“I think they’re looking for someone who doesn’t exist.”
This was one of the responses to Revolver on social media after we put a call out in April for a fan who was planning to follow all of Sleep Token’s then-upcoming U.S. tour. Eyebrows were raised, jokes were made — expressions of skepticism that were totally understandable. After all, gathering such a huge haul of tickets seemingly required a hugely improbable blessing from the ticket gods, and then there were the logistical hurdles: the travel, lodging, time and stamina that would be required for such a feat.
And yet, the person we were looking for did exist after all. Just about. Enter our superfan Levi — such a superfan that just like the band, she’s chosen to appear in this story under a pseudonym — who managed to score tickets to a staggering 16 shows on the band’s 21-date run. In fact, numerous respondents got in touch who were planning on attending multiple dates of the band’s Teeth of God tour. Looking at the astounding trajectory Sleep Token have traced over the last year and a half, maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise.
In that time, what started as a devout cult following has blossomed into a voracious, adoring community across the world — one that picks apart the dense web of lore spun through Sleep Token’s songs and imagery and exchanges theories about the story they’re trying to tell.
Every time Sleep Token perform one of their shows — better known as Rituals — diehards fawn over clips on social media for days, every grain of footage like a precious artifact. They imagine what personalities might be hidden beneath those masks. When drummer II gave an interview about the influences on his playing, fans latched onto everything from the cadence of his speech to his laugh to the way he expressively moved his hands as he spoke. They’re also fiercely loyal. Any attempt to uncover the identities of the anonymous band is met with derision, seen as a mark of disrespect towards four musicians who conceal their everyday identities as part of their art.
Sleep Token have garnered a sterling reputation for their theatrical shows, the production value of which has soared as the band has ascended. Their light shows are flashier, spoken-word interludes are played between songs (the closest Sleep Token have ever come to between-song chat as frontman Vessel will not utter a word) and they now have masked backup singers, who fans lovingly referred to as the Vesselettes before their identities were revealed as the vocal trio Espera.
Is it any wonder, then, that there’d be such a demand to see Sleep Token live when they’ve inspired such devotion? In their home country of the U.K., they’ve got their first full arena tour booked for the end of the year and it sold out quicker than you can say “Chokehold” — and their U.S. leg has already seen them take steps into arenas, some big enough to hold 10,000 devotees.
How many of said devotees would go to the same lengths as Levi? She’s setting off from her home in the South for three weeks on what is essentially a tour of her own alongside Sleep Token. She was one of an influx of fans who discovered the group through their viral smash “The Summoning,” from 2023 breakout Take Me Back to Eden, while idly scrolling through Reddit one day — but it was only when she revisited the song a few months on from that initial discovery that the touchpaper was properly lit. She saw her first Ritual in New York in September 2023 and immediately caught the bug.
“Even watching it from the back of the room, from between heads, something about it was so attention-grabbing that I was like, ‘You know what, I have to do this again, but next time I want to be able to see!’” she says. “So I did it again… and again… and again.” She even made a whirlwind 24-hour trip to London in December to watch Sleep Token headline the iconic 12,000-capacity Wembley Arena.
The decision to follow the band on tour was made almost unconsciously. Initially, Levi and her friend Cass, who she met in line at another Sleep Token show, and their other friend Crystal, set out to get tickets for some of the larger gigs in iconic venues such as Red Rocks and Radio City Music Hall. But then the plan to go to those two shows ended up turning into something bigger. “Somehow, it just grew from there, where we were just like, ‘Let’s see how many tickets we can get,’” says Levi. “And here we are — I honestly can’t remember how we got here.” They bought tickets in dribs and drabs, some through the presales, some through general sale, and some through resales over a period of several months. “It’s called refresh hell,” she quips. “We’d sit there for the last four months, just refreshing the ticket pages to see if any came up.”
For one reason or another, Levi observes that luck’s generally been on her side when it comes to ticketing challenges — and she tried to spread the luck around by helping others get tickets themselves. “Honestly, it was a coordinated effort as a community, just watching those pages over the last four months, seeing if something pops up, messaging those people and being like, ‘Hey, there’s a ticket available, can you see it?’” Indeed, it’s true to the spirit of the fandom that has sprung up around Sleep Token, and, in Levi’s mind, it’s the kindness fans show each other that makes their community unique.
