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As Christmas fast approaches and frost begins to cover the ground, an early Xmas present of a Pierce The Veil UK tour more than warms us up. The band (comprised of vocalist/guitarist Vic Fuentes, bassist Jaime Preciado, guitarist Tony Perry and new/touring drummer Loniel Robinson) tell us during their performance that they’d been waiting for this Birmingham show, the biggest night of the tour, but we can guarantee that we’d been looking forward to it even more. The last time we caught Pierce The Veil in Birmingham was in 2016, so anticipation for their return visit was high.
With a new album, ‘The Jaws Of Life’, promised for February 2023, and a couple of singles having been released in the past four months – ‘Pass The Nirvana’ and ‘Emergency Contact’ - the band kick things off with 2012’s ‘May These Noises Startle You In Your Sleep Tonight’ and ‘Hell Above’ from ‘Collide With The Sky’, before ‘Pass The Nirvana’ is showcased live. A shower of confetti rains down on the audience, while an epic light show adds to the performance. Bassist Jaime Preciado, in particular, commands attention. While Vic sings standing behind his mic stand centre stage, Jaime makes a conscious attempt to cover every other inch of the stage, standing up on his riser, jumping off, flinging his bass around, carrying it over his head and pointing it down towards the crowd. At one point, he even puts his bass on the floor and pushes it so it slides across the stage to the other side, before running after it and picking it up again. Guitarist Tony Perry is similarly worth watching, riffing along while throwing his head forward with one foot on the riser, walking backwards and forwards, and jumping off his riser when we least expect it. ‘Pass The Nirvana’ has quite a different style to their back catalogue, with a somewhat grungy, anarchic, in-your-face, shouty, punk temperament. It’s quite dark, down-tuned and bassy, but addictive all the same.
Now and then, when Vic has the opportunity to leave his mic stand, he jumps onto the riser in front of it. Before ‘Emergency Contact’, he goes over to Jaime and says, “I think I can call you an emergency contact,” before explaining how, when you go to the doctor, you put down your emergency contact, and now his wife has become his emergency contact, adding that it’s “romantic, in the most fucked-up way”. The love song has an all-absorbing, mellow, grunge tone.
There’s a big cheer when the intro of the emo ‘Hold On Till May’ begins. Vic introduces the rest of the band during the song. ‘Caraphernelia’ goes out to the old school, original fans – the audience sings along to the fan favourite loudly. There are blasts of smoke at the front of the stage, which further add to the excitement of the show.
The show stops for a few seconds as there’s an incident in the crowd. Vic asks, “If someone falls down, what do you do?” “Pick them up,” is the crowd’s correct reply. Vic repeats the question a couple of times, to remind fans of what to do.
The show is wrapped up with ‘I’m Low On Gas And You Need A Jacket’, before an encore of ‘Stained Glass Eyes And Colorful Tears’, played acoustically by Vic on his own, and then ‘King For A Day’ wraps up the night in spectacular fashion. Jaime has a smile on his face for the whole show, maybe partly as the entertainer he is, but partly exuding the happiness of being back on stage after the pandemic, when the band weren’t sure if they’d ever play shows again. The crowd leaves the show with equally big smiles, happy to have just witnessed the triumphant return of these San Diego marvels.
Click HERE for 2016 Pierce The Veil Photos
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