On Thursday, May 23rd, I Prevail took the stage at Ancienne Belgique for the second night in a row concluding their short EU run. After selling out the first show at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels, a second date was quickly added. The support on this tour was provided by Kid Bookie and Set It Off.
For Melomaniacs, the night started with Set It Off, after sadly missing Kid Bookie his set due to traffic. The American band knew exactly how to get the crowd warmed up and did exactly that in their 45-minute set. They started their set with ‘Parasite’ and already got everyone clapping along during ‘Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing’. With I Prevail having a huge LED screen as a backdrop this tour, Set It Off used it to showcase their visuals.
Playing the cover of a well-known song is always a great way to get the crowd engaged, and so they did by playing Linkin Park’s ‘Points of Authority’. The fact that this was the last day of the tour was mentioned quite a few times by singer Cody Carson, encouraging the crowd to go as hard as they can, since there won’t be another chance this year.
For the song ‘Win Win’, originally with Scene Queen, they wanted to see the biggest mosh pit the crowd could give. While a few of Scene Queen’s vocals were heard on the backing track, drummer Maxx Danziger also took on some of the vocals. Then for ‘Why Worry’ Cody jumped down the stage and stood on the barricade.
After announcing they are coming back with a headline tour in January 2025, Cody said: “Strap the fuck in, because I Prevail is up next. Enjoy the rest of your night!”, which got a loud cheer from the crowd.
At 9 pm the big LED screen turned on and a voice started talking, accompanied by beautiful visuals. After ending the whole story with “There’s fear in letting go”, I Prevail walked out and started their set with, you guessed it, ‘There’s Fear in Letting Go’. From the first notes the crowd went crazy, banging their heads and screaming along to the lyrics. The casual fan might not have noticed, but the band was one member down on this tour. Usually, two vocalists are running around the stage, but now it was just Eric Vanlerberghe. He explained that Brian Burkheiser had recently gotten surgery for Eagle Syndrome, and while he feels much better, he wasn’t ready to take on the stage yet. Instead of cancelling the tour, guitarist Dylan Bowman just took over more vocals.
One song you might know them from is when they covered Taylor Swift’s ‘Blank Space’ back in 2014. This cover has been off their setlists for the past few years, but they decided to bring it back for this tour. After the first half of the song, which was still mild for them, Eric spoke out “That… That part was for you. But this, this next part is for us.” before giving the song a full 180 and throwing in some heavy breakdowns. This was also the first tour for which they added ‘Visceral’ to the setlist, which made the crowd go wild.
Dylan put away his guitar for ‘Deep End’ and took on full frontman responsibilities, walking around the front of the stage together with Eric. To add to the more emotional moment, they put ‘Breaking Down’ right after on the setlist. Introduced by Eric: “Anyone out there who is dealing with mental health, suicidal thoughts, addiction, any of that. I want you to look around really quick. Look around, you are not alone! There’s someone out there who cares about you, who loves you. And I’ll tell you right now, within these four walls, this is a fucking family. We are here for one reason; We are here to forget about all of the bullshit that’s going on outside in the world. We are here to have fun and forget about that shit. Even if it’s just for an hour. And if you are struggling, I want you to know that there’s someone in here who cares about you and wants you to be here. Now with that being said, I just have to ask you: Will you sing this song with me?” At the end of the song, they made the whole crowd sing “I don’t really like myself” with them.
For the song ‘Judgement Day’ Eric likes to point out a fan in the crowd and crown them the pit leader. For this show someone with their arm in a cast got the title and started up a huge circle pit. After some more killer songs, they ended their set with ‘Gasoline’. It was one last time to go crazy and so the whole crowd did.
