Bring Me the Horizon transported the T-Mobile Center to another realm
Bring Me The Horizon. // photo credit T-Mobile Center/Freddie Cabrera
Bring Me the Horizon
with Amira Elfeky, The Plot in You, and Motionless in White
T-Mobile Center
Tuesday, May 12
On Tuesday, May 12th, the always evolving musicians Bring Me the Horizon transported fans to a dystopian, cyber-punk future with their N. American Ascension Program 2 at T-Mobile Arena. With a trio of openers, the night was an energetic show of modern arena rock.
Amira Elfeky. // photo credit T-Mobile Center/Freddie Cabrera
With an early start time of 6 pm Amira Elfeky kicked off the night as fans made their way into the T-Mobile Center. An up-and-coming artist based out of LA. Since gaining popularity through TikTok and Spotify, she has been gaining a growing fan base in the rock scene. Evident by her ability to open for a tour such as this. Her sound is a mix of nu-metal, goth-metal, and alt-metal. Entrancing the crowd with her intense and haunting vocals along with powerful low guitars, bass drops, and monstrous drums from her band. She played about a twenty-minute set that included songs from her 2024 debut album Skin to Skin and the 2025 EP Surrender.
The Plot in You. // photo credit T-Mobile Center/Freddie Cabrera
The night continued on as Ohio metal core rockers The Plot in You took to the stage. With LCD screens now on each side of the stage, the band made up of vocalist Landon Tewers, Josh Lewis Childress on guitar, Ethan Yoder on bass, and drummer Michael Cooper kicked up the adrenaline level in the arena. They kicked off the set with the hard-hitting track “Don’t Look Away” from their upcoming LP The Plot in You The Volume Series. The 12-track collection unifies the band’s recent four-part EP installment series into one cohesive body of work along with one new song.
After the song ended, Tewers addressed the crowd, asking if everyone was having a good time, adding, “I smell weed and popcorn, so you must be having a good time.” The set continued through more songs from the album. During “Forgotten,” Tewers called on the crowd to see some nonsense from them and for the crowd surfers to get to the front. For the next song, “Silence,” Tewers started it off solo on stage with an acoustic guitar before being joined by the rest of the band to kick it up a notch. They ended the set with “Feel Nothing” from the 2018 album DISPOSE. Tewers encouraged the fans that were familiar with the track to sing along. Most of those in attendance were definitely familiar as they joined along through the song. The energy was rising through T-Mobile.
Motionless in White. // photo credit T-Mobile Center/Freddie Cabrera
It was time for the next band to keep that energy alive through the packed arena. Motionless In White took to the stage and with no hesitation accepted the challenge. Right away, the Scranton, Pennsylvania rockers melted the fans’ faces off with a pair of songs, “Meltdown” and “Sign of Life,” from the 2022 album Scoring the End of the World, quickly showing off their skills at dropping gothic, spine-cracking metalcore tracks. Since forming in 2004, they have been highly recognized for their unique genre-blending metal.
Band members Chris “Motionless” Cerulli on lead vocals, dueling guitarists Ryan Sitkowski and Ricky “Horror” Olsen, bassist Justin Morrow, and Vinny Mauro on drums bring with them to the stage a theatrical macabre heavy metal show fit for a modern arena band. Evident by Cerulli’s white face paint with eyes painted black, Sitkowski dawning a biomechanics Hannibal Lecter-style muzzle mask, and Morrow’s gothic outfit, black streaks running down his face through each eye and hair in pigtails.
Motionless in White. // photo credit T-Mobile Center/Freddie Cabrera
The LCD screens on stage transitioned from dark horror-themed graphics, some of those created with help from local graphic artist Josh Hurst, and video of the band while performing. Smoke shot up from the stage through various songs while Cerulli delivered smooth transitioning metalcore raspy screams and clean vocals. The band dropped blast beats with hints of industrial and horror-movie synthesizer elements. As heard when the band started off the new Billboard Hard Rock chart-topping single “Afraid of the Dark” from the upcoming album Decades.
Always encouraging the crowd’s involvement through the set, several times the fans were called on to sing along, jump, wave hands, mosh, crowd surf, and headbang. Cerulli called on fans to headbang through the song “Hollow Points” and then, halfway through, yelled out, “I didn’t tell you that you could stop banging those heads.” They ended their set with the song “Eternally Yours” from the 2017 album Graveyard Shift. Fans were so pumped by the performance that I half-expected the crowd to chant for an encore as though they were the headliners.
