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Pierce The Veil: Unveiling the Beautifully Broken in Manchester

BEN RYAN| 28/11/25

Pierce the Veil leave us wanting even more from their biggest shows to date…BUT Manchester: we need to talk!

Celebrating 18 years of being a band, the San Diego quartet have returned to our shores to play their most ambitious headline shows to date with the I Can’t Hear You Tour; and we were invited along to bring you our thoughts.

Now, it would be remiss of us not to address the elephant in the room: Ticketmaster. Due to a small clerical error, the world’s largest ticketing platform had originally listed the door time for the event at 7:30, when the venue had opened 2 hours prior.

Because of this, not only did we miss Crawler and catch the very end of Cavetown, we also missed the hotly anticipated (pun intended) Midwest emo giants – Hot Mulligan. A matter made all the worse after the release of the instant classic The Sound A Body Makes When It’s Still. To Tades and the rest of the band, we really hope to see you soon!

With our seats barely warm, a tense anticipation filled the air at the imminent arrival of Pierce the Veil, who were beckoned onto the stage with El Ray by Vicente Fernández.

For a show of such magnitude, we saw no elaborate production, no pyro and very little staging; this was the band at their purest, placing their music front and centre for 15,000 to see.

Vic, Tony, Jaime and Loniel  burst onto the stage with a note-perfect rendition of Death of an Executioner, the perfect opening song welcoming a lengthy set celebrating 5 albums.

Like a supervisor assessing the crowd, frontman Fuentes gave the energy of someone playing a mid-afternoon festival slot, with a nonchalant performance at the country’s newest and most hi-tech arena.

In contrast, bassist Jaime Preciado was a breath of fresh air, making the stage his own and infecting us with an energetic performance throughout the evening. 

Three songs in, Vic interacted with the audience for the first time in the evening, claiming that they had the loudest fucking fans in the entire universe, which was met with a sea of cheers, and really driving home one of our key takeaways from the evening…

On stage, we had 4 seasoned performers, giving their all to show thanks and appreciation for those who have shared an incredible 18 year journey of music and touring; an appreciation that was not met by the crowd.

Manchester gave the band a static crowd inhabited by the light of phone screens trying to capture the perfect clip for a TikTok audience, evident by the rip-roaring cheers for those viral songs and lacklustre impasse at every other song. 

Of the 15,000 attendees, it felt surreal to see the seated blocks giving a more energetic appreciation, in comparison to the standing, static sea of phones greeting viral hits that make people shake their hips.

In the middle of the crowd, we could barely see a small pocket of a pit in a tide of snapchat stories. This was made all the more evident when a cover of Pixies classic – Where Is My Mind? – received the biggest reaction so far, with the audience daring to sing along (prompted by Vic) as they transitioned into Floral & Fading. 

As the night grew longer, the band powered through a veritable hit-list of tracks, until they hit the opening riff to the latest trending sound: So Far So Fake. The crowd met the opening line of the song with a shrill shriek of excitement as selfie mode was activated for their followers.

Nearing  the end of the main set, the band thanked everyone in attendance, highlighting that the tour has been incredible for them; with the gratitude from Vic being met with a swell of high-pitched cheers as he introduced the next song.

During the encore, the band performed a rather apt rendition of Disasterology, creating an ironic parallel with the lyrics Can we create something beautiful and destroy it? The audience certainly tried.

After an incredible performance, powering through 16 of their biggest hits, it was finally time for arguably the biggest hit King for a Day. A song which woke up the crowd at the eleventh hour, thanks to the viral hit that brought a new audience to the band. For us, it was too little too late, and our empathic energy had been drained by the audience.

The final song did see 3 circle pits form during the first verse, which quickly waned as the band ended their set and thanked us for our attendance.

In no world are Pierce the Veil a ‘One Hit Wonder’, with notable omission Caraphernalia from the set list leaving us wanting to see more from the band sooner, rather than later.

However, the Manchester audience were only here for their viral moment and waiting for the TikTok hits to be played. 

Rating: 3.5/5

Crowd surfers: 17 (10 during KFAD)

Pits: 2/5

About the Author

Benjamin Ryan

He/Him

After spending years tied down to a corporate desk job, Ben was freed from the mundanities of corporate bullshit in 2023 and soon after landed a dream job in the Gaming Industry. As our webmaster and contributor, he is dedicated to making TRXSH the best version of itself.

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