Bring Me The Horizon, Brighton Centre
Bring Me The Horizon + Centurion, #Nato,
Concorde 2, Brighton
1st November 2006
Due to circumstances beyond my control, I managed to completely miss the first band on the bill tonight, and unfortunately didn't even catch their name, so apologies to whoever they were - I'm sure you kicked ass. Very poor show on my part.
Right, so the Concorde 2 then. It's a bit of a legendary venue in my eyes - in the past I've seen some brilliant performances here from Biffy Clyro, Coheed & Cambria as well as countless others, and have never failed to have an absolutely slammin' time at this familiar little sweatpit, buried away in the deepest darkest corner of Brighton. While tonight didn't live up to the standards of previous visits (you cannot touch the Clyro's live performance), there was certainly an atmosphere in the room of sheer excitement and anticipation for one of the heaviest nights of live music this town has seen in quite some time.
As I walked inside the 250-capacity club, #Nato are just busting out their first track. With a somewhat ridiculously over-the-top approach taken towards the hardcore sound, they set the tone for tonight's show, and the audience seem to approve. At times dogged by muddy sound, they play at a hundred miles an hour for the short time they appear on stage and don't let up the pace until it's time for them to hit the wings.
Centurion are a late addition to tonight's line up, replacing Abigail Williams after a freak accident forced them to pull out. However, these circumstances don't dampen the band's enthusiasm and their sheer abundance of talent is ever-present. Busting out tracks such as 'I survived Cremation' and 'Southern Discomfort', they seem to be able to command their hometown crowd at the drop of a hat, and vocalist Ed McRae leads the band through an energetic and brutal performance.
There really is only one band here tonight that truly matters to this audience of angsty, eye-linered teenagers, and that band is Bring Me The Horizon. As these five lads from Sheffield hit the stage, every single person in the room starts paying attention and the front barriers are pushed to breaking point. It really is a performance that needs to be seen to be believed, and as much as I was willing to dismiss them as just another distinctly average hardcore act, their presence tonight left me eating my words. With highlights coming in the form of 'Traitors never play hangman' and 'Dragon Slaying', it was an hour long set that left this crowd of dirty little pre-teens bleary eyed, and out of breath. Frontman Oliver Sykes is one of the most effervescent I've seen, and with his ability to keep up his absolutely obscene energy levels throughout the entire performance, he does what he does very, very well. While I've proclaimed before on several occasions that I'm not the biggest hardcore/metalcore fan around these days, it's hard to dismiss this show as a sub-par event. With a live performance set to rival the big name bands, Bring Me The Horizon look set to make a filthy fucking stain on the music industry, and will make no apologies for it.
Andy R
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