Sleep Token, Thornhill
Even In Arcadia North America Tour
September 30th, 2025
Pinnacle Bank Arena, Lincoln, Nebraska
All photos credited to Adam Rossi
Chapter 1: Setting the Stage
Returning to Nebraska as part of their sold out “Even in Arcadia” tour, England’s Sleep Token opened the Gates of Arcadia at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln. The venue was primed for a moody, immersive experience. With a capacity of 15,400, the arena is large but still capable of feeling intimate when lighting and sound are dialed in. Fans from across the country started lining up at dawn for the best chance of riding the barricade. Along with the official merchandise tents set up outside, the sidewalks became a DIY Flea Market with fans trading handmade stickers and bracelets, and other souvenirs. Keen-eyed fans found QR Codes hidden around the venue and spent hours decoding a cryptic word scramble for the chance of entering a limited contest. The excitement was electric.
Chapter 2: Thornhill, Creating an Obsession
Opening for Sleep Token was Australian metalcore quartet Thornhill. The band is currently riding a wave of momentum after their third album BODIES got a strong reception. Their role as the support act gave them the chance to warm up the crowd with energy and contrast before the headliner.
Thornhill’s set was bombastic, visceral, and polished. With newer material from BODIES, they balanced catchy, heavy moments with textured dynamics. One could feel the excitement in the room as the audience, many of whom were Sleep Token fans first and Thornhill newcomers, gradually warmed up.
They didn’t necessarily win over everyone instantly (opening slots can be tough), but by the middle of their set, you could see heads nodding, mosh-pit edges forming, and interactions increasing. Their performance delivered on stage presence, musical tightness, and a sense of “this band belongs on bigger stages.”
Chapter 3: Sleep Token, Holding the Eclipse
When Sleep Token finally took over, the atmosphere shifted into something more ritualistic and immersive. Their show is rarely about raw bombast alone, it’s about tension, release, mood, and catharsis. The band played a thoughtful mix of staples and deeper cuts.
The set’s opening tracks were built carefully, layering in instrumentation and vocal textures before unleashing heavier moments. Slower, emotional songs created quiet, almost sacred pockets of the experience where the crowd would hush, lights dim, and every note felt weighty. Most of their set focused on the band’s 2 most recent albums and sprinkled in fan favorites for earlier releases. 2016’s “Thread the Needle” was a welcome surprise, as was 2019’s “The Offering”.
The transitions between heavy and soft parts were masterfully done. The band knows how to use silence as much as sound. The finale, “Infinite Baths,” brought together the full scale of their sonic identity: big, dramatic, emotionally charged.
Lighting, stage design, and visual effects were likely major contributors to the show’s impact. According to descriptions, Sleep Token “owned the stage” with immersive lighting choices. Given their style, one would expect moody backlighting, silhouettes, and evocative stage design (non-literal, abstract, symbolic).
Sound-wise, moments of clarity with vocals, ambient passages and moments of wall-of-sound heaviness alternated throughout their set. It’s very difficult to box Sleep Token into one genre. The balance between heavy metal, pop, jazz, and hip-hop is key to a Sleep Token show.
One of the more fascinating parts of a Sleep Token concert is the dynamics of the crowd. There tends to be a blend of die-hard fans who know every lyric and newcomers who are there more for the spectacle or curiosity.
During the emotional songs, you could feel the crowd fall silent, singing softly, absorbing the intensity. During heavier passages, movement, mosh edges, and increased energy emerged. Because Sleep Token rewards listening, the parts of the show that are more ambient or subtle can sometimes be underappreciated, but those are exactly what make the peaks matter more. Given this was an arena tour, the scale was large, but maintaining that balance of intimacy in a big space is always a challenge. Judging from the 15,000+ screaming fans, they seem to have succeeded.
Chapter 4: What Worked & What Might’ve Faltered
Choosing Thornhill as their opener provided enough energy and contrast to prime the crowd well. While still relatively new to the scene, The band proved they belonged on the tour.
The shift and pacing, both visual and audio, alternated between quiet and loud sections kept the show dynamic. The quieter moments allowed the audience to breathe, reflect, and connect. Lighting and visuals elevated the music rather than overshadowing it. The entire arena alternated between being bathed in cool violet light, stark red, and a calming, peaceful green.
As with many arena performances, especially in a venue this size, sometimes the intimacy can get lost. Certain subtleties like the quiet vocals, breathing, and ambient effects struggled to reach the back rows in the upper bowl.
Some audience members had expectations of a heavier show throughout, but the dynamic shifts and sudden stops felt jarring to those wanting nonstop intensity.
Sound mixing in a large arena is always a balancing act. Certain instruments or vocals were too recessed or too loud in places, depending on where you were seated. At times it was impossible to tell where each band member was on stage.
Chapter 5: Exiting Arcadia
The Lincoln, Nebraska stop of the Even In Arcadia tour was one of those experiences where you didn’t just see a concert, you felt one. Sleep Token’s ability to blend heaviness with atmosphere, aggression with vulnerability, makes for a show that long lingers in memory. Add Thornhill as a fierce opener, and the whole evening proved a strong, emotionally engaging, and musically rewarding event. This is the tour to see in 2025, if you were lucky enough to have gotten tickets.
Setlist:
Look to Windward
The Offering
Vore
Emergence
*interlude*
Alkaline
Hypnosis
Provider
Rain
Caramel
*interlude*
The Summoning (w/ ii’s drum solo)
Aqua Regia (w/ iv’s saxophone solo)
Granite
Thread the Needle
*interlude*
Damocles
Infinite Baths (w/ Vessel’s extended guitar outro)
