BRING ME THE HORIZON UNLEASH ABSOLUTE MAYHEM IN FRONT OF 10,000 SCREAMING FANS
Get Some Mag and No Barricades Photography team up for another episode of the Get Some party bus. For this trip, we headed to beautiful Grand Rapids, Michigan, for a sold-out show at Van Andel Arena. Bring Me the Horizon, Motionless in White, and Plot in You are no strangers to performing in front of large crowds. With 20+ years for BMTH and MIW, and 15+ for PIY, this mix was ready to blow the roof off the venue. Coming in hot on this final leg and final night of the tour, we expect every band on this bill to go above and beyond and give us everything they have left in the tank. Lines of fans stretched around the block; some fans arrived a day early and camped out overnight just to claim that front-and-center spot on the barricade. 10000+ strong and the adrenaline was pumping; mass therapy session has been engaged!
Plot in You started out the night by kicking the door in with “Don’t Look Away,” and this capacity crowd was off its feet. When the second song of the set (“Divide”) kicked in, we finally got our first glimpse of crowd surfers, and a gigantic mosh pit opened. Adrenaline kept flowing through song three (“You Get One”), and the entire venue was jumping. When opening notes for song five (“Forgotten”) hit, this crowd came unglued. 10k strong, singing the entire song in unison. We've done small 1k-capacity venues; this was a whole other level of epic fan participation. Plot in You gave us mosh pit after mosh pit, crowd sing-alongs, and an abundance of crowd surfers. Other notable songs in the set include “Spare Me,” “Left Behind,” and “Fell Nothing.” Plot In You was everything an opening band needed. The fans were pumped and ready for the next band, Motionless in White.
Motionless in White hit the stage with a dominating presence, kicking things off with their opening number, “Signs of Life.” The opening number was just a warm-up; “Playing God” pushed the crowd into high gear. At the opening of this song, when Chris Motionless screams “GET THE F**K UP!”, these fans on the floor went into full feral mode; the entire floor was off its feet, another huge mosh pit opened, and we were getting an amazing amount of crowd surfers over the rail for this song. Crowd surfing and a mass sing-along ensued during “Voices.” We watched Motionless command the stage for a blistering nine-song set, and even during some of the “slower” songs, the crowd was still sending crowd surfers. 20+ years later, this band can still give an amazing performance. Other notable songs on this set include “Slaughterhouse,” “Afraid of the Dark,” “Scoring the End of the Earth,” “R.I.P,” and “Eternally Yours.” Are you ready for the main event??? You could feel the excitement in the air as Bring Me the Horizon got ready to take the stage.
Where do we even start with BMTH?? Let us start with this amazing fan base. 10k+ showed up in droves; fans from multiple states showed up; others camped out overnight to be first on the rail for this band; and others have been following the tour. This is band dedication beyond amazement. This packed house was ready to explode. BMTH hit the stage as confetti cannons exploded across the stage and into the crowd, opening the night with “DarkSide,” and the place exploded into a frenzy. 10k strong, we sang along in unison (including me)! “House of Wolves” was next, and we kept the energy going with another epic song. Crowd surfers hit the barricade like a waterfall. Security was stacked and ready to catch everyone who was sent. The biggest mosh pit of the night opened, engulfing over half the floor; anyone caught nearby was sucked in to join. The set was filled with continuous mosh pits and epic singalongs. BMTH played a set spanning its 20+ year career. The show production was off the charts, with lasers, confetti cannons, pyro, and CGI-enhanced stage graphics that really immersed the fans. BMTH gave us an amazing fifteen-song set list which included “Happy Song,” “Dehumanized,” “Shadow Moses,” Pray for Plagues,” “Can You Feel My Heart,” “Drown” (Oli came into the crowd), and finished the set with “Throne.”
In closing, I came in as a photographer, but my inner fan came out during all three sets; how can you not sing along and have an enjoyable time with these three bands? Yeah, I high-fived and sang along with some of the barricade fans, but the pictures will always show how locked in I get as a fan of these bands. From a photographer's point of view, the lighting quality was top-notch, the stage production was insane, and as a fan, we dove into the mosh pits and had fun. If I could do it all again, I damn sure would. Fans left here exhausted but got their money’s worth.
