Rob the Concert Guy

Let me be up front that my review of this show is not for the die hard fans of Sleep Token. I know you loved it and you’ll probably hate my review (but please still read it and provide any feedback). This is for those perhaps unfamiliar with the band, those just discovering them, and the casual listeners. With that…

What a crowd. Doors were to open at 6:30pm on this fine September 23rd in Worcester, MA but it ended up being about 7pm instead. We got there around 6pm and the lines were insane. We couldn’t find an end to any line as they just kept looping around and intersecting with different lines for different entrances, so we just said screw it and stood around crowd watching, while in no line at all. This may be a good time to mention that while you may not know this band, their fans certainly do. Their entire tour (large arenas to boot) sold out within 30 minutes during the fan presale. And while I’m sure not impossible, they made resale very difficult to limit scalping and price gouging. If you bought 4 tickets at once, all 4 tickets had to scan together (1 QR code for the whole party). No buying 4 and selling 2 at a huge profit. This was a crowd of mostly diehards, and I think that is awesome.

Anyway, a sea of black clothes, fishnets, septum piercings, and colored hair covered the streets of Worcester until the doors finally opened at 7pm. We slipped right in as we picked the better line that was a hundred deep vs 10k deep like the main entrance. There were several entrances that would’ve gotten you in faster; don’t just follow the crowd!

Thornhill was the opening band. Young lads from Melbourne, Australia. Pretty decent sound. First song started off with a bit of a Nine Inch Nails vibe, at least vocally. They reminded me a bit of Deftones as well, and even had some Sleep Token influence in there. But not a rip off of anyone at all. His clean singing voice was decent, but his screaming voice and growls were pretty sweet. I’d say more of that would make them awesome. Though, the dude next to me knew every word of every song so to him they are already awesome it seems.

Once Thornhill was done, the house lights never came back up. The arena remained dimly lit, while laser type graphics were moving up and down a large screen covering the stage, as wind sounds were played.

Earlier while outside, I saw people giving out stickers but paid no attention. Now inside while waiting for Sleep Token, people were still giving out stickers to place over your phone flashlight to change the light color to orange for one specific song; Damocles. So, I texted my friend Kyle who was there but one section over to ask if he put his sticker on. When he said he did, I of course called him a rule/command follower, to which he replied, “I’ve been a member of this cult since 2020!” And that was the key right there! This is a cult! Frank and I are not cult members. We did not comply.

So one of the things about Sleep Token is that they have this shroud of mystery about them. Their identities were relatively unknown to most (though fans ultimately figured it out), they wear costumes complete with masks when performing, and they stopped doing interviews around the time of their debut album. They do have some songs on SiriusXM, but for the most part they’ve grown in popularity through their fans. Selling out a tour in 30 minutes is pretty awesome and I do like their music, but…

So, the wind stopped when they took the stage and started with Look to Windward. I see what they did there. Leading up to this show I listened to them quite a bit to get psyched. What I like is their unique style. They change tempos mid song, can start soft, go heavy, end soft. He has unique vocals that I could say are soulful, but he can also do some sweet metal screams. They work in saxophone and other interesting sounds in general in many songs. It’s quite unique. They definitely have a formula, but they also use this formula nearly every song. It starts to get repetitive listening to a full album or say, concert, in my opinion. The use of lighting, lasers, confetti, overall stage design, and screens was pretty awesome, though no pyro.

Now I’m not suggesting this is a Milli Vanilli situation…but it could be. With the masks and anonymity, how do we really know the dude on stage is actually singing? Could be someone else backstage or a recording and we’d never know. I believe his mouth is NOT covered by the mask, but with no cameras or screens in use, you don’t get a close-up view unless you’re close up. Some of the songs, especially the saxophone playing in their third song Emergence (a pretty kick ass 6+ minute song), were spot on with the recordings. This could just mean that they’re a solid, talented band (which I hope is the case), but we can’t tell for sure. Can we? But I have no reason to believe it wasn’t the dudes on stage performing.

The singer, Vessel, whose real name is Leo George Faulkner (See? Not as anonymous as they’d like to be) also plays keyboard/piano, and then guitar during the last song. That was cool – I like when they showcase their talent. During the heavier parts of the songs when there’s no singing, he decided to “dance.” It wasn’t good. He reminded me of the one dork in a crowd who so desperately wants to start a mosh pit, but no one joins in. But he thinks they’ll join in, so he stomps his feet, while flailing arms, and moving in a circle. That’s this dude’s dance. I only got one short video of it, but you’ll get the idea.

The drummer was pretty awesome, but with our side stage seats, we didn’t have a great view of him. There was a large speaker stack blocking that part of the stage for us. The stage in general looked pretty awesome, but our view again didn’t let us see the whole thing. There was not a single word of crowd interaction. Not a thank you, a good night, legit not one word that wasn’t part of a song. Is this part of the mysterious vibe? I like a solid, engaging frontman personally.

This band is classified as ‘metal’ which I guess is accurate to a degree as it doesn’t really fit a bucket. They have some metal moments for sure, and The Summoning was one of them. That was a pretty sweet tune that I really enjoyed. But overall, I think they encompass rock, metal, soul, a tiny bit of blues and jazz, and I’m sure one of the dozens of metal sub-genres.

Also, giving this show some thought, I have to say that they’ve created an environment where their fanbase can dress up how they want and be part of a community. In the nicest way possible, I’d say it’s 15,000 misfits who are no longer misfits because they found their people. And if music is the catalyst to make this happen, that is A-OK by me!

Overall however, this just wasn’t the show for me. As we left the arena, Frank said, “I don’t think I like Sleep Token anymore.” I tend to agree. But it was an experience, and something to see for sure.