Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Pierce the Veil’ Category

Pierce the Veil (Santander Arena, Reading, PA, November 25, 2023)

Posted in Dayseeker, Destroy Boys, L.S. Dunes, Pierce the Veil, Reading PA, Santander Arena on November 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 25, 2023] Pierce the Veil

My son and I saw Pierce the Veil this summer in Asbury Par–on a storm-filled evening in which the opening band was dropped entirely and every other band did a shortened set (PtV played 7 songs).

This tour was, technically, I think, part of that tour–all for the new album.  But instead of it being a double-headline bill, PtV was the main headliner.

They played like it.

And the crowd responded in kind.

I’ve been to a lot of shows where the audience is 100% into the band, but after my two PtV shows, I’d have to say their audiences have to be the most intense.  Everyone knows every word to every song.  The people behind me even brought their small children with them.

For this show they played more than twice as many songs as when we saw them last time–although they did not play “Bulls in the Bronx” a song that I love.  But that’s fine.

While this tour is for the new album (they played six songs from it), they did not shy away from older songs at all.

The set was mostly loud rockers.  Starting with the opener “Death of an Executioner.”  They followed it with a song from their debut album–with angry vocals, the kind of which they don’t really use anymore.

I don’t actually know a lot of their songs all that well, but I really enjoyed “Circles”–these guys know their way around a chorus. (more…)

Read Full Post »

L.S. Dunes (Santander Arena, Reading, PA, November 25, 2023) [PIERCE THE VEIL]

Posted in Coheed & Cambria, Dayseeker, Destroy Boys, L.S. Dunes, My Chemical Romance, Pierce the Veil, Thursday on November 28, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 25, 2023] L.S. Dunes

L.S. Dunes is like an emo supergroup.  The five guys in the band are each from at least one other well-known band.

Frank Iero (guitar) is from My Chemical Romance.  Travis Stever (guitar) is from Coheed & Cambria.  Tim Payne (bass) and Tucker Rule (drums) are from Thursday and singer Anthony Green is from Circa: Survive and a bunch of other bands.  Circa Survive is the only band I didn’t know, so I had a sense of what they sounded like–but not their vocalist.  Actually, I heard him sing a song with Thursday when we saw them open for MCR, but I don’t remember it.

This band started during the pandemic, with the various guys sending tapes back and forth to each other.  They’re all from roughly the east coast, (NJ, NY, PA) which is kind of cool for those of us on the east coast.

When the band came out they sounded so much bigger than Dayseeker.  I don’t know if it’s because the opening bands played via a less sophisticated sound system or what, but L.S. Dunes’ music filled  the arena in a way that Dayseeker didn’t.

The music was interesting and complex.  And singer Green hit high notes and growled alternately.

When I was at the merch table, the guy selling L.S. Dunes merch said sometimes the best first exposure to a band is live.  I agree with that sentiment although I think this particular first exposure wasn’t ideal because we were so far away and the lights weren’t great and, despite me saying how full the sound was, it still sounded a little rough (too loud maybe?)

Regardless, I really enjoyed the set and look forward to seeing them again in a smaller venue where I can really appreciate what they’re doing.

  1. Permanent Rebellion ♠
  2. Bombsquad ♠
  3. Like Forever ♠
  4. Grey Veins ♠
  5. Benadryl Subreddit ∇
  6. It Takes Time ♠
  7. Grifter ♠
  8. Past Lives ♠
  9. 2022 ♠
  10. Old Wounds ∇

∇ single (2023)
♠ Past Lives (2022)

Read Full Post »

Dayseeker (Santander Arena, Reading, PA, November 25, 2023) [PIERCE THE VEIL]

Posted in Dayseeker, Destroy Boys, L.S. Dunes, Pierce the Veil, Reading PA, Santander Arena on November 27, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 25, 2023] Dayseeker

Dayseeker was the only band on this bill that I had never heard of.  I was rather surprised to find that they’d been around for almost ten years.

I’m always interested in finding out about new (to me) bands, and there were lots of people with Dayseeker T-shirts on in the crowd, but I really just couldn’t get into them.

They weren’t bad, they were just sort of generic emo.  I wanted to see if I was alone in thinking this, and I found this review from SputnikMusic which loved Rory Rodriguez’ voice, but found the album to be less challenging than their previous one:

Erase his voice from any track, and it instantly becomes mediocre at best, with toned down musicianship, unnecessary breakdowns, and borderline lazy guitar and drum work. To dismiss the record for those shortcomings though, while not entirely unjustified, would be a bit short-sighted.

