Gig review: Bring Me the Horizon + Sleep Token + Make Them Suffer + Daine at QUDOS Bank Arena, Sydney

Live review: Bring Me The Horizon, Sleep Token, Make Them Suffer and Daine at QUDOS Bank Arena, Sydney, Sunday, April 14, 2024

By JAZ FISCHER-GIFFIN

SUNDAY night at Olympic Park and Bring Me The Horizon return on the second Sydney show of their Post Human tour.

Daine opened with high energy auto-tuned pop metal but was unfortunately unable to hype the crowd up until, ironically, “Salt”, which features Oli Sykes.

Make Them Suffer captured an energy from the crowd that I have never seen for an opener before with the first circle pit of the night from their very first song, “Ghost of Me”. Singer Sean Harmanis definitely knows how to control a crowd as he had the entire arena raise their arms and sway them within minutes of “Ether”. With a loud cheer as they exited the stage, Make Them Suffer was definitely an opener the crowd would remember.

Sleep Token, the final support of the night, was a fan favourite for sure. However, the energy from Make Them Suffer soon lulled out as they played their first song “The Offering”. With most of their set being a crowd sing rather than a crowd riot, the energy for them still showed how well loved they were. Although their performance wasn’t the most energetic, they still knew how to use a stage with Vessel frequently roaming back and forth across the entire length, preaching to the whole crowd. With an instigated circle pit of maybe five people, the band’s songs “Granite” and “Take Me Back to Eden” drove Sleep Token home.

Bring Me The Horizon began their set with an immersive ‘press start’ screen that became the A.I ‘E.V.E’ who was “analysing” the crowd for mosh pits and hype. Crossing their three-tiered stage, BMTH started off with “DArkSide”, “Empire (Let them Sing)” and “MANTRA”. Oli Sykes brought back all the energy from Make Them Suffer to another level, as the crowds were no longer sitting and instead jumping around and headbanging. “Teardrops” and “AmEN!” were next with Sykes mentioning how the crowd cannot figure out how to circle pit correctly but by “Kool-Aid”, they had their act together and created a pit half the size of the floor.

“Shadow Moses”, “Obey” and “Die 4 U” came next. “Kingslayer”, a crowd favourite, included a laser show and a conversation about how Sykes promised he would wear a maid dress if he won the Brit Awards and has yet to show for it, which triggered call outs of “put it on” and “where’s the dress?”. “STraNgeRs” was an acoustic cover, which got people’s flashlights out and the crowd on people’s shoulders as is “tradition”,  apparently. “Diamonds Aren’t Forever” and “Parasite Eve” were next. “Antivist” brought up a fan – ‘Jason’ – to the stage to sing. “Drown” and “Can You Feel My Heart” ended the main set.

Preceding the encore there was a video montage of the band across their career before the band returned to perform “Doomed”, “LosT” and finally, “Throne” followed by Sykes making everyone sit and then jump up by the chorus. He thanked the crowd and mentioned how Joey was replacing their usual guitarist Lee and that he “looks like him too”, ending their incredible performance.