Live – Bring Me The Horizon, Perth, 14 Sep, 2016

Live – Bring Me The Horizon, Perth, 14 Sep, 2016
HBF Stadium, Perth
Review & photography by Stuart McKay

As the house lights went down the anticipatory cheers from the crowd quickly went from a rumble to a roar as Sheffield’s Bring Me The Horizon strolled onto the stage. Front man Oliver Sykes asked, “what the fuck is up?” before tearing into the anthemic Happy Song taken from their latest release That’s The Spirit

One thing that this band has in abundance is energy – with the majority of that coming from Sykes who is constantly on the move. His presence is formidable and he works the stage like a pro, even welcoming an opportunistic fan who managed to sneak past security to jump on stage with Sykes before leaping from the stage into the crowd.

Although, it seemed that Sykes wasn’t entirely happy with the participation of the crowd as a whole, ordering succinctly and eloquently: “Perth, pull yer tampon out!” Surprisingly this seemed to have the desired effect as the crowd at the front almost instantly upped the ante creating a pit that was alive and (literally) kicking. Sykes then conjured a swirling circle pit before the band delivered fan favourite Chelsea Smile which was the only song from breakthrough album Suicide Season to make it into the set list. Songs from the bands’ most recent albums Sempiternal and That’s The Spirit dominated tonight’s show; this may or may not have aggrieved some die-hard fans but it’s easy to understand why, given how much their sound has changed from their Deathcore beginnings. The band offers a much more expansive sound nowadays which they pull off live seamlessly with the help of atmospheric backing tracks and string sections blending into the music.

Songs like Shadow Moses and Sleepwalking got the whole stadium singing along in unison whilst the pit master himself Mr Sykes encouraged yet another circle pit. The way the crowd reacted to his every word was like they had been spellbound. With just the movement of his hand and the utterance of the words “wall of death” he was able to part the crowd. The band launched into Antivist and he basked in the chaos as the rabid punters collided into each other like a battle scene from Game of Thrones.

 

Not content with circle pits and a wall of death Sykes later encouraged the whole crowd to surf to the front and give him a hi five. Watching the sea of bodies streaming towards the barrier, one would imagine every security guard at that moment probably would have thought, “I don’t get paid enough for this shit!”
However it made for an amazing spectacle to watch the fans storm the stage and jump around with their heroes and was symbolic of the symbiosis between a band and their fans.

Bring Me The Horizon showed tonight why they are a world-class band with an impeccable performance full of passion, aggression, intensity and musicality.

SETLIST
Happy Song
Go To Hell, For Heaven’s Sake
The House of Wolves
Avalanche
Chelsea Smile
Shadow Moses
Follow You
Doomed
Sleepwalking
Can You Feel My Heart
Antivist
Throne

True Friends
Oh No
Drown

Category: Live Reviews, Photo Galleries