So, I guess that’s what I was hearing.  And, because the sound at the Santander Arena isn’t great, I wasn’t that impressed by his voice either.

And again, none of it was bad, it was just sort of there.  I tapped my foot to some songs, kind of got into some others, but as I write this just a few days later, I can’t remember a thing about them.

Except that after every song, Rodriguez said “If you know our band, then you know…”  It was a pretty weird was to introduce every song.   He also pretty clearly lays his heart on his sleeve, talking about his father’s battle with cancer and about how the band almost gave up seven years ago (that was when I realized how long these guys had been around).

Their set was almost as short as Destroy Boys, though so all was good.

  1. Dreamstate ♣
  2. Burial Plot ¥
  3. Homesick ♣
  4. Without Me ♣
  5. Crying While You’re Dancing ♣
  6. Sleeptalk ¥
  7. Neon Grave ♣

¥ Sleeptalk (2019)
♣ Dark Sun (2022)

  • Rory Rodriguez – vocals
  • Gino Sgambelluri – guitar
  • Mike Karle – drums
  • Ramone Valerio – bass

Read Full Post »

Destroy Boys (Santander Arena, Reading, PA, November 25, 2023) [PIERCE THE VEIL]

Posted in Dayseeker, Destroy Boys, L.S. Dunes, Pierce the Veil, Reading PA, Santander Arena on November 26, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 25, 2023] Destroy Boys

My son was listening to Destroy Boys a few months ago and I really dug their sound.  I imagined they’d be really fun to see live, so I made a note to see when they came near us.

Then it turned out that they were opening this show for Pierce the Veil.

I’d rather have seen them in a small venue, but seeing them at all is better than not seeing them.

Since we knew how long it took us to get to Reading after going on Wednesday, we planned our timing and had enough time to get some dinner (at a Bojangles!).  We still cut it a little closer than I liked but after we parked and scampered to the arena, we had a comfortable amount of time to find our seats before the lights dimmed and the band came out.

To virtual invisibility.

For some godawful reason, the venue decided to bathe the band in purple, which rendered them almost entirely invisible from where we were seated.   It stayed that way for a couple of songs and then they switched to a friendlier white/yellow schema so you could actually see how many people were on stage.  Although I feel like there were five sometimes, I only see 4 band members listed: Alexia Roditis vocals / guitar ; Violet Mayugba guitar ; Narsai Malik – drums ; David Orozco – bass.  But I’m also pretty sure there was some instrument switching going on.

The sound was also a little rough (arena shows, amiright?) but the band’s energy was undeniable.

When we finally could see them, they were jumping around stage and generally kicking butt.  (more…)

Read Full Post »

Pierce the Veil / The Used / Don Broco / Girlfriends (Wind Creek Event Center, Bethlehem, PA, June 15, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Don Broco, Girlfriends, New York City, Pierce the Veil, The Rooftop at PIer 17, The Used on June 15, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: June 15, 2023] Pierce the Veil / The Used / Don Broco / Death By Romy

My son has been into Pierce the Veil for a while.  When they announced a show last year we were going to go, but they weren’t the headliners, and it seemed like a lot for just 45 minutes of music.

So here they were, possibly headlining (certainly co-headlining) this Creative Control tour with The Used.

There were literally FIVE shows that we could have gotten to for this tour.

This was the fifth and final show in this local run.  I actually thought we might like to go to this show most of all because it was kind of close.  But it was his graduation night!

The first and fourth shows were at the Rooftop at Pier 17, a venue I love but hate to get to.

The second one was at the Skyline Stage at the Mann Center.  Not a great venue to drag to on a Friday night (we would’ve certainly missed at least one band).  But I already had tickets to see Pixies.  I would have given those up for this show, but was happy I didn’t have to.

The third show was at the Stone Pony and that’s what we got tickets for. (more…)

Read Full Post »

The Used (The Stone Pony Summer Stage, Asbury Park, NJ, June 12, 2023)

Posted in Asbury Park, NJ, Don Broco, Girlfriends, Pierce the Veil, The Stone Pony, The Stone Pony Summer Stage, The Used on June 15, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 12, 2023] The Used

I didn’t know The Used at all.  Which is crazy since they’ve been around for 20+ years.

My son told me that he was excited to see them as well–there were a few of their songs that he really liked (and he bought a shirt).

Pierce the Veil went off the stage around 7:45 and The Used came on around 8:15.  It seemed like a lot of the (younger, female) crowd left after PTV, but the crowd for The Used was loud and intense as well.

