Photos + Review: Bullet For My Valentine @ The Fillmore (Minneapolis, MN)

Bullet For My Valentine (Bridgend, UK) with Of Mice & Men (Costa Mesa, CA) and Vended (Des Moines, IA)
October 24th, 2023
The Fillmore in Minneapolis, MN

It was a cold rainy night…

Nah, no cliches. 

On what was really a kind of rainy and dreary night in Minneapolis, Bullet for my Valentine definitely made venturing out worthwhile, with an energy that made sure that no crowd member wasn’t feeling the heat. Opening bands Vended and Of Mice and Men provided well performed and just fun support for the bands.

Last time I saw Bullet for my Valentine was back in 2018 at the Myth. It certainly doesn’t feel like that much time has passed, but the band certainly made up for that long period of time by playing their best set I’ve witnessed. As far as setlists go, this one goes toe to toe with what I previously thought was the best they’ve done; 2016 when they were touring in support of their newly released Venom album. Hard task to beat that set as that album is probably my second favorite they’ve done behind Scream, Aim, Fire. So a set list that pulls a lot from that album has a lot going for it.

The great thing about Bullet these days and how long they’ve been together (coming up on 20 years), is how wide-spanning their material is now. There’s been albums that I haven’t connected with fully but can admit there’s still some bangers on them, so being able to pull a few songs from each one solidifies their live shows greatly, and also gives a good sounding variety of what’s being played.

I think the only complaint I have with this night is the typical “I never wanted it to stop!” Okay, so maybe one cliche. But it’s true. My main hallmark on determining whether a show is great or not is if by the end of it I still want to hear five more songs and am not ready to go home yet. I definitely wasn’t this night, and I had read of shows prior to here (Chicago for one) getting a real, proper encore of “Hearts Burst Into Fire.” The majority of the crowd weren’t ready to go home either, with barely any leaving the building after “Waking The Demon” finished as their closer. Loud chants of “One more song!” and an even louder “Bullet! Bullet! Bullet!” went on for an impressive amount of time, but to no avail. I would have loved to have seen that song played live as it’s one of my favorites. The crowd in general was absolutely fantastic. I saw the best pit I’ve ever witnessed this night, and the amount of buy-in with singing and jumping throughout the night was commendable.

One other thing I was reminded about from this night was how good Jamie Mathias is. I remember being blown away by him back in 2016, but I guess I had forgotten in the years since. I honestly would not mind hearing more of him on singing and screaming duties. He sounds so good at both. I was amazed when I heard him sing his part of “Tears Don’t Fall.”

I definitely left the venue proud of the type of crowd that Bullet has attracted and fostered over the years. They earned and deserve their success, and I’m excited to see what the future holds going forward.