After finally getting in to Rock City after waiting for half an hour; half a kilometer away from the venue in a predominantly pre-pubescent queue, I could tell 14 year old girl’s screams were gonna destroy my hearing tonight. So after getting my over priced coke and finding a spot at the back for the support band ‘ISSUES’ intro began. ISSUES are a 6 piece metalcore band from Atlanta, Georgia. The stage went dark as a very low bass frequency filled the room and shook everyone standing. The band came to the stage and exploded in a rage of glory as the crowd we’re singing back and cheering every time one of the lead singers asked for noise. As i hadn’t heard much of them before I didn’t quiteknow what to expect but I am definitely checking them out and listening to them now I’ve seen them live as the blend of an angelic clean vocalist and an angry screaming vocalist they have is absurdly good. Also despite being quite a heavy band they still have a lot of songs that you can sing a long (or shout a long) to.
Next up was the band I had been waiting for ‘Pierce the Veil’. Pierce the Veil are a 4-piece post-hardcore (or mexicore as I like to call them due to their mexican decent) from San Diego, California. I last saw this band at Slam Dunk Festival in 2013 before I was abruptly dragged away by my friend because we had to go home… Anyway the point is when I saw them there was many production faults, one of the main ones being the lead microphone didn’t work for the first 3 songs and no one had told the band so they just carried on. So I hoped this time would be a lot better. A white sheet with a silhouette of a woman on shrouded the stage before the lights went down. The sheet came down as they burst into ‘Hell Above’ which as heavy as that song is was hard to hear due to the onslaught of screaming girls. They played my favourite song by them second ‘Caraphernalia‘ which was incredible. The strobe lights and smoke blasted into the ceiling during the breakdown which made a great live experience. They showed incredible amounts of energy during the show especially the bassist ‘Jaime Precaido‘ who never seemed to stop moving and was definitely way more involved with the crowd than the rest of the band. They stopped and left the stage in silence for about 10 seconds in between most songs which I wasn’t a fan of as I believe you should never have dead air at a gig unless it’s for suspense, but they seemed to over do it quite a bit.
The show went on and the tore through songs such as ‘Bulls in the Bronx’ and ‘Hold On Till May’ until it was just Vic left on stage with an acoustic guitar. I was hoping for ‘Kissing in Cars’ but he did a beautiful acoustic version of ‘I’m Low On Gas and You Need A Jacket’ which ended with him laying on the floor and the crowd singing the female part of the song and him standing up and finishing with the final chorus. Their penultimate song was ‘Bulletproof Love’ which involved one of the best and worst ideas to do live. They got a young girl from the audience up on stage so Vic could sing the opening lyrics of the song to her. This is a bad idea as no one in the crowd was going to say no to this opportunity and it was lucky the young girl that was picked didn’t have a panic attack. However, It’s also great as she got to meet one of the heroes and was almost in tears as she was sat down in front of him and then took off stage when the song kicked in properly. They ended with King for a day which features ‘Sleeping with Sirens’ lead singer ‘Kellin Quinn’ who joined them onstage to perform his parts of the song. Overall Pierce the Veil were great and I would recommend seeing them any day if you’re a fan or just generally into post-hardcore. It was definitely a great show that I won’t forget and they will definitely only get bigger and better!
Thank you to @chloeleigh711 on instagram for the photo
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