Their stage setup was adorned with flowers–including “picture frames” of flowers that surrounded their amps and drum set.

They came out on stage and lead guitarist Joey Bradford (who joined in 2018) was wearing a butcher’s apron.  Bassist Jeph Howard (who has been with the band since the beginning) seemed to be wearing a pith helmet (or a bucket hat).  I enjoyed his look which to me was quite nerdy and then he would scream some really growly vocals.   Drummer Dan Whitesides (been with the band since 2006) played loud and furious.  (more…)

Read Full Post »

Pierce the Veil (The Stone Pony Summer Stage, Asbury Park, NJ, June 12, 2023) [THE USED]

Posted in Asbury Park, NJ, Don Broco, Girlfriends, Pierce the Veil, The Stone Pony, The Stone Pony Summer Stage, The Used on June 14, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[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. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Don Broco /Girlfriends (The Stone Pony Summer Stage, Asbury Park, NJ, June 12, 2023) [PIERCE THE VEIL/THE USED] [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Asbury Park, NJ, Don Broco, Girlfriends, Pierce the Veil, The Stone Pony, The Stone Pony Summer Stage, The Used on June 13, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: June 12, 2023] Don Broco

Tonight’s show started at 5PM.  FIVE.

PLUS, there was a massive thunder and lightning storm heading into Asbury Park at right around 9PM.

Without any updates on social media, the schedule had changed.

We walked into the grounds around 6:45.  I felt like the timing of he show (that Girlfriends would go on at 5), seemed not right mathematically.

I knew that The Used and Pierce the Veil were each getting an hour.  Don Broco couldn’t be getting more than 40 minutes and Girlfriends would get 30 minutes max.

So this seemed likely:
5-5:30 Girlfriends
6-6:45 Don Broco
7:15-8:15 The Used
8:30-9:30 Pierce the Veil

I thought maybe we’d catch some of Don Broco after our chimichangas.

But when we walked in I asked a woman in a Don Broco shirt if they had played yet and she said yes.  The whole show had been shifted because of the potential storm.  No Girlfriends.  Don Broco went on earlier (but really, how much earlier?  5:30, maybe?)

At any rate, we missed the first two bands.  I would have liked to have seen a little of Don Broco as I’ve heard their live show is full of tremendous energy.

Maybe someday.

 

Read Full Post »

Pierce the Veil / The Used / Don Broco / Girlfriends (The Rooftop at Pier 17, New York, NY, June 13, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Don Broco, Girlfriends, New York City, Pierce the Veil, The Rooftop at PIer 17, The Used on June 13, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: June 13, 2023] Pierce the Veil / The Used / Don Broco / Death By Romy

My son has been into Pierce the Veil for a while.  When they announced a show last year we were going to go, but they weren’t the headliners, and it seemed like a lot for just 45 minutes of music.

So here they were, possibly headlining (certainly co-headlining) this Creative Control tour with The Used.

There were literally FIVE shows that we could have gotten to for this tour.

Now that we’ve seen the show, I can with certainty say that I’m glad we didn’t go to this show at the Rooftop.  Even though I do think it was cool that they had these two shows over a week apart in the same venue.  That’s a neat twist on the many days in a row at the same place deal

Tonight’s was the fourth show in this run..  And the least likely for us to attend.  A Tuesday night show on the Rooftop at Pier 17–did that for Pup, don’t want to do it again.

The second one was at the Skyline Stage at the Mann Center.  Not a great venue to drag to on a Friday night (we would’ve certainly missed at least one band).  But I already had tickets to see Pixies.  I would have given those up for this show, but was happy I didn’t have to.

The third show was at the Stone Pony and that’s what we got tickets for. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Girlfriends (The Stone Pony Summer Stage, Asbury Park, NJ, June 12, 2023) [PIERCE THE VEIL/THE USED] [DID NOT PLAY]

Posted in Asbury Park, NJ, Don Broco, Girlfriends, Pierce the Veil, The Stone Pony, The Stone Pony Summer Stage, The Used on June 12, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT PLAY: June 12, 2023] Girlfriends

Tonight’s show started at 5PM.  FIVE.

PLUS, there was a massive thunder and lightning storm heading into Asbury Park at right around 9PM.

Without any updates on social media, the schedule had changed.

Girlfriends would not be playing this evening (although apparently they were there and were selling merch).

I’m glad that we stopped off at Oaxaca By the Sea for delicious chimichangas before going to the show.

So I’ll never be able to know what Girlfriends sound like live–although I still like their recorded songs.

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »