I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: June 12, 2023] Pierce the Veil

After everything I’d seen, I was fairly certain that Pierce the Veil was the headlining act tonight.  They seem to have been the headliner on most of the shows of this tour.

So, when the recorded music stopped playing and the stage lights went on, I assumed we’d be getting The Used.  Then a recording of (what turned out to be) El Rey the Vicente Fernández song started playing.  I didn’t think The Used would be playing a Mexican song, but what do I know?

After a verse of so, out came Pierce the Veil and in came all of the other people who thought The Used were up next.  It was like a swarm around us.

By this time the rain was coming down in buckets, and I think everyone was super excited to jump around.

Pierce the Veil has their first new album out in seven years, so they were clearly going to focus on this album.  But when I looked up the setlists, I saw that they were only playing for an hour–ten songs in total, so it couldn’t be all new songs.

They opened with a new song, “Death of an Executioner” which got everyone rocking out immediately.  It was very cathartic.  Then they followed it with a massive crowd pleaser.

“Bulls in the Bronx” is one of the first songs I’d heard by them and I loved everything about it.  The vocals, the catchy chorus, the intensity of the loud parts and, best of all, the lovely Spanish/acoustic guitar part in the middle.  Which they did play live (although not quite as acoustically as it could have been.  But it still sounded great.

Pass the Nirvana plays really nicely with the loud/quiet sounds and the repeated intense screams of “I Can’t Hear You” is a fun part of the song.  And the crowd absolutely loved screaming that super loudly.

Vic Fuentes asked if anyone had brought their emergency contact with them during weather like this–a nice intro their song “Emergency Contact.”  It was at this point that I realized that the woman who had just moved in behind me was screaming every word very loudly.  Pretty much right in my ear.

This only increased when they started “Hold on Til May” their ballad.  This woman and her friend screamed the words so loudly that I literally couldn’t even hear the band over them–no mean feat.

When the song was over, I told her that since she was a much bigger fan than me, she should go in front of me.  So she could scream in someone else’s ear instead.  And we were both happy.

After this song, Vic thanked the other bands and apologized for Girlfriends getting bumped.  He said he was happy that the show got to go on at all.  And he gave a big shoutout to The Used before playing the only song they played us from Selfish Machines.  This song has some serious scream/growly vocals on it, which they have more or less eschewed on the new album.

I think that if I had been a big fan before, I wouldn’t like this album as much because it is certainly poppier and a bit softer.  But as it is I rather like the dynamics in it.  Of course, live, these songs rocked just as hard as the others.

Then Vic told us that because of the threat of severe weather (earlier in the night, thunder and lightning was heading towards Asbury Park around 9 PM).  There was much sadness and grousing, but Vic said that 40 minutes was better than nothing, right?  And that’s true.

They ended with my favorite (and I guess everyone’s favorite song) a ripping “King for Day.”

The band sounded amazing–the guitars and bass were loud and raw.  And even with all the rain, it didn’t effect anything.  Well, they did have some smoke cannons, which was fun, but one of them crapped out about 3/4 of the way through the show.

When the show was over, Tony Perry on lead guitar threw his orange guitar across the stage to his roadie–a serious throw from one side of the stage to the other.  Moments later Jaime Preciado on bass did the same thing with his instrument. Both were safely caught.  And then drummer Lionel Robinson (who was as intense as anything) came up and threw his sticks out to the crowd.

I was really impressed by the show, but I genuinely can’t believe they wouldn’t want to play a longer set (not because of the rain, but in general) after so much time away.

If they come back, I have to assume it will be as a headliner and not a co-headliner as their fan base is rabid and they could easily sell out a headline tour.

It’s fun to think that they’ll remember their shortened show in Asbury Park and give us even more music next time, but that’s wishful thinking, right.

SETLIST (crossed out songs are the ones they had been playing but skipped because of weather).

1. El Rey [Vicente Fernández song] (recording)