When Soundwave Touring chose to put The
Chariot, Pierce The Veil and Bring Me The Horizon in one room, they
would be arrogant not to anticipate anarchy.
But while promoter AJ Maddah has been accused of such over
numerous times in recent memory, he had anticipated, and prepared for
the damage that was to come.
For anyone unfamiliar with Georgian hardcore band The
Chariot, frontman Josh Scogin left Norma Jean shortly after their first
and seminal album Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child, and
while he’s still heavily Christian, the band’s live show sidles as close
to danger as much as atheism sidles next to science.
As the band began throwing their drumkit into the crowd,
preparing for their trademark drum solo finish from the pit, promoters
swiftly closed the curtains, turned on the house lights and hit the play
button on the background music. Sad? Yes. Understandable? Yes.
“We’re a bunch of Mexicans from San Diego, California,”
introduced pint-sized Pierce The Veil frontman Vic Fuentes. “You guys
like Mexican food right?”
Performing a healthy mix of their last three offerings,
the four-piece looked as stunned by the turnout and verbatim recital of
lyrics as we were by the immaculate delivery.
Tracks like Bulletproof Love and Hold On Till May, which he dedicated to his older brother Frank – “I
just found out a week or so ago that he beat cancer” – were sung in
duet with the crowd. While Kellin Quinn (Sleeping With Sirens) and
Jeremy McKinnon (A Day To Remember) didn’t make it onstage for their
guest cameos in respective tracks King For A Day and Caraphernelia, Jenna McDougall from our own Tonight Alive leant her vocals to Hold On Till May, before slapping bassist/vocalist Jaime Preciado on the arse.
After the widely publicised departure of Adelaide
guitarist Jona Weinhofen and the hiring of keyboardist/programmer Jordan
Fish, a lot was riding on Bring Me The Horizon’s Soundwave stint. But
for anyone who has tasted new material from upcoming album Sempiternal, there really was never any need to place the Sheffield band’s skill on the shoulders of one member.
Without the use of a backing track, the five-piece seared our clammy faces with double opener Shadow Moses and Chelsea Smile. Frontman
Olly Sykes was utterly obscene and in his thick Yorkshire accent –
between meaty saliva projections – requested circle pits, a hand job and
for us to scream his parts because he was “shagged.”
“Are you ready to punch someone in the fucking ovaries?” he yelled before Alligator Blood.
“I still want that hand job,” he said later.
Pierce The Veil’s Vic Fuentes made one last appearance for Sadness Will Never End and during Fuck,
the track audibly about “sexual intercourse,” the bad proved they’d
grown a lot – despite tracks names - since their last visit with
Soundwave in 2011.
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