Bring Me The Horizon / You Me At Six
Hull Bonus Arena – 20/09/21
“It blows my mind when people say our bangers save their lives. How can something so broken save a life?” The words of frontman Oliver Sykes are greeted with appreciative cheers, but after such a difficult couple of years for everyone music is something that’s helped a lot of fans get through the difficulty times. Bring Me The Horizon gifted us with a fantastic new album ‘Post Human Survival Horror’ almost a year ago back in October to do just that, and tonight the band finally get to play the tracks live for the first time.
Before the show there’s a real buzz around as not only the fans get giddy but the staff around the relatively new Bonus Arena in Hull are talking about this being one of the biggest production sets that’s featured on the stage so far.
You Me At Six (7.5) have the pleasure of warming up the crowd before BMTH take the stage, and it’s a solid set from the Surrey lads who let’s face it, have enough belting songs to headline this venue themselves. But they squeeze in a mix of new and old into a set just over 30 minutes, a bite size of their recent academy tour kicking off with their newer tracks ‘Nice to Me’ and ‘MAKEMEFEELALIVE’ which both get the set moving perfectly well.
Josh and co. rip through a few older favourites such as ‘Lived a Lie’, ‘Reckless’, ‘Underdog’, and ‘Bite My Tongue’ which unfortunately didn’t feature frontman Oliver Sykes, but none the less the crowd filled in for him with great pleasure. ‘Beautiful Way’ closes out the set-in style and really sounds fantastic live, particularly on an Arena stage!
After a short wait as the excitement grows, the lights and playlist cut out and screams echo around the arena as Bring Me The Horizon (10) take to the stage suited and booted ready to rock to the sound of the electric intro to ‘Teardrops’, which kicks in with an almighty thump as cannons fire white streamers over the crowd to get the party started. It’s the first live debut of several tracks from the recent album, yet it sounds incredible live like it’s the 100th time they’ve played it already.
‘Mantra’ follows as the steel city lads are joined on stage by dancers and a glowing LED screen surround which makes everything look astonishing. The band scattered across various platforms on the stage bounce around in their suits and frontman Mr Sykes paces around the stage, making sure he doesn’t leave any section of the crowd out as he encourages them to sing along from start to finish.
The visuals and production only get better as the show drives on, with the screens dropping several times to enclose the band on stage behind a glowing LED cage, the first time being for the furious ‘The House Of Wolves’ as wolves circle around the band as the frontman peaks through the prison like gaps while screaming his way through the track.
There are appearances of CO2 firing hazmat suited dancers in ‘Parasite Eve’, and even cyber cheerleaders for ‘Happy Song’ as the crowd scream out the letters “S.P.I.R.I.T” teased by the frontman “I can’t hear you” which only raises the noise of the arena to its peak. “This is gonna be a good one. I can feel it in me Bollocks!”
He’s not wrong, as ever it’s one of the set highlights and the breakdown pulls open a huge wall of death to erupt the arena for the final chorus.
The band drive through the 18 song set with great intent and keep the level and intensity high throughout, and the venue is absolutely buzzing. Banger after banger we can’t take our eyes from the stage as they tear through each song seamlessly with absolute ease.
Bring Me The Horizon likely decided to kick off their arena tour with a smaller arena show in Hull to warm up the cockles and kick into shape ready for some huge arena shows. The Bonus Arena surprisingly only has a capacity of around 3,300 people considering how incredible it looks and sounds. But you certainly couldn’t tell this was their first show in 18 months as everything from the guitars to vocals was absolutely flawless.
Not everything is furiously energetic however, as Oliver Sykes takes to the front of the stage late in the set for an acoustic version of ‘Follow You’ which has everyone singing their hearts out on their friends shoulders.
The set closes with an encore of the final live debut in the form of ‘Obey’ before ‘Throne’ has the room bouncing from wall to wall, and ‘Can You Feel My Heart’ closes out the night leaving us all feeling exhausted and incredibly happy live music is back.
An unbelievable effort and performance from Bring Me The Horizon who are only kicking things off again, and if this spectacle is just the start then there’s no knowing how high Bring Me The Horizon can really rise in the coming months and years.
Check out the full set of live photos of Bring Me The Horizon at Hull Bonus Arena here!
(PLEASE DO NOT CROP OR EDIT PHOTOS)
Photo Credit: © Danny Peart Photography 2021
Photo Credit: © Danny Peart Photography 2021
