I want to start by saying I’m admittedly a newer fan of Bring Me The Horizon and attending their show on May 5th, 2026 at PPG Paints Area in Pittsburgh, PA has been a part of my own personal redemption arc. As always, you fine Racket readers get my very personal experience of this show.
Over the past several months, I’ve found myself diving right back into metal music. When I saw Bring Me The Horizon was coming into town, and after hearing only amazing things about their shows, I binged their music. I grew up listening to metal and emo music, and I’m sad to say my tastes never went in the direction of Bring Me The Horizon and Motionless in White. I was always heavily influenced by the people around me and eventually got myself in a personal life situation where music was gradually less and less vibrant.
Well, I’m back, and I have to say the way I’ve been soaking in this music has me feeling like a teenager (who is in her 30s). This was the first show I had also bought a ticket for and attended completely alone. When I have a photo pass? I feel like I have purpose and a plan to execute the mission to get sweet photos and take good notes. But, since I didn’t for this one, I knew for this show I had to leave my typical crowd-surfing aside. Side note: if you have any suggestions on how to go to a show and not have to worry about losing your keys/cards out of your pockets, I would love to hear your tips and tricks! Or perhaps your venue-approved fanny packs or crossbody bags.
My game plan? I became super well-versed in the show… I know, I know. How incredibly Type-A of me. I found the setlist and reels of the show. I knew, for the most part, what to expect. And I knew I wanted to be near the front of the crowd in the pit.
The first performance by Amira Elfkey was transcending. Her beautiful plaid-gothic dress to match her gothic rock, alternative metal set. She glided across the stage along with her soul-snatching lyrics, angelic voice, and her band’s metal breakdowns. Her songs are incredibly catchy and a performer you should familiarize yourself with ASAP if you’ve ever been a fan of Evanescence.
The Plot in You busted out the television screens to display their bloody, twisted – yet poetically haunting – music videos. This band from Ohio looks like just a typical group of basic (maybe hipster-ish) guys with frontman Landon Tewers sporting the trendy mustache. But their heavy metalcore band is far from anything normal. Landon came out in his signature Viagra jacket of the tour, as the band played songs from The Volume Series for nearly the entire set. There is something extremely brilliant about their music – the instrumental breakdowns are dynamic and complex, yet each song has something so catchy about it. Landon’s vocals are complimentary to the instrumental rather than the other way around and it came out in their stage performance.
The audience loved them, with crowd surfing starting so early in the set. I was situated just center left of the stage in the crowd, about five people back from the barricade. As soon as my latest song fixation, “Left Behind,” came on, there was an assembly line of crowd-surfers coming in, and I barely got to enjoy the song – a necessary sacrifice for the headline. But honestly, if I’m lucky enough to see The Plot in You again with someone or a better key/card storage solution, I’ll be right with all the other crowd-surfers.
Motionless in White came out next. Background story: I learned the night before the show that one of my friends used to jam with Motionless in White back in Scranton, PA when they were first getting started. Although I had just started listening to them a couple months back, I went into the show feeling like I knew Chris, the band’s lead singer, from my friend’s stories. Opening with “Meltdown,” Chris came out hamming it up with the crowd – a huge smile on his face and connecting with the audience immediately. The Davey Havok-looking frontman acknowledged Pittsburgh as his hometown show for the tour. Having been a band for 20 years now, they’ve been playing in Pittsburgh since the beginning – and you could tell. The fans around me knew every word to every song and honestly made me feel like a poser to be there (I’ve heard “poser” again lately… it seemed like a good time to bust it out). I only knew about five of their songs leading up to this performance compared to the choir in the pit who didn’t miss a word.
Motionless’s stage performance was captivating. The visuals on the screens with the lasers complemented the music. Every band member had their own style, sucking you in with mere curiosity. The red-haired drummer, the guitarist with his mask, the bassist who looked like the perfect mix of The Joker and Harley Quin, and the other guitarist with his goth-guy appearance. During the song “Voices,” the band portrayed the Pride flag and the word “Voices” in Pride/rainbow colors. Between this imagery and their song “Slaughterhouse,” heavily critical of modern capitalism and politics, the band’s progressive views were beautifully on display and made me, dare I say, teary-eyed. I love them even more now. Their set is a MUST SEE. And their new song, “Playing God” released the day after this show? Chef’s kiss. I hope they started working it into their set for the rest of the tour.
Waiting for Bring Me The Horizon’s set was an experience itself. With a large curtain decorated with organic compounds covering the stage so we couldn’t see the crew setting up behind it had the crowd bonding over speculation of how the show would start. Screens broadcasted a QR code to access a game on your phone, which I found nearly impossible to play while standing in the pit. At this point I had made my way to only three people back from the barricade, and I wasn’t about to lose my spot… especially due to negligence.
