.

Bring Me

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The Horizon

w/Cancer Bats and the Red Shore

Billboard the Venue – Melbourne, 14th May, 2009.

Here they are, once again. Just like a pack of wolves Bring Me The Horizon have returned to Australian shores for the third time within two years although this is no problem amongst the vast number of fans supporting the ever rising band from Sheffield, UK. This under-age event was one not to be missed by hordes of “scene” fans with a bottle of hairspray in their over the top ‘were trying to be different while being the same as everyone else’ hairstyles. With exceptionally good support acts, Melbourne’s very own rising The Red Shore and Canada’s Cancer Bats, this was surely a gig set out to please the ears of those who listened.

As the lights fell for The Red Shore to commence, an overcrowded mosh pit opened with an exceptional energy from the band and audience alike with countless numbers of mosh pits and kids attempting to pull of their latest Karate moves, the band belted out songs from their debut album “Unconsecrated” and their latest release “Lost Verses” which ultimately won the crowds attention whether you were already a fan or not. Although faced with a replacement drummer for this show, The Red Shore boys managed to find a suitable replacement who nailed the songs perfectly. The performance proved to the Melbourne crowd that The Red Shore are destined for more than the underground music scene.

A brief interlude came which gave the audience the pleasure of being able to listen to some classic 90’s Hip Hop over the overhead speakers. You could hear the chatter amongst many of the attendees saying, “Who’s the next band?” or “What genre are the Cancer Bats?” It was sad that they have not heard the glory that is the Cancer Bats but what a treat to come.

As they took to the stage you could faintly hear the screams of a few fans, much of the audience was unaware at the carnage they were about to witness. Lead man, Liam Cormier, whipped the audience into a mosh n roll frenzy with their blend of hardcore, punk, metal and rock. The Cancer Bats played a fans dream set with plenty of songs from their debut “Birthing The Giant” as well as many tracks from their latest “Hail Destroyer”. Liam screamed to the under-age audience “I’m old enough to be your father, how would you guys like that?” with a roaring response from the audience. What was amusing was when Liam asked the packed venue “Who here is a true, long haired, sweaty, metal head who doesn’t give a fuck about anything” with of course an overwhelming response again, the true number of metal heads in that audience was scarce considering the reputation and sound of the next and headlining band, Bring Me The Horizon.

The audience was now packed to capacity at a sold out Billboard. All you could hear was the shrill screams of hundreds of fan girls (and guys). A shirtless drummer appeared on stage thumping out an introducing beat for the rest of the band to come onto stage. A pleasant surprise was to see former I Killed The Prom Queen member, Kevin Cameron, who strummed an exceptional performance as a fill in guitarist for the loss of Kurt in Bring Me The Horizon. Then the moment many girls (and guys) had been waiting for, their hero and vocalist, Oli Sykes, springs onto stage chanting the words of their song “Diamonds Aren’t Forever”. A pathetic attempt at a mosh pit tried to form but was overrun with a swarm of fans proceeding to jump up and down and do anything to get close to their idol. Oli was surprisingly more mature than in his antics previous times when Bring Me The Horizon has visited with no public displays of nudity or abusive attitude towards the audience. Maybe he has matured as his band has with the sound of their latest album “Suicide Season”. It was refreshing to hear many new tracks from this album and fewer from their overplayed “Count Your Blessings” but what was disappointing for me was the fact that no material from their Debut EP was played. Have they possibly moved on from this stage of overplayed material?

Bring Me The Horizon hammered out an energetic set of 12 songs, which were more than enough to please the fans. What annoyed me was the poser kids (who people would argue is most of the Bring Me The Horizon fan base) screaming “I love you Oli!” or “I love your hair!”. You could hear the occasional call of “Oli you’re a cunt” but the heavily hair-sprayed and dolled up audience was too large to compete. The band delivered an extremely tight performance for the fans to be kept happy until their next visit. Love them or loath them, Bring Me The Horizon are a band that is around to stay, enjoy the ride if you can.

– Thomas Szulik