By Jase Walker
Two weeks of gigs left in 2022, and my first this week is emo/metalcore pioneers that have been going so long they’re essentially part of the furniture at this point: Pierce The Veil. Along for the ride on this tour is Against The Current and Carolesdaughter, which means we’ve three meaty sets to get through at Manchester’s premier Academy venue, so let’s get stuck into an evening of riffs and screaming.
I get into the venue just as Carolesdaughter begins their set as there’s a gigantic queue to the venue and apparently loads of issues with tickets not scanning. There’s a huge queue for the merch as I walk into the venue floor area too: it stretches right from the back almost to the stage itself! With just the three on stage and what appears to be guitar running as a backing track, Carolesdaughter has a very particular sound to their voice that I’ve definitely heard the style of before, it’s high and sweet but almost like talking. Either way it’s a pretty solid slice of pop punk mixed with a bit of skater rock which is pretty ideal given the theme of bands on tonight. Admittedly it’s not often I hear the words “please put me in a medically induced coma” as a chorus but I can get on board with that feeling sometimes.
A lot of people here right at the start seem pretty engaged by the show and I’m tapping my foot along with it, Carolesdaughter is definitely enjoying being on stage. They’re doing a really brilliant job of getting themselves across to the audience and going off their response to the show, it’s clear they’ve taken a shine to Carolesdaughter too. Seeing this sort of response to an opening act is usually a pretty good indicator that the main sets are going to go a bit mental, especially if the punters are warmed up so soon!
With an exceptionally quick changeover by Academy 1 standards, Against The Current are up for their set and it’s becoming pretty clear from the audience screams that we’ve got a pretty huge representation of women in the audience, that’s awesome! The sound mixing of Against The Current is bloody superb too, the drums and bass are really punchy but the vocals and guitars shine brightly along with it, great stuff. By this point the venue is starting to look pretty bloody packed too, the small space I had near the sound desk is becoming increasingly rammed. The energy of the set that Against The Current are kicking out is massive right from the word ‘go’, seeing some bouncing heads and the like in front of me but I get the feeling this might be many people’s first encounter as it doesn’t seem there’s a lot of people shouting the words back.
I really can’t fault a single part of this performance though, it sounds great, their singer keeps the focus on herself dancing all over the stage and I’m really getting into the music too. We also get to shout happy “fuckin” birthday “you sexy son of a bitch” to their guitarist, Dan, as well which seems to have taken the band by surprise. I’m actually pretty surprised by how much I’m loving this set though, not that I expected them to be bad, it’s great being caught off guard by a band like this. We even got a cover of “Make Damn Sure” by Taking Back Sunday, a great song! Against The Current have put on a real immense show worth of a stage this size tonight, really impressed with them and I’ll be keeping an eye out for them in future (which won’t be long apparently!).
Finally tonight, Pierce The Veil. A sea of phones dart up to record the walk on to a distorted version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s ‘World of imagination’ with a deafening chorus of screams. They kick off and confetti blasts bloody everywhere and the crowd’s already gone berserk right from the start! One of the new songs weirdly sounds like it strays a lot closer to Hardcore in a similar style to Turnstile which shakes up the formula a bit, this also sees a huge surge of people into the center with people marching past me towards the front. The fans here to see these tonight are incredible, every song, one after the other gets a sea of swaying and bouncing arms from front to back and they’re singing the words so loud it’s often drowning the vocalist out!
The guys in Pierce The Veil have zero qualms about flinging their guitars around while playing so they’ve got some pretty strong trust in their guitar straps! All goes into what’s a pretty damn strong stage performance though, and with some of the older stuff they’re playing, you can really hear the sort of songwriting and sound that helped spur on Metalcore as a genre. If there’s one thing that’s been consistently happening throughout the show that’s actually been a pretty big frustration is the group directly in front of me has spent almost the entire show with their phones up recording it which obscures my view a lot but I don’t really have the option to move now.
In genuinely in awe of the level of dedication their fans here have, every song beginning is met with an unbelievably loud scream, every single word is clearly heard from the audience for nearly every song they’ve played. That sort of audience feedback is not as common as you would think, not to the point of every single word being sung back as loud as this. What a fantastic show, I can see why they’ve endured for so long and built such a dedicated fanbase along the way and play shows this size that sell out as well.
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