“People have worked relentlessly to make sure that everybody gets a ticket for the shows they want,” she explains. “People in line at shows will sit there and be like, ‘I have water,’ or, ‘Go and use the restroom or get something to eat. I’ll hold your spot.’ It feels like a community rather than a space where everyone’s out for themselves. There’s an openness to welcoming new fans and welcoming this new popularity.”
Levi will be clocking over 50 hours in the car, eating up thousands of miles on the road, with she and Cass taking turns to drive and rest between shows. They’ll also be stopping at various hotels to shower and sleep in actual beds. “It doesn’t feel real yet,” she says. “There’s a little bit of anxiety; we don’t know what it’s gonna be like. Thankfully, the painful back-to-back shows are in the beginning, so that’s where the real exhaustion will be and then things start to space out a little from there.”
“This is one of the silliest things I’ve ever done,” she adds. “But also, I’m excited.”
THE SOUTHERN SHOWS
Tampa, Florida (5/6); Atlanta, Georgia (5/7); Asheville, North Carolina (5/8)
Levi and Cass dial in from their hotel room, having ticked off stops in Tampa, Atlanta and Asheville. Aside from driving through the night and taking turns to nap, their first, and greatest, challenge so far came in the form of the scorching Southern sun. Waiting in line in Tampa was especially punishing for Levi. “It was brutally hot. I was born and raised in the South, and I still could not do it,” she says. “At one point, I was losing my mind, and I was like, ‘Frankly, I need to get inside or I’m not going to make it through.’” Cass fared better. “I’m no stranger to the sun,” she remarks, noting that she’s used to working outside for her job.
While the Tampa venue was thankfully air-conditioned, the Atlanta date was practically a sauna — so much so that the paint was melting off Vessel’s body. “I like my cryptids as cryptids,” Cass says, jokingly. “I don’t want to know that there’s a person under there!” Eventually, security had to open water bottles and douse the crowd to cool them down. “I was fighting for my life towards the end!” Levi adds.
In what was lovingly dubbed “Sleep Token’s Eras Tour” by fans, the band arranged their setlist in chronological order, playing songs from their 2019 debut album, Sundowning, before moving onto 2021’s This Place Will Become Your Tomb and their recent Take Me Back to Eden. The set was bookended by “The Night Does Not Belong to God” and, for the first time in a live setting, “Euclid” — creating a beautiful full-circle moment as the final verse of the latter echoed lines that the crowd would have heard at the top of the show. Incidentally, Levi had previously never cried at a Ritual, but during the Tampa show that changed. “I don’t know if it was just being outside in the sun all day, and being really exhausted, but the last part of ‘Take Me Back to Eden’ hit me really hard. Then for ‘Euclid,’ I was sobbing.”
Between each album, an audio clip was played. The three interludes revolved around the theme of death — more specifically on the idea of death not representing finality, but another part of life — with a different voice speaking each time. They question how consciousness works, how much of the human experience we still don’t understand, what a soul is — and whether death really represents an ending or if something more lies beyond our consciousness. When it comes to Sleep Token, what comes next remains just as much of a mystery. As any true fan would know, Levi and Cass are aware that the band never do anything by accident, particularly not after II, III and IV unveiled brand new, much more individualized masks at Wembley Arena. “It really does sound like they’re laying the foundation for a new era,” Levi remarks.
RED ROCKS
St. Louis, Missouri (5/10); Morrison, Colorado (5/12); Des Moines, Iowa (5/14); Chicago, Illinois (5/15, 5/16)
Levi has some news when she greets Revolver from the line at the Chicago Ritual. Her tour is turning international after she bought tickets for Sleep Token’s remaining dates in Montreal and Toronto, which means she’ll be seeing the tour through to its conclusion. “It’s crazy,” she acknowledges. “But I’m ready for it.”
Perhaps the impromptu itinerary change was spurred on by a run of shows — St. Louis, Des Moines and, in particular, a landmark show at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre outside of Denver — that Levi describes as her favorites so far. “Red Rocks, in and of itself, was astounding and very much a pinnacle moment,” she says. Truly, the majestic mountainside, 10,000 capacity amphitheater might be one of the most unique and beautiful settings Sleep Token could play in. “They had the backdrop of the natural rock formations … and it was just stunning. It really elevated the show. It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment for everyone who was there.”
