Bullet for My Valentine @Hordern Pavilion, Sydney(10/9/10)

Mon 13th Sep, 2010 in Gig Reviews

On a warm Spring night in the middle of Moore Park, a swarm of pierced, tattooed and thoroughly pissed emo’s descended upon the Hordern Pavilion for a night of some of the world’s best modern metal acts. The hardcore fanbases of both Bring Me the Horizon and Bullet For My Valentine became evident from before the gate’s even opened, with a line more than a kilometre long extending well and truly out into Moore Park. It was clear that it was going to be one hell of a night.

In many ways, the two bands seem quite a mismatched pair – a theme which became increasingly evident throughout the night. After a few hours of talking to fans, it became clear that many were there purely for BMTH and ended up leading a mass exodus from the venue before Bullet’s set had even begun. It seems as if the promoters may have had a lapse in judgement, considering that BMTH could have easily sold out a large scale show of their own anywhere in Sydney.

However the main conflict between the two was in the performances of the respective bands. Bullet For My Valentine performed an absolutely flawless technically perfect set. Conversely, Bring Me the Horizon provided one of the most horrendously terrible sounding performances of any metal band in recent memory.

Yet it was not just Bullet For My Valentine that provided a standout performance on the night. The initial opening act the Cancer Bats bought their hardcore infused punk to the Hordern in all of its aggressive glory, setting the wild tone for the night to come. Not only did they succeed in rousing the crowd from the usual beginning of a gig slumber, but the Cancer Bats also managed to begin multiple circle pits that were 30 meters wide with fan favourites Lucifer’s Rocking Chair and Hail Destroyer.

One of the common links that unite both The Cancer Bats and Bullet For My Valentine has to be their modest conduct both on stage on off. Whilst they may have given their all on stage, both bands demonstrated their humility, particularly Cancer Bats singer Liam Cormier who casually wandered to the merch stand out front after his set and chatted to fans whilst signing their merch. It was certainly one of the most impressive sights of the night.

After the impressive Cancer Bats set (and a number of scene kids shouting “Get the F*** off, we want BMTH”), Bring Me The Horizon finally made their appearance. Though the band suffered from a piercing high end and an extremely muddy sound this acted as no real deterrent to fans who were hanging on Oliver Sykes every word. Sykes performance is one that is quite hard to gauge. For the most part, he stuck to his parts and his screaming was truly brutal. His real strength and the main strength of BMTH on the night was actually their stagecraft.

Both Sykes and former I Killed the Prom Queen guitarist Jona Weinhofen took no issue in diving off monitors and running all over the stage. Sykes was also extremely effective in engaging the crowd, particularly in his utilisation of humour. One of BMTH’s biggest achievements for the night was creating just about the biggest wall of death the Hordern has ever seen on his command of “Make like the red sea and spread to the sides Motherf***ers”.

One of the most effective elements of Bring Me the Horizon’s set was the constant orchestral/electro interludes which united the setlist and gave is much for of a consistent flow. The setlist in question comprised of a number of new tracks, the opening track being their latest single It Never Ends from their upcoming album There Is a Hell, Believe me I’ve seen it. There is a Heaven, let’s keep it a secret. They also included mosh favourite Diamonds Aren’t Forever, Football Season is Over in which Deez Nuts vocalist J.J. Peters appeared on stage to contribute and after much toying with the crowd, claiming ‘Technical Difficulties’ as a reason they were unable to finish their set, Bring Me The Horizon closed their set with a brutal rendition of Chelsea Smile.

The sheer aggression, with which they delivered their tracks, was truly astounding. Despite all sound issues, BMTH’s breakdowns came across as thunderous walls of sound, which sent the crowd into a complete frenzy that both The Hordern Pavilion’s security and the strong redundant police attendance couldn’t prevent.

The real highlight of the performance came with the breakdown of Chelsea Smile, in which each member of the band climbed the mountain of guitar cabs and drum equipment on stage before diving off and finishing their set. It strongly enhanced the already established feeling of aggression in their performance.

The main issue with Bring me The Horizon’s performance beyond the sound issues, was in Sykes’ conduct on stage. To put it quite frankly, he acted like a complete tool for a large part of the set. Stupid remarks such as “Kiss my a***, Suck my D***” and his constant doubling over into the fetal position on stage detracted from the band’s performance.

