Photo Credit: Anthony Hunt
Birmingham hit 36 degrees on 25th June 2026. The kind of heat that makes a near-capacity indoor show feel like a questionable life choice before the first band has even taken the stage. By the end of the night, nobody looked like they regretted it.
Thornhill opened proceedings and from the first notes of DIESEL it was clear the Australians weren’t treating a support slot as a warm-up. The production told that story immediately — heavy strobe work, deep red lighting, the band backlit in a way that gave the whole set a sinister, moody quality that suited the material perfectly. Jacob Charlton commands a stage with a quietness that somehow carries further than a front man twice as loud. There’s no excess movement, no overworked crowd interaction — just a performer who knows the songs will do the work if he lets them, and he does.
Mercia landed with the weight the song carries on record, the room responding to it with the kind of familiarity that suggests Thornhill have built a following in Birmingham that goes well beyond the casual. Silver Swarm pushed the strobes harder and the crowd along with them, and Under The Knife gave the set a moment of genuine tension before Obsession closed things out on a note that left the room wanting considerably more than ten songs. Ethan McCann, Nick Sjogren and Ben Maida held everything together with a precision that made the heavier moments hit properly, the kind of tight unit that a support slot doesn’t always get to showcase but Thornhill absolutely did. For a band opening the night, they left a mark that stuck.
The changeover did nothing to cool the room down. By the time Bilmuri took the stage the O2 Academy Birmingham was close to capacity and the temperature had nowhere to go but up.
Johnny Franck is not a front man who operates at half speed. From the opening cover of Halo — lifted from the Halo game soundtrack — through KINDA HARD and TWICE, he had the floor moving with the kind of energy that suggests he’s physically incapable of standing still. What makes Bilmuri interesting live is what surrounds him. Gabi Rose on saxophone gives the band a dimension that shouldn’t work in this context and absolutely does, weaving through songs like BLINDSIDED and BACK, THEN with a fluidity that keeps the set from ever feeling one-note. Joe Compton switching between banjo and keyboards adds another layer that keeps things unpredictable in the best possible way, while Reese Malsen on guitar and Aino Muruaishi on bass anchor everything underneath with a solidity that lets the more chaotic elements breathe without the whole thing threatening to come apart.
The bubble gun made its appearance courtesy of Rose mid-set, sending a cascade of bubbles into a crowd that was already drenched and fully committed. On the hottest Thursday the UK had recorded, in a room that had spent the better part of two hours absorbing that heat, it was either the most welcome or most chaotic thing that could have happened. Given the response, probably both.
ROCK BOTTOM and WORST PART OF YOU carried the set through its emotional midpoint, the floor staying loud through both. ALWAYS LET YOU DOWN pulled something more considered out of the crowd before MORE THAN HATE snapped things back into focus. BETTER HELL (Thicc boi) closed things out on terms that left the floor in a state — the kind of closer that doesn’t so much end a set as it does run out of road.
Two very different bands, one very hot room, and a Thursday night in Birmingham that earned its place on the calendar. Outside, the UK was breaking temperature records. Inside the O2 Academy, nobody was thinking about that. The ‘Kinda Hard’ tour had delivered exactly what it promised, and then some.
Words and Photos: Anthony Hunt
