Spiritbox. Sleep Token. Bad Omens. What have these 3 bands in common? Easy: they are all killing it right now and they are for sure the 3 biggest prospects in the metal are right now. All in their own genre. This February 2023, Bad Omens are doing an intense and fully soldout through all Europe. And even France, which is not known usually for the best place for metalcore, saw their shows sold out in a record time!
June 21st, 2022. After many attempts during the pandemic era, Bad Omens finally announce a new tour in Europe. Their very first as headliner, the third overall. June 24th, tickets are available. The next day, already a ticket alert. July 1st, the show in Paris is soldout: 450 tickets gone. July 4th, good news: the show is upgrade to a bigger venue, from Le Petit Bain (450p) to La Machine Du Moulin Rouge in the center of the city (800p officially). A couple days later, the show is soldout. Again. More than 6 months in advance… Let be honest: this is fuckin’ crazy! We can mention ton of great metalcore bands who didn’t have the same success even if the hype around them is real too: Polaris, Landmvrks, Emmure back in the days… something special is happening here.
Before welcoming the stars of the day on stage, we have 2 bands to prepare us: Ghostkid from Germany and Oxymorrons from the United States. This is the second show we attend on this tour after the sick one at the Dynamo in Eindhoven 2 weeks ago. Sadly, we missed the first band. But not tonight! We are more than ready in a venue already packed and a floor where you count the meters available. At 7pm, the lights went out: it’s party time baby. Not only because this venue, La Machine du Moulin Rouge in Pigalle, is known as a decent club, but also because Oxymorrons are not another metalcore band coming from Uncle Sam’s country. Metal, punk-rock, rap, hip-hop: they are mixing so many different genres. Like their singer said during their set: they are not playing only chance kind of music because this is not what music is about, it’s a universal language and whatever you play, you just wanna have fun. Tonight, we gonna have fun during 30 minutes straight. For their first show in Paris as it’s their very first run in Europe, the audience is on fire. I guess they didn’t expect that, not at that level, neither did we!
They told us they were from New York… like the Backstreet Boys. Maybe not the first band we had in mind. Honestly, we wouldn’t have been surprised if they were rather from Los Angeles as their vibes reminded us Fever 333, Hollywood Undead, Body Count: all coming from California. But no, it’s N.Y. City. Anyway, whatever their origins, they played a powerful set and finished on a very bold but successful idea: play in a venue only illuminated by the smartphones from the public, nothing from the venue (they won’t complain with the energy crisis we actually have). This is honestly the last thing we could encourage an opening act on their first tour here to do. But they did it. And succeed, thanks to the audience! A beautiful finish and we can’t wait to see them again! Heard they’ve a new album coming up this Summer… before a comeback in Europe in Fall?
Second band on the bill, the new German hype… Electric Callboy? Not too far but no. It’s Ghostkid whose singer is Electric Callboy former frontman. For this band, it’s also a premiere: first time in Paris and only second show in France (the first one was only the day before in Strasbourg). For us, it’s the third time we saw them in a month after the Headbanger’s Parade in Netherlands on January 15th for their first show in this country and earlier this month on this same Concrete Jungle Tour. Many first times for these young bands and on so many sick events: that’s what we can call a very good start. Let’s hope it will continue on the good way.
Unlike their show in Eindhoven, they won’t have any technical issues this time and will be able to deliver the best set as possible during about 40 minutes. Like during Oxymorrons‘s set, the French audience seems to really enjoy the modern metalcore from the German kids from Ghostkid. A bit less for us. Some great singles, a strong energy on stage for sure but it’s still feel a bit too generic. The energy and motivation without this little extra that makes us want to really see them again. We’ll give them another try at Jera On Air this Summer…
It’s about 9pm and the time we’ve all been waiting for is finally coming. For the first time ever, Bad Omens will play a real headline show in Paris! This is exactly the same set-list on the whole tour meaning Concrete Jungle launched the show with only Noah (vocals) on stage quickly followed by Nick (drums) before their 2 other teammates arrived to fully play the song. And it’s the beginning of the huge karaoké the Parisian fans will do during 70 minutes (to be pronounced 60-10 minutes). All the songs will have a beautiful and warm welcome from the audience but the first highlight will come from an old song, the only one from their debut album, Glass Houses. Same for Never Know and it’s powerful singalong during the chorus.
All the song are perfectly made for the live. The only sad part about this maybe is the fact the pit isn’t as heavy as it could have been before they became so famous. Yes, there’s a pit in many songs but lot of people are standing still, screaming and singing a lot, clapping and screaming between the songs, taking many photos and videos with their smartphones. As a fan from the beginning, it’s a bit sad we don’t have more old songs, especially when we saw how crazy people went when they played Glass Houses, Mercy or Dethrone during the encore. But the biggest moment of this whole evening was, without any suspense at all, the moment they played Just Pretend. The song that became viral on TikTok a couple of months ago and helped them to reach their actual level. A beautiful moment of course.
Set-list: Concrete Jungle, Artificial Suicide, Nowhere To Go, Glass Houses, The Grey, Never Know, Mercy, Who Are You, Limits, IDWTS, What It Cost, Like A Villain, Just Pretend // The Death Of Peace Of Mind, Dethrone, What Do You Want From Me.
In 2015, Bad Omens have landed in the music industry and everybody saw in them the new BMTH because Noah’s voice sounded so much like Oli Sykes and also because their music sounded like a Sempiternal 2.0. It’s not easy for a band – or any artist – to be compared from their beginning to other huge acts. But they continue their path very well. And tonight, we can compare again to BMTH: not because of a similar song but because of a similar path to a worldwide success. This tour is only the confirmation Bad Omens is one of the biggest prospects in the metal scene right now. Who knows how far they’ll go?!