Pierce The Veil, The Academy, Dublin
- Written by Marky Edison
It's a Monday night and The Academy is as packed as it would usually be on a Saturday for California’s Pierce The Veil. The few seats in the venue are occupied by chaperoning parents accompanying groups of underage kids, and surrounded by mounds of coats and bags. It's heartening to see so many alternative kids in town. There are few enough opportunities for them to let their immaculately coiffured hair down.
Screams and squeals greet letlive as they tune up. It’s the fourth visit to Dublin for the Los Angeles based post-hardcore group. Tupac Shakur’s ‘Can't C Me’ plays them on and they waste no time before breaking into ‘Renegade ’86’. Front man Jason Butler gets down into the crowd to collect some tinsel and wish everyone a Merry Christmas. He tosses the mic from mouth to hand, screaming with all his might. The crowd are quickly won over and the first pit of the night opens up during the second song, ‘That Fear Fever’.
The Angelinos namecheck Nirvana and Rage Against The Machine before ‘A Weak Ago’ and the audience respond by relentlessly jumping in time with this cracker of a tune that nods to both their forebears. Butler reckons it feels like a house party. ‘Foreign Cab Rides’ is a mellower, more emotional tune and we take a breather before Butler climbs right into the crowd during ‘The Dope Beat’; the mic lead stretched taut over everyone’s heads as he mounts the sound desk, without missing a note.
He takes a minute to curse Donald Trump and strap on a guitar before launching into ‘Reluctantly Dead’. It's always good to see a band make an effort, and the sweat pumping from him is a testament to the work he puts in. By the end of the set the screaming adulation of the audience is nearly a match for the sound of the band. They've made quite the impression.
A mass singalong breaks out as All Time Low’s ‘Dear Maria, Count Me In’ plays between acts. When PTV arrive, they are greeted like a boyband. Vic Muentes is inaudible during ‘Dive In’ against the fans singing along. The confetti cannons go off at the first chorus. ‘Floral & Fading’ kicks off without a pause and the energy in the room ramps up. The confetti cannons get another workout. Muentes needn’t bother singing as the crowd are now louder than the whole band. He plucks the tinsel from an outstretched hand and wears it round his neck. Every movement is greeted by a scream from the adoring fans.
‘The Divine Zero’ doesn’t inspire the singalong that some of the other songs have but it's a cracking tune nonetheless and the action in front of the stage reflects it. Muentes pulls a young woman out of the audience to theatrically serenade her with the opening verse of ‘Bulletproof Love’. It’s a corny stunt but in the context it works and the bubbling pit salutes the band.
It’s the first of a two night sold-out run and you would well believe that they could sell out a third. It’s only the second time Pierce The Veil have been to Ireland but the reception they are getting suggests they’ll be back. The band briefly depart the stage while a warped version of ‘Pure Imagination’ plays. Streamers greet their return with the excellent ‘Hell Above’. PTV take emo and post hardcore and make something uplifting and viscerally stirring. Jason Butler from letlive returns and joins Muentes for ‘Tangled In The Great Escape’, a song he sings on 2012’s Collide With The Sky album. Muentes’ vocal disappears again during ‘Hold On Til May’.
I wasn’t overly familiar with emo/post-hardcore before tonight. There’s no live scene for it here and the over-production on the records makes a lot of the bands sound homogenous, but seeing Pierce The Veil live is a different thing altogether. These guys really rock. When they leave the stage, the demand for an encore shakes the balcony. You can forgive them this indulgence when they get a reaction like that. ‘Circles’ and ‘King For A Day’ round out a kickass set from a band that deserve more credibility than they are afforded.