As music played overhead, the crowd busted out singing in unison – the most captivating being “Chop Suey” by System of a Down. At one point, the speaker cut out and the whole crowd booed. The arena turned it back on, letting the audience finish bonding to the song before cutting the music again to start the mini-videos of what looked like a Bring Me The Horizon video game on the screens far left and right of the stage.
The lights went out and Eve took over the screens. If you haven’t seen the set, it’s an entire immersive experience centered around the cult of Eve, pitting the audience against the rogue corporate entity, “Project Angel Dust.” When Eve left the screens, the curtain dropped, and the confetti started nearly immediately. Now, I’m someone that almost doesn’t even want to go to a show if I’m not in the pit… but this show?? HOW COULD YOU EVEN SIT?! You need to be in the middle of the action.
The stage set was huge with multiple levels. The drummer situated on a platform a couple levels up with the guitarist and bassists often standing on the platforms themselves. The band members felt worlds away from each other the whole time. But the real show was frontman Oli Sykes in his tour outfit resembling armor and his amazing stage presence. I’ve never seen someone truly LOVE being up there so much. Oli was so deeply into the music, dancing, moving on stage following the vibe of the songs, interacting with the audience, and, probably my favorite part, the huge grins to the audience. This man loves his job with his whole heart and he’s going to make sure his fans who came to watch him love the job he’s doing too – even if that includes lots of cursing and a bit of bullying to get circle pits and walls of death going in the pit.
The massive screens at the back of the stage displayed a different setting depending on where you were in the storyline of the show – my favorite being the gothic architecture from the first several songs. Bring Me also had incredible dancers on stage with them for several of their songs, most notably for “Happy Song” where they busted out their pom-poms for the cheers throughout the song.
The story progresses throughout the show, with a major conflict during the track “AmEN!” from the band’s last album. At this point, there’s a simulated electrical malfunction, and what resembles burned confetti poured over the pit – this was probably the worst (best) confetti of the show… as I found it in my hair for the next two days. Fire shot out from the stage, and I was close enough to FEEL the heat, as fireworks burst above the stage. It was truly a wild experience.
The set included songs from Sempiternal through their latest album, POST HUMAN: NeX GEn – seemingly displacing a lot of the fans of their original metalcore sound. However, Bring Me The Horizon has placed themselves as a band who can transform and pick up fans ranging from pop to emo and pop punk to electronic and back to metalcore. I think that’s what makes this band so relatable. After playing “Shadow Moses,” one of the bands most notable songs from Sempiternal, “Kingslayer,” and “Antivist” (featuring Scottie, the audience member pulled up on stage), full of metal screams and growls, Oli asked the audience in the pit to sit on their friends’ shoulders and the crowd to display their lights for “Follow You” – a toxically romantic ballad. Then broke out into the classically pop-punk, “LosT.” Bring Me “ended” with their false close of “Can You Feel My Heart,” only to come back with the most epic encore I’ve ever been apart of… yes, “been apart of,” because this show is nothing short of interactive.
Oli came back on stage with his whole heart and soul to sing the hauntingly beautiful, “Doomed,” easily one of my favorite songs of theirs. Following with “Drown,” Oli grabbed the camera from their media team to go into the photo pit and film himself singing and interacting with the crowd – seeing videos of him singing with his fans at the barricade from the tour still brings me to tears. It is no secret how much he loves his fans.
Closing with “Throne” was the right move – a powerful song about overcoming the darkest moments turned into victory. Oli took the stage with a bunny hat and danced on the stage with the biggest grin. And the confetti… so much confetti I couldn’t even see the stage for part of the song. In a brilliant move, a person standing next to me was holding a cup to collect the confetti. Not sure if it was the move I would make because a phone in my hand was honestly enough, but I’m not sure stuffing confetti into my pockets for my children was the move either.
Anyways… tears. So many happy tears from this show. The post-concert depression is real. I can only hope I have the chance to see all these bands again. The line-up was incredibly solid, if not exquisitely stitched together by some music mastermind. Oli, was this all you?
I want to thank this tour for so many things – for bringing me back to discovering new (and old) metal music again. For popping my cherry on my first BIG solo show. And for the beautiful experience.
I also want to thank Pittsburgh for their lack of tall people in the pit. The shortest crowd I’ve ever stood in.
And if you haven’t heard, Bring Me The Horizon is re-recording the album Count Your Blessings to be released on July 10th, nearly 20 years later. And they’ve promised fans at home in the UK in July and at Furnace Fest in October shows covering the entire Count Your Blessing album – a beautiful tribute to their oldest fans.