After all the frenzied moshing, wall’s of death, circle pit’s and copious amounts of booze, it was obvious that the crowd was tense waiting for the main act of the night to take the stage. Despite a lengthy setup time, in which an elaborate stage setup consisting of ramps, amp cabs and a raised drummer’s platform was set up – the wait was well worth it.

Bullet For My Valentine took to the stage, making a bold decision to open with one of their latest tracks – Your Betrayal, which was ultimately executed with surgical precision. From the moment the opening riff’s began, the clarity and definition of the band’s sound was astonishing. Every drum line set the tempo perfectly, each guitar line was exquisitely churned out with precision and most prominently – Matt Tuck’s voice was truly astounding.

Despite having major issues with his voice during the recording of their last album Scream Aim Fire, it’s clear that his vocal performance has never been better. One of the real highlights of Bullet’s set was Say Goodnight, with a twist. Tuck gave a rare performance in which he performed the first half of the song on his own – which really emphasized just how dam good his voice really is.

Not only was Tuck’s voice exceptional on the night, but his stage presence was superb. For many metal front men and particularly those who play guitar – a real dominance of the stage is rarely achieved. Tuck however truly owned the Hordern for the massive hour and a half set, moving up and down the stage ramps to various strategically positioned microphones, he always looked as if he was in control of the situation.

This is one of the real indicators of Bullet For My Valentine’s maturity as performers since their formation in 1998, particularly when compared to their 2006 live DVD – Live at Brixton. When comparing the two, two major factors stand out.

Firstly Tuck’s previously mentioned dominance of the stage has strongly manifested within Bullet For My Valentine’s performance and provides the band with a far greater feeling of dominance on the stage.

Secondly the guitar work in terms of technical ability from both Tuck and lead guitarist Padge has improved dramatically. When Bullet For My Valentine began to tour with their first album, The Poison, both guitarists had real difficulty executing their relatively simple solo’s on stage with the precision they had recorded them with.

Fast forward four years and both Tuck and Padge are performing their solos with ease whilst making it look easy. The real refreshing element to the solos at their Hordern performance was their inclusion of improvisation. Many of the solos performed deviated from their recorded counterparts, with two instrumentals from the guitarists throughout the night in which both guitarists showed no hesitation in melting faces.

Whilst Tuck and Padge both dominated the stage with their performances, and to a degree the BFMV bassist Jason James, who provided his signature screaming on multiple tracks and consistently moved around the stage whilst thumping out his bass. Drummer Michael Thomas’ presence was virtually nonexistent. Whilst his performance was technically perfect, on par with the rest of the band – he really made no attempt to stand out at all and felt more like a musician in the background, supporting the rest of the band.

This however didn’t have a great affect on the set, which was extremely well chosen. Bullet put a real emphasis on material off their latest album Fever with tracks performed including Fever, Pleasure and Pain and The Last Fight. They also, much to the crowd’s pleasure resurrected a number of tracks from their debut album The Poison including Four Words to Choke Upon and Suffocating Under Words Of Sorrow. They provided further diversity by embellishing this set with tracks from their successful seconds album Scream Aim Fire including Waking the Demon and The title track itself.

These set lists proved to appeal to the audience’s broad pallet, with a constant mosh of chaotic worship from the hardcore Bullet fans. It was pleasing to see the audience getting so into the music, with every audience member singing along to each song, word for word.

The real high of the set, came in the encore which followed a brief break in which Tuck opted for a Wallabies Jersey in place of his Cancer Bats shirt. After this break, Bullet proceeded to finish out their already flawless set, with three of the strongest and most popular tracks they’ve ever written. After the performance of both Alone and Begging For Mercy, it was clear from the ever present shouting and chanting of fans, that their was only one song fans wanted to hear and as such, Bullet For My Valentine obliged by closing the already spectacular show with Hand Of Blood in a blaze of harmonised lead lines, ferocious screams and blazing drum fills.

Words really struggle to express just how good Bullet For My Valentine’s performance truly was. It’s on par with Dream Theater’s Hordern performance last year in that, not a single mistake was made by the band member’s in either case and of course, both assembled and flawlessly executed diverse, rich and entertaining setlists.

Whilst the poor sound from Bring Me The Horizon’s performance may of put somewhat of a damper on the night, nothing could stop both The Cancer Bats and Bullet For My Valentine astonishing audiences with spectacular performances on a warm spring night in Moore Park.

Check out the photos from the gig