American Dream Tour
March 24, 2014
Showbox Sodo- Seattle, Washington
4 bands, 4 hours of music, and roughly 1400 people left with their jaws on the floor after the American Dream Tour swept through Seattle, Washington’s Showbox SoDo on March 24, 2014. Openers Letlive raged in their characteristic way, with singer Jason Butler thrashing around on stage like a pinned alligator about to be taken down by its captors. The band tore through a half hour set, while Butler spoke openly about his previous brush with death, which beget the current band and lyrical content that Letlive. displays. For those uninitiated, they surely gained a legion of new followers. If their music isn’t as well known yet, their sets are quickly becoming the things that legends are made of. Keep watch on this band in the years to come, they are sure to keep turning heads.
Issues was up next and from the moment they took the stage, the crowd was eating out of the palms of their hands. Dual front-men Michael Bohn and Tyler Carter deftly wove their scream/sing vocals together while shaking the audience like a mini-tremor. For a relatively new band, Issues sure doesn’t play like it. The audience knew the songs lyric for lyric and had no issues (pun intended) with singing those words right back at their beloved heroes. They touched on the better part of their debut album, before making way for metal-core stalwarts, Of Mice & Men.
At this point, the crowd was patiently waiting for this time of the evening, anticipating new and old songs to be played by OM&M. Having recently released a new album last month, front-man Austin Carlile and crew seemed anxious to get these tunes out into the open. They displayed their heavy on the metal riffs, juxtaposed with the sing/scream dynamic that made the band popular from their first release. Carlile surveyed the audience from his perch atop a riser at the front of the stage, while a few females in the audience wept with no shame. Apparently this band has THAT kind of connection with their fans. 
Fast forward to 10:40 PM when the posted set times around the venue called for headliners Bring Me The Horizon to take the stage. At exactly 10:41, the lights dimmed and the familiar electronic backdrop of Can You Feel My Heart began playing. As the members of Britain’s metal champions took the stage, you could feel the electricity surging through the sold-out crowd. This was their moment. Not a soul in the building left early, fans and non-fans alike. People are genuinely interested in seeing where this band goes with their performances, which have become a full-on production, on par with bands who have much bigger universal appeal. BMTH pulls no punches on this tour and it was obvious right out the gate. Bright bursts of backlit strobes pulsed with each kick of the drum and lead screamer Oliver Sykes sat atop the stage in silence as his band built into the song. From there, he was anything but silent, as he tore his vocals to shreds, sprinting through 70 minutes worth of material, spanning their last 3 albums. Their current sound owes a lot to the production of keyboardist Jordan Fish, who was buried near the back of the stage, awash in bright lights, but felt nonetheless as his sonic textures set the mood for so many of the band’s songs. Sykes leapt around the stage like a wild hyena, but maintained his vocals like a true champion. Their relentless touring has done the band well over the years, with the size of their audience growing with each tour date. This tour was one of the most hyped of the spring and it surely didn’t disappoint. As the final notes of Sleepwalking played out and the confetti rained down from the stage onto the miserably sweaty audience, Bring Me The Horizon departed the stage to a raucous round of applause and screams. This was their moment and they owned it.
Review by: Jake Gravbrot
Bring me the Horizon
Issues
