At the end of March, San Diego-based punk rock band Pierce the Veil travelled across the world to start the European leg of their ‘The Jaws of Life’ tour. They started this leg of the tour on the 30th of March in 013, Tilburg. The band brought two support acts along with them, namely the Welsh band Holding Absence and the American Dayseeker.
Doors to the venue opened at 18:30. The queue was immensely long, so the hall filled up quickly and was packed by the time Holding Absence came to the stage an hour later. The band clearly had some hardcore fans in the crowd, who sang along right from the start. The four piece, consisting of singer Lucas Woodland, guitarist Scott Carey, bassist Benjamin Elliott and drummer Ashley Green, opened their set with ‘Like a Shadow’ from their self-titled debut album. Even those unfamiliar with Holding Absence immediately clapped along to the beat and jumped when Woodland shouted at them to do so. Woodland himself was energetic as well, jumping and dancing around throughout the whole set. “We’re here for a fun time, not a long time” he shouted, enticing the crowd to open up the pit before the second song on their setlist, ‘Gravity.” After this, the band performed three songs from their latest album, The Noble Art of Self Destruction, including “the dancy one,” as Woodland himself stated, called ‘Her Wings.’ During the slower bridge of the song, Woodland made use of the mic stand to center himself and lower the tempo for a second. Finally, the band ended their set with their best-known track, ‘Afterlife,’ with Woodland motioning to split the crowd one final time. “Tilburg, you guys, you know what to do!” he yelled before jumping right into the song. The energy of the band was intoxicating and led to the entire room moshing, jumping and clapping along to all six of the songs on the setlist – a great opener to this night.
Around fifteen minutes after Holding Absence ended, Dayseeker came to the stage – five minutes earlier than originally scheduled. All band members, except drummer Zac Mayfield, were in suits, looking very slick while performing their ten-song long setlist. Singer Rory Rodriguez and bassist Ramone Valerio took off their jackets eventually, as the energy was through the roof and the room heated up steadily. Like Holding Absence, Dayseeker, too, had their group of fans in the crowd. Rodriguez was clearly appreciative of those singing along, noticing them right at the front. The band opened with ‘Gates of Ivory,’ from their 2019 album Sleeptalk, and continued with ‘Dreamstate’ and ‘Crooked Soul,’ during which Rodriguez yelled for Tilburg to “wake the fuck up!”. The fourth song on their setlist was ‘Burial Plot,’ a haunting track during which the crowd held up their phone lights to show support to the band. They released this song on their album Dark Sun at the end of 2022, and followed it up with a run of other songs from this album, including ‘Homesick’ – a track about a friend who is always there for you, even at the lowest points in life – and the catchy ‘Crying While You’re Dancing,’ with the crowd clapping along to the beat.
For the next song, band members Valerio, Mayfield and Sgambelluri left the stage to give the spotlight to Rodriguez. He introduced this track as a new version of an older song, ‘Starving to Be Empty,’ which will be released on their upcoming acoustic project. The song was written about a friend who suffers from anorexia. Halfway through the song, Lucas Woodland from Holding Absence came on stage to sing the second verse. This moment was an emotional one, and the emotions did not stop there. Dayseeker ended their set with ‘Sleeptalk’ followed by ‘Neon Grave,’ a song dedicated to Rodriguez’ dad who unfortunately passed away from cancer. While quite painful, the track made for a perfect ending to their set with its heavy instrumentals and loaded meaning that left the crowd in awe.
Finally, at 21:30, Pierce the Veil’s introductory song – ‘El Rey’ – started playing over the speakers in the middle of The Killer’s ‘Mr. Brightside’, letting the fans know the wait was over. Two white sheets hung from the ceiling near the back of the stage, with drummer Loniel Robinson’s drum kit sitting in between them. The four band members came to the stage to open the set with ‘Death of an Executioner.’ Lead singer Vic Fuentes’ mic stood dead centre, with bassist and backing vocalist Jaime Preciado making use of the microphone on Fuentes’ right and guitarist Tony Perry standing on his left, the three men occasionally alternating their positions to make full use of the stage. “Tilburg, I have one question for you,” Fuentes said prior to the second song, “What’s so good about picking up the pieces?” – an iconic lyric from this next track, ‘Caraphernelia.’ Fuentes jumped from the raised platforms at the front of the stage during the instrumental parts, which seemed to be extended throughout their whole set. The band played one more song of their own, ‘Circles,’ before stating that they have “a special song just for you guys” – a cover of Radiohead’s ‘Karma Police,’ which was not a part of the setlist of the American leg of this tour. Afterwards, the white sheets fell down to reveal huge speakers, and the band moved on to ‘Pass the Nirvana,’ making use of several huge smoke machines throughout this and other songs. Bassist Preciado turned out to be a real entertainer, hyping up the crowd and swinging his bass around.
After an extended drum intro, Pierce the Veil played ‘A Match into Water’ from their 2012 album Collide with the Sky, a fan favourite that got the whole crowd clapping and singing along, with Fuentes holding his microphone out to the crowd during the bridge. “We will bring the tidal wave,” the whole crowd screamed. Next, Fuentes asked the crowd if they were here with their “emergency contact,” dedicating this track to his wife and daughter. Finally, it was time for the biggest moment of the set. “This song doesn’t belong to us anymore, it belongs to you” is how Fuentes introduced ‘Hold on Till May,’ with the crowd again singing a full part themselves. Fuentes then asked if anybody would like to join the band on stage. Of course, almost everybody raised their hand, but Fuentes selected a fan who was right in the middle of the front row, singing along to every single song. This fan was asked to sit on a stool on stage and given Fuentes’ guitar to hold while he sang to them: “darling, you’ll be okay.” It made for a very wholesome moment that surely meant the world to this person.
When the fan made it back into the crowd, the band moved into the acoustic part of their set. Fuentes, Preciado and Perry were sat on stools in the middle of the stage, instruments in hand, to play ‘Resilience’ and ‘Bulletproof Love.’ This made for a nice little interlude, but the band immediately upped the tempo again when it ended, with Fuentes making use of a megaphone with a flashlight in it to shout out the text of ‘May These Noises Startle You in Your Sleep Tonight’ before diving into ‘Hell Above.’ Finally, after a short instrumental interlude, the band ended the set with the tour and album’s title track, ‘The Jaws of Life,’ before going off stage for the encore.
The four-piece ended the night with two more tracks, the first being ‘Besitos’ to which they added a drum solo so that Robinson could show off his massive skills. The final song of the night was no other than the band’s biggest hit, ‘King for a Day,’ to which they added an acoustic rendition of the second verse as introduction. Fans had been active all night, but they made good use of this last song to surf, mosh and jump even more. All three band members swung their instruments around before throwing them to members of the crew when the song ended, along with the bang of the confetti cannons going off one more time. While Pierce the Veil played ‘only’ 15 songs in the span of 1,5 hour, they managed to make them all look and sound special, making use of instrumentals, confetti, smoke machines and the energy of the fans to make it a night to never forget.
