BMTH live in Jakarta 2024

This time around Ravel gets it right and BMTH (Bring Me The Horizon) are headlining the Nexfest festival in Jakarta which also features Babymetal. In this format there is no seating - which makes for a much more intimate experience - although you do have to arrive really early if you want to pick a spot right up close to the stage.  We arrived about six hours before BMTH were scheduled to start their performance and bought plenty of drinks to stay hydrated in the tropical afternoon heat (mind you, some of those were Iceland vodka mix!)

This was a gig I had long been looking forward to - especially after the debacle last year.

Not everyone likes BMTH of course. For deathcore fans the band sold out. For metal heads the band is not purist enough. And for the wider mainstream audience, the band is too heavy.

You can't please everyone of course but there are few bands in the rock world which can match the sheer emotional velocity of BMTH.

To bring metal and even aspects of metalcore to a much wider audience by incorporpating pop sounds into really well written songs is pure genius in my opinion. 

Live they would be magnificant.

And so they were.

The lead singer Oli Sykes really wears his heart on his sleave and appeared to give absolutely everything during the band's one and a half hour performance.

This was the best gig I have ever been to and I didn't want it to end. The gig passed by far too quickly. This may be a once in a lifetime opportunity to savor it. That's what makes it so memorable of course. If you could see the band play week in week out events like this would no longer be so special. But the memories of this gig I will treasure for a lifetime. Thanks Oli Skykes and the rest of the band. And don't make it too long before you come back to Indonesia!