Sleep Token are already adept at creating genuine moments when they perform live, and there’s plenty that can put a lump in your throat — especially since Vessel has often been known to put himself in such a vulnerable emotional state that he cries during Rituals. Yet as they’ve evolved, they’ve also become more humorous. The fanbase has learned that if you throw one of the members a hat, they will wear it. The night after Red Rocks, in Des Moines, Vessel put a pair of cat ears on III during the solo in “The Summoning,” as if he was needing to entertain himself, while IV wore a gold birthday crown. Curiously, as they’ve grown, Sleep Token have become more expressive. Perhaps it’s another way of letting the fans get a little closer.
SONIC TEMPLE
Columbus, Ohio (5/18); Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (5/19), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (5/20)
Levi is in her thirties now and swore her days of waiting on the barrier for bands were over. For Sleep Token’s appearance at Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival in Columbus, she went back on her word — remaining grafted to one spot in front of the barrier the whole day, taking turns with others around her to hold their spot while they went for refreshments or to the restroom. It even meant she, Cass and their friend Crystal — who joined them for her first-ever Ritual — got to watch their set being built.
“There had to have been at least 10,000 people,” Levi offers while in line at another Ritual in Pittsburgh. “The sides were packed, and it was spilling back all the way towards the entrance.” They even think they spotted Lacuna Coil frontwoman and known Sleep Token fan Cristina Scabbia watching from the side of the stage.
In a tour already stuffed full of milestones, Sleep Token’s planting of the flag at Sonic Temple was yet another tremendous achievement. They headlined the stage they were playing, even above former tourmates In This Moment, who they opened for last year. Tearing through a truncated version of their tour setlist, they were determined to make a mark until they were required to stop before playing “Rain,” coming offstage for around five minutes before resuming. “There was a lot of crowd surfers and not enough EMS workers,” Levi observes.
Ten shows in, Levi’s hitting a wall. “I’m really glad that tomorrow I have a seat, so I don’t have to queue early to try and get to the barrier,” she remarks. Cass, meanwhile, is growing accustomed to running on fumes: “I’m coming to realize I’m functional on way less sleep than I thought! I think I had maybe three hours last night.” With longer left till they finish than they planned, they might need all the energy they can get…
RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL
New York, New York (5/22)
Following Sleep Token’s Rituals in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Radio City Music Hall was a homecoming, in a way, for Levi. Though she’s from the South, Levi experienced her first Ritual in New York at Webster Hall, just two-and-a-half miles away from the prestigious hall Sleep Token are filling on this run less than a year later. As tremendous as that is, it’s also completely within their nature — ever since “The Summoning” dropped, Sleep Token have been hurdling over the usual list of achievements faster than most bands of their ilk.
“I’m just incredibly proud of them,” Levi gushes about their Radio City debut. “They’ve made these strides so quickly. They work so hard at what they do, and they have a phenomenal crew behind them. They deserve it in every aspect.”
Radio City Music Hall is a fully seated venue. Though a spectacle like Sleep Token’s would still be interesting to witness while comfortably resting in theater seating — the fans couldn’t stay still for long. Instead, the show took on the atmosphere of a more standard Ritual, even if there wasn’t quite enough space to mosh in the aisles. This fandom worships on their feet.
CANADA AND THE END
Boston, Massachusetts (5/24); Montreal, Quebec (5/25); Toronto, Ontario (5/27, 5/28)
Every so often, Levi advises the fans around her that it’s OK to step back. When it comes to seeing Sleep Token, there’s never a bad spot in the house. The day after attending the last U.S. show in Boston, she watched Sleep Token’s first-ever Canadian Ritual from the back of the room — so she could take in the full Technicolor brilliance of their elaborate lighting setup.
“Taking in the show from the back is a very different experience,” she acknowledges. “It’s worth it. It was definitely worth not having to queue for hours.”
The Canadian shows of the tour might have been “phenomenal,” as Levi puts it, but she had to fight to be there for the final moments. “I actually got super sick,” she says. “I’ve been unable to keep anything down, even water.” Speaking to Revolver the day before she flies back home, she reveals that there was a chance she wouldn’t make the last show — but, she says, “I’m really stubborn.” It’s a trait that’s seemingly served her well while she’s been on the road. “I was not going to miss that show.”
Now at the end of this unique experience, Levi credits the company she kept — new friends made at the shows, online friends she’d met in person for the first time and her travel companions — with spurring her on to reach the end of the journey. “This is one of the dumbest things I’ve done, bar none,” she says. “But I got to do it with my friends, and it was worth it. I wouldn’t have wanted to share this with anybody else. They made every show worth it.”
Levi Tate, Cass Mehoff and Crystal Waters have had an adventure of a lifetime. Now, just like Sleep Token themselves, they rest.