Bad Omens Takes Alexandra Palace Through The Concrete Jungle!

On Wednesday 26th November Bad Omens took North London’s Alexandra Palace through the “Concrete Jungle”!

Opening the Alexandra Palace stage was metalcore band The Ghost Inside, where a sizeable crowd had already gathered in the Great Hall. The Ghost Inside kicked off their set with “Avalanche”, before absolutely flying through their set with some of their most popular tracks, including; “Wash It Away”, “Going Under”, “Wrath” and closing their set with “Death Grip”. The Ghost Inside were completely new to us; we’d never seen them live nor heard their work, but we really enjoyed their set, which was very well received by the crowd. The set was loud and bouncy the whole way through, which was a great warm up for the crowd already in the room as well as those that were still filtering in. The Ghost Inside are; Jonathan Vigil (Lead Vocals), Zach Johnson (Guitar), Jim Riley (Bass), Andrew Tkaczyk (Drums) and Chris Davis (Rhythm Guitar). 

The second band to hit the stage were Bilmuri, who also attracted a large and very enthusiastic crowd for their supporting slot. They kicked off by playing an Intro for their set which was followed by “Empty Handed”. We weren’t familiar with Bilmuri, and if you’re not either; Bilmuri are an Alternative/ Indie band from Columbus, Ohio and the band is composed of; Johnny Franck (Vocals and Guitar) aka Bilmuri on stage, Reese Muslin (Guitar), Gabi Rose (Saxophone and Vocals) and Breedxdrums (Drums). Bilmuri went on to play; “All Gas”, “Absolutely Crankin My Mf’in Hog”, “Blindsided”, “Corn-fed Yetis” and “Better Hell (Thick boi). We have to admit that we did start to find some of the tracks a bit samey; maybe Bilmuri just wasn’t really for us, as the audience were clearly having a lot of fun, and the interaction between the band and the crowd was brilliant.

The third and final band to hit the stage were show headliners Bad Omens who, as expected, were incredibly welcomed by every single person in a clearly passionate crowd as Noah and the band walked out onto the stage. We noticed that the show was divided into five clearly different parts, and between each part a short video tape interlude was played, with the first being linked to the “Specter” music video. We have to mention at this point the incredibly high production value right from the off – the videos, projectors, lighting rigs and effects all made for a true visual spectacle which complemented the music perfectly.

Bad Omens kicked off their set with “Specter” which was accompanied by a very moody light show, focusing on Noah as he belted out the lyrics while taking position in the middle of the stage. The majority of the crowd had their phones out for this performance as, like us, so many were determined to capture memories of a band that has looked to be on a near unstoppable rise. In this first part of the show, Bad Omens played; “Specter”, “Glass Houses”, “The Drain” and “The Death Of Peace Of Mind” before the second video tape was revealed to the fans. Noah Sebastian (Vocals) went on to thank the crowd for coming to the show and mentioned “It’s nice to see no seats, just you and me in this amazing venue Ally Pally”. The band’s arena tour has taken them around a fair few seated venues, so the all-standing Alexandra Palace seemed to be a welcome change of pace for them.

The second part of the show featured even more fan favourites, including; “Concrete Jungle”, “Limits” and another new song “Dying To Love”. The biggest surprise for us was that, even with the new material, plenty in the crowd were familiar enough to sing, shout and scream along to every single word. If, by some miracle, you’re not familiar with Bad Omens; they’re a Metalcore/ Alternative Rock band from Richmond, Virginia, first appearing on the metal scene in 2015 and they’ve been rising meteorically since. Bad Omens are; Noah Sebastian (Vocals), Nicholas Ruffilo (Bass), Nick Folio (Drums) and Joakim “Jolly” Karisson (Guitar). 

To introduce the third part of the show, coming up to the halfway point in the set, another video tape was played before “Artificial Suicide” and an interesting twist on “V.A.N” (ordinarily featuring vocals from Poppy) were performed to a raucous crowd reaction. “Anything > Human” with Jonathan Vigil and “What Do You Want From Me?” capped off this third act. Shortly before performing “What Do You Want From Me?”, Noah Sebastian took a quick break to give us an amusing insight into the band’s more humble previous shows in London:- “It’s so funny, we talk about it all the time in the band through group chat. There was pizza for food after the show and there were no plates. So we used bath towels as plates, and I just think that is so fucking cool. Now when you put our guitar tech booth and our house engineer tour manager Matt on blast right here on screens. This has little goofs in front of 10 thousand people. No big deal. I’m proud of us, and I’m grateful for all of you! We still eat pizza off of bath towels sometimes regardless”. Noah continues:- “But it’s an important memory to reflect on none the less. We’re Bad Omens by the way”. 

The fourth and penultimate part of the show began with yet another abstract video tape being played, continuing the pattern of splitting the show into individual “acts”. On this comparatively shorter part of the show, Bad Omens played; “What It Cost”, “Like A Villain” and “Just Pretend” which again had the crowd singing and dancing along passionately, some of whom in the audience were visibly emotional. The band themselves looked to be taking in every moment, no doubt reflecting on the journey they’ve been on, and the stark contrast between the night’s crowd of 10,000 and the more humble shows of the past. Noah Sebastian remained a commanding presence within the cavernous Alexandra Palace Great Hall, and always seemed to be close to the crowds for his now iconic roars and growls. 

The fifth and final part of the show was introduced by, yes you guessed it; another abstract video of a cassette tape being played before the band performed another new song of theirs titled “Impose”. “Impose” is a markedly different style of track compared to their other new material, having quite a heavy drum and bass feel to it which really surprised us when we first heard it on release last month. The song ended with what we can only explain as the biggest fountain of confetti that we have ever seen at a show before. Don’t get us wrong, it was a beautiful and emotional way to close off the show, even though we were craving for more because we were still awaiting one of the hardest tracks in the whole Bad Omens back catalogue! 

The band left the stage for what felt absolutely forever while the crowd started chanting “ONE MORE! ONE MORE!”. As soon as Noah, Jolly, Nick and Nicholas came back on stage everyone started cheering and whistling with pure happiness as we all had a feeling what was coming next. The Encore was, as we all expected, “Dethrone”, which we were so hyped up to hear performed live. This version of “Dethrone” had the “Concrete Jungle” Chant Intro, a great piece of audience interaction where Noah Sebastian growls at the crowd “Concrete”, with the crowd shouting back “Jungle” and this carries on for a good while as it builds up the energy and passion needed for the cathartic “Dethrone”. 

We can officially say that we had one hell of a blast watching Bad Omens live! We’ve been wanting to catch them for well over a year, as we missed them when they were touring with Bring Me The Horizon last year and were gutted when they pulled out of the 2024 edition of Download Festival at Donington Park. We loved the atmosphere and energy that they held through out the entire show; some shows have come in for some criticism over a perceived lack of energy, but Alexandra Palace was absolutely bouncing. If we had the chance to relive the night again, we’d do it in a heartbeat.