Bring Me The Horizon show at the o2 Bristol Academy axed after power cut forces venue to evacuate.
A mid-show power cut at the 1600 cap venue stopped Parkway Drive and headliners Bring Me The Horizon from playing, so the Sheffield band set up an impromptu acoustic show outside for disgruntled fans.
It was a night that started well, with The Devil Wears Prada tearing open the bill with a loud, high energy set.
Brutal mosh pits broke out early on, an impressive feat for the first of four bands, but with a line up as impressive as this, the crowd were unlikely to be dissatisfied.
Scream-singer Mike Hranica is small but fierce, screaming into the microphone and marching around the stage with such stage presence aspiring hardcore frontmen would give their right arm for.
The six-strong group took great form on the stage, with an almost synchronised-looking mutual headbang taking over each member from one side of the stage to the other.
Ending their fiery set Hranica reminds the crowd of the band’s religious roots, before losing himself, and encouraging the fans to do the same, in the final beatdown.
Up soon after were Brighton band Architects, who with recent album ‘The Here And Now’ have taken a slightly different, more melodic direction to their sound.
Starting with album opener ‘Day In, Day Out’ the band saw a huge and suitably bouncy reaction in the crowd, screaming along opening line “The years I put into this” with singer Sam Carter.
It was a perfect start to what unfolds as a stellar set, notably weighted with newer material with older favourites ‘This Is The End of the World’ and ‘Follow The Water’ thrown in for good measure.
Frontman Carter demanded friends sat on each other’s shoulders for slow jam ‘Heartburn’, much to the joy of overly stressed-out security guards. (Don’t you just love them?)
Giving the crowd quite a heartfelt thanks for hanging out, Carter dedicated song Learn To Live to anyone “who’s been left on the side”, leading to a big sing along for middle eight ‘We are the ones you left out in the rain’
The 40-minute set went down a treat in the packed out venue, disseminating any worries of how well their new material is being received.
Roadies cleared the stage and set up for Parkway Drive, and when the lights dropped the crowd screamed and cheered for the Australian hardcore kings to play. But when the lights dropped on the stage, they did so in the whole venue in a huge power cut that saw the whole venue evacuated fifteen minutes later.
Fans were stuck around outside the venue calling for Parkway Drive, as the band played keepy-uppies in the makeshift backstage area by the venue.
But dismayed at the scrubbing of the show, Oli Sykes and guitarist bandmates Lee Malia and Jona Weinhofen climbed on top of a skip to play an impromptu set for fans, who ran from all around the area to squash in and see, and taking over an opposite multi-storey car park for a better view.
After a well-received rendition of ‘It Never Ends’ Sykes told the crowd “Sorry this is the shittest gig ever! I’m sorry this is the best we could do.”
Joined by Architects’ Sam Carter they went on to play ‘Suicide Season’, ‘The Sadness Will Never End’ and ‘Chelsea Smile’ – which triggered some comical mosh pits in the crowd. Their music isn’t the type you’d expect to come off very well in acoustic form, and though the renditions were pretty strange, they went down a treat with a crowd that would’ve otherwise gone home very disappointed.
Departing their makeshift skip stage, the band were distracted, along with the crowd, by an over-zealous streaking fan on a nearby stairwell, getting his 30 naked seconds of fame.
Fans called for Parkway Drive, and a group of teenage lads even climbed on the skip to drum up a sing-along before being chased off by security. But it was all good natured, even the guards seemed to be enjoying themselves, making the most of an otherwise disastrous event.
Bring Me The Horizon bassist Matt Kean told Midnight Mixtape the show would be rescheduled, though whether or not it will feature Parkway Drive remains to be seen.
Check out our full Bring Me The Horizon gallery here!
Review by Laura Callan
All Photos © Laura Callan / Enrique Bazan