Bring Me The Horizon. // photo credit T-Mobile Center/Freddie Cabrera
Though fans were eager and would have been pleased with more from Motionless In White, it was time to ascend into the world of Nex Gen with Bring Me the Horizon. To quickly catch up on the current lore the band is enriching their fans in, Nex Gen is the sinister AI mega-corporation running the world through the story of their Post Human concept albums. A dystopian story detailing a post-apocalyptic world where a rogue AI named E.V.E. tries to make everyone faceless, emotionless, and desireless by putting them in an indoctrinated, bliss-filled trance called “YOUtpia.” Humanity succumbs, but rebels slowly start to fight back for personal freedom and individuality. The story is a dark, cryptic metaphor for things like addiction, mental health, modern echo chambers, and social media conditioning. The band’s two most recent albums, 2020’s POST HUMAN: SURVIVAL HORROR and 2024’s POST HUMAN: NeX GEn, are both concept albums used to tell this story.
While waiting for the headlining show to start, the experience was already underway. On the large screens above and on both sides of the stage, a video game start screen had loaded. While waiting for the player to press start, random game clips flashed scenes like a classic Resident Evil game. A large curtain hung covering the stage with a mix of chemical compositions referencing the band’s songs mixed in with their geometrical unicursal hexagram symbol. The house lights went down, while on the large screens on both sides of the stage, E.V.E hyped up the crowd and welcomed us all to the Church of Genxsis.
The curtain receded as band members Lee Malia on guitar, Matt Kean on bass, Mat Nicholls on drums, and touring guitarist John Jones took to the stage. Using massive screens that lined the entire back of the stage, we were all now transported to a giant cathedral. Lead vocalist Oli Sykes came on the stage and yelled for everyone to “Get the fuck up” as confetti exploded from all along the front of the stage as they kicked off the set with “DArkSide” from their most recent album POST HUMAN: NeX GEn.
As I sit here and go through notes and reminisce about the night, I find myself at a loss for words that will do justice to the awe of the band’s performance. I have been to a lot of concerts through my years that include many different genres and styles of production, and I say with complete confidence that this may be one of the most gripping, entertaining shows I have seen. I don’t think it is a stretch to speak for everyone else there that we were all truly transported to another realm.
Bring Me The Horizon crowd
. // photo credit T-Mobile Center/Freddie Cabrera
The British rockers did not miss a beat musically as they dropped their unique brutal heavy metalcore sound with massive stadium hooks, electronic beats, and hyper-pop featuring Sykes’ dynamic layered vocals and screams. Sykes’ engagement with the crowd was intoxicating; everyone in attendance. Encouraging jumping, sing-alongs, clapping along, mosh-pits, circle-pits, and during “Happy Song,” stopping the song to ask for Kansas City to impress him by turning it up from a six to a nine. As he was turned away from the audience, he asked for the floor to split and be ready to launch into a wall of death pit when he turned back to face us. With no hesitation, the entire floor of the arena was split, and when he turned back to face us, the madness was unleashed. When he was done with the song, he gave his approval, saying that was “fucking sick, you guys can mosh!”
Through song six, “AmEN!” flames continually shot from the stage as random bursts of fireworks lit up the stage and ended with E.V.E. warning that a demonic presence had been detected. Fireworks exploded as more flames shot across the stage, and the cathedral was destroyed, and a winged demon took over the screen. All this, and they were not even halfway through their set. The show continued on as a full-throttle attack to all the senses. The band also had actors who, during some tracks, added even more of a thematic element. From cheerleaders, gothic nuns, to cryogenic soldiers, and more, they continued to add elements of the lore to the show. This was more than just an arena concert; this was an experience. One fan got a truly amazing experience as he was chosen to go up on stage and help sing for the song “Antivist.”
Bring Me The Horizon. // photo credit T-Mobile Center/Freddie Cabrera
Before playing the last song of the regular set, “Can You Feel My Heart,” Sykes asked all the fans to sit down and, when the song kicks in, to jump. Through the song, everyone was encouraged to sing twice as loud as they were planning to sing. The strength of the fans singing along with Sykes sent chills through my body as the unity of everyone paired perfectly with the song’s lyrics. The band left the stage, but I doubt a single fan left the arena as everyone was ready for more. Bring Me the Horizon was happy to deliver, giving fans three more songs all from the 2015 album That’s the Spirit. They finished off the night with a literal bang. Fireworks shot off through “Doomed.” Sykes went down to the barricade and interacted and sang along with fans during “Drown.” An explosion of confetti and streamers shot from the stage through the arena as they finished off the night with “Throne.”
Bring Me the Horizon showed fans exactly why they have worked so hard through the years to get to a place to play large arenas. They delivered an unforgettable, epic show. A truly remarkable all-around performance and production that makes this tour a must-see. Kansas City truly did ascend on this night.
If you didn’t have a chance to see them this night or can catch any of the other shows as they continue their tour, you can check out their recent concert film, L.I.V.E. in Sao Paulo (Live Immersive Virtual Experiment, through streaming or on physical media.
