The Second Base Tour

After a successful North American tour dubbed The First Love Tour, which left vocalist Oliver Sykes and the band to cancel the last two dates due to ruptured vocal cords. Bring Me The Horizon have returned to the states bigger, louder and better than before and are taking fans on The Second Base Tour.

When the bands new album amo was released, it was met with praise from longtime fans who admired and loved the direction of the new material. Numbers don’t lie and the increase in interest towards The U.K’s Bring Me The Horizon has resulted in larger venues and sold out shows.

A prime example of this is Oli Sykes and company making their way to Philadelphia, playing no ordinary venue but rather a historic opera house. The Metropolitan Opera House now dubbed The Met, was closed for nearly 60 years and after a massive renovation it is now home to some amazing shows swinging through the city of brotherly love. As Philadelphia music fans came out in full force and with great excitement, a makeup of sorts for no Philly date on the band’s First Love Tour just a few months back the Sheffield natives would deliver a performance of epic proportions.

At the 9 pm hour, it was time for Bring Me The Horizon to take the stage, just like they have musically evolved, their live show has as well. Their last outing in the states over the winter was a fantastic show but by BMTH standards it was, well stripped down. Not this time, The Second Base Tour finds the band’s stage with much more production.

A video wall masked as speakers and a huge screen above with a walkway tower over the stage, the addition of fire which was introduced during the bands performance last week at Welcome To Rockville. Add to that some dancers, cryo blasters, fog and chaotic lighting and you have an arena-sized production taking over theaters.

The show begins with an introlude as the band makes their way on stage, accompanied by a masked man which a cryo-blaster gun aimed towards the crowd. The band dressed in white and taking their place on various parts of the opera house stage. Last onstage is vocalist Oli Sykes in a red suit dubbed by fans as the “Mantra suit” the band breaks into amo’s single “Mantra” which finds the crowd singing the songs starting lyrics “Do You Wanna Start A Cult With Me?”

Bring Me The Horizon once again outdo themselves with a setlist filled with diversity. The second song of the set “The House Of Wolves” which features a wolf head on the screen and a ton of fire shooting out from the back of the stage, all this is met with masked dancers which I believe I’ve never seen from a rock/metal band, it was a very creative addition to the live show and the fans loved the surprise. Bring Me The Horizon then flowed into songs from amo, “That’s The Spirit” as if they could all be one piece of work.

The shows production quality was a major step up all throughout, the addition of the screens was a massive boost as sometimes it would be trippy and vibrant video work and other times song lyrics like during “That’s The Spirit” and the 2008 heavy track “Diamonds Aren’t Forever” which had fan’s screaming the songs opening lyrics “We will never sleep, sleep is for the weak”. Then in the middle of the song, Oli asked the crowd “Are you ready for the best breakdown of 2008?” as a circle pit erupted in the middle of the floor almost on cue.

Highlights of the performance include the return of amo’s “Nihilist Blues” to the set, the debut of “Sugar, Honey, Ice & Tea” as well as fan favorites like “Happy Song”, “Sleep Walking”, “Antivist” and “Drown”. The set was closed out with an energetic performance of the That’s The Spirit hit “Throne” which has sort of became a staple of the band ending their nearly 90-minute performance.

Bring Me The Horizon delivered a captivating, loud and high energy performance, Oli’s recovery from his vocal cord injury is unbelievable. Vocally he was spot on and sounded the best I’ve heard him thus far, the band continue to be tight and they were more front and center and interactive this go around. Aside from production and energy, the band once again delivered a flawless setlist which catered to fans both old and new and I think it shows how well the bands catalog actually flows together as one body of work.

I stand by my previous statement, I truly believe this band in a years time will be playing arenas in North America and I look forward to seeing it!

Make sure to catch the band on tour, check out the remaining list of North American tour dates below and see all their 2019 tour dates on their official website www.bmthofficial.com/tour/

05/12 – Rockingham, NC @ Epicenter *

05/14 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant

05/15 – Indianapolis, IN @ Egyptian Room at Old National Centre

05/17 – Toronto, ON @ RBC Echo Beach

05/18 – Grand Rapids, MI @ 20 Monroe Live

05/19 – Columbus, OH @ Sonic Temple Music Festival

* = festival gig