07. Afterlife
08. God Hates Us
09. Bat Country
10. Unholy Confessions

Encore:

11. Fiction
12. A Little Piece of Heaven

Fan-filmed video footage of the performance can be viewed below.

The relatively unknown Ilejay is the second drummer to play with AVENGED SEVENFOLD following the December 2009 death of original drummer James "The Rev" Sullivan. The band recruited ex-DREAM THEATER drummer Mike Portnoy to play on its latest album, "Nightmare", and all its 2010 tour dates before dismissing him at the end of the year.

The band said in a statement, "We recently asked several friends who knew Jimmy and his style, and also knew our music and each of our personalities to suggest drummers to tour with us starting this year. Our longtime studio drum tech Mike Fasano recommended Arin Ilejay. We've rehearsed with Arin and have been impressed with his technical skills, attitude and work ethic. We're very excited to tour with Arin and hope all of you will give him the warm welcome to the family we have."

Ilejay played on CONFIDE's 2008 debut album, "Shout The Truth", and appeared on tour with the group.

Sullivan was found dead in his Huntington Beach, California home at the age of 28. His death was attributed to a lethal combination of prescription drugs and alcohol.

AVENGED frontman M. Shadows told The Pulse Of Radio that he was surprised to get both STONE SOUR and HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD for the "Nightmare After Christmas" tour. "When we wanted to put this tour together, we didn't think that we could get both of them on the same bill, but it turned out that they were both willing to do that," he said. "Now we have what we feel is just a totally killer tour and a lot of variety and we're hitting up a lot of markets that we didn't hit on (the) Uproar (tour) and we're getting to places that don't get the most shows."

The tour stops on Saturday (January 22) in Lowell, Massachusetts.

The latest single from "Nightmare", which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart last summer, is "Welcome To The Family".

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