Bring Me The Horizon, Sleep Token, Make Them Suffer, Daine @ Entertainment Centre, Adelaide 17/4/2024
There is a new British Invasion taking over. A new wave of cultural insemination. A new wave of angst. A new wave of style and sonics. A new wave of emotion. Bring Me The Horizon and Sleep Token, arguably the world’s biggest rock band right now supported by the fastest rising, lay a flag and claiming, literally, Adelaide as their own.
The queues for the early start are already lengthy and do not dissipate until well after support band Daine finish, such is the palpable engrossment in the lineup. For a while now, Bring Me The Horizon can boast that they’re the biggest rock band in the world however bringing along the mysterious Sleep Token – for a third visit to these shores in less than two years – is the diamond the evening.
We miss Daine due to the queues and get in just before WA’s Make Them Suffer throwdown. With a settled line up comes a renewed vigour and the band continue to take each step with aplomb. The venue, already packed, are treated to a blast of beats, crunching riffs and keys interwoven together as they open with Ghost Of Me, new track Epitaph and Doomswitch. There will be people who didn’t know them before tonight however they certainly will after thirty minutes of prime Australian metalcore.
Right now, it’s hard to argue with the upwards trajectory of Brits Sleep Token. Some would argue a large chunk of the crowd tonight bought tickets just to see them such is the cheers and almost biblical nature of their effect on the crowd. Audience members are literally holding their breath, or screaming, crying even, in the way the Beatles influenced sixty years ago and a band I have once coined as having sensual and erotic music welcome all into their realm. Like Dracula putting you into a trance, all follow.
A mixture of Nine Inch Nails covering Type O Negative, the stage production is equally epic. Dark, moody, pulsating like their music, they open with The Offering and stay the course with their heavier guitar-based tracks throughout. Alkaline, Granite and the show stopping Take Me Back To Eden are literally sermons to many who have their heart racing, palms sweaty and thirsty in more than one way for Vessel, the preacher with power.
Last year they played across the road at The Gov to much less people, this year to a sold-out Entertainment Centre. I fear we won’t see them for some time as the new world waits for them, presenting themselves to be taken by the band.
Bring Me The Horizon have been that band and now they arguably sit atop the roost. They have continually re-invented themselves however one thing remains. The put on a damn good show. Are they the Kiss of this generation? Confetti, fire, huge stage production, rabid fan base and songs that everyone can – and does – sing with gusto, they probably are.
The intro has the screen play on the Next-Gen angle and a command ‘to open this place up’ as the band appear to DArkSide and the place is rained down on by confetti. The stage is huge and the screen behind resembles a church as Oli Sykes, gold fangs, dressed in black, puts everyone in a trance.
Empire (Let Them Sing) makes it clear that the big boys are in town. Everyone is going hard – band, crowd, security guards – as smoke bellows, and chants of ‘Let Them Sing’ echo out. MANTRA asks is everyone ready and it’s clear Adelaide, waiting since the show sold out in minutes seven months ago, has already sprinted from the starters gun.
I won’t go through the whole set as each song becomes its own mini event. There are flames for AmEn!, the anthemic cry of This is Sempiternal during Shadow Moses hair rising, and the cathartic release of Die4U.
sTraNgerRs has the room lit up and people on shoulders and the band bring it down but still in that stadium rock way that it’s still bigger than anything you’ve seen this year. Sykes is a rock star and gets down on the barrier to film himself with the crowd on the big screens, much to the people down front obvious Beatle-esq delight.
Can You Feel My Heart is jaw droppingly surreal as the band depart before an encore that finishes with Throne. The venue, the audience covered in confetti, sweat, and that glow that you’ve been swept of your feet like finding a new love.
Tonight was that, your true love in Bring Me The Horizon making you feel you can be your unadulterated self against the teasing upstarts Sleep Token who will make your girl feel all sort of things and then steal her anyway. This was the hottest ticket in town, in more than one way.
Live Review By Iain McCallum