Words and Photos by Marco Denzer
Following the release of their recent production, Amo, on Columbia Records, Bring Me The Horizon brought their “First Love” tour to New York City for a two-night set of concerts at the legendary Hammerstein Ballroom. Thousands of fans braved bone-chilling winter weather in midtown Manhattan to attend the second show; they filled the venue to capacity and enjoyed an absolutely rocking performance by the Sheffield-based quintet.
The night kicked off with an extremely energetic set from the Inglewood, California based trio The Fever 333 and they wasted no time in pumping up the audience by constantly crisscrossing and jumping around on stage, crowd surfing, and moshing to a point of euphoria with the fans.
Next up on the bill, vocalist/guitarist Dustin Kensrue, backed by guitarist Teppei Teranishi and brothers Eddie and Riley Breckenridge on bass and drums respectively, led Thrice through a rock solid set that included songs like “Only Us”, “Hurricane”, “Black Honey” and “The Grey” to name of few. For nearly an hour they delivered an impassioned performance that demonstrated their great musical sensibility and chops at every turn.
The broad, uncluttered and dimly lit stage was a perfect image of stillness as BMTH began their set with “I Apologize If You Feel Something” from their latest release Amo, the calm before the storm so to speak. Transitioning smoothly, they shifted into high gear by shooting a huge blast of confetti in the air as they began playing “Mantra”, also from their most recent album, and the audience loved it. There was a full-blown spiraling circle pit in the center of the floor, people were crowd surfing in fast succession towards the front, and everyone was singing along with them as they blasted their third tune of the night, “The House of Wolves”.
The remainder of the seventeen-song setlist consisted of a thoughtful and well-balanced selection of titles from their albums “Sempiternal”, “That’s The Spirit” and the latest one “Amo”. By doing this, BMTH managed to carefully span the last six years of their career and evolving sound without creating a gap in their fan base. They performed a wide enough spectrum of material that easily satisfied the live show expectations of long time and recent followers alike.
The carefully curated repertoire was performed with absolute adrenaline-infused energy – band members constantly jumped around on stage and interacted with the audience. This, coupled with a futuristic light design that included alternating backdrop colors, strobes, plenty of fog, and a huge rectangular halo of light floating above the stage, turned out to be an awesome show. Braving the extreme cold weather to attend this concert was worth every minute.
Bring Me The Horizon will continue their “First Love” tour of the U.S. through February 16th, 2019, before moving on to South America.
Setlist:
I Apologize If You Feel Something
Mantra
The House of Wolves
Avalanche
Sleepwalking
Wonderful Life
Shadow Moses
Nihilist Blues
Happy Song
Can You Feel My Heart
Follow You
Ouch
Medicine
Antivist
Drown
Encore:
Doomed
The Comedown/(I Used to Make Out With)Medusa/Diamonds Aren’t Forever
Throne
TheWaster.com | New York City
2.03.19
