On Easter Sunday two years ago I went to a concert at a small venue called The Bottom Lounge in Chicago, IL. I was going to see Sleeping With Sirens and I had never heard of the openers. Since my friends and I got there so early we ended up front row, right up against the wooden stage. Now, yes Sleeping With Sirens was amazing, they usually are, but I was BLOWN AWAY by the first opener. Their band name is Secrets.
They put on an amazing show and did what openers are supposed to do, they pumped up the crowd. They were pretty unknown at this point. After the show, two members, Joe and Michael were outside and Anna and I got to hangout with them. They were very chill and actually liked talking to the fans, it was really cool. They signed my ticket and I bought their CD and they signed that too. I also got to meet Xander, the lead singer. We got a picture with him.
He was pretty awesome. Unfortunately, he has now left the band. The band has not stopped working, in fact, they are bigger than ever. They just landed a spot on Vans Warped Tour. As a big fan, not only am I super excited to be able to see them again, but I am also so proud of them for making it this far. I think they are going to be huge so everyone look out for them.
This is the video where the new vocalist is announced. Enjoy so post-hardcore everybody (:
Pierce the Veil played in Palatine, IL at Durty Nellies on March 30th. The venue was small, which I personally have no issue with because it is way easier to get to the front of the crowd. (I did by the way :D) The concert had 3 openers.
Issues :
Letlive. :
and Memphis May Fire:
Personally, I thought all of these openers were amazing. I've seen Memphis May Fire 3 times before and they never fail to please the crowd. My favorite song of theirs was Vices.
This is the first time i saw Letlive. live and i was speechless. The lead singer, Jason Butler (who sang a part in one of Pierce the Veil's songs), was QUITE the stage presence. He was, as I heard people saying around me, "psycho". I was amazed to see someone put so much into his singing on stage and I LOVED it. I had the great luck to meet him after the show and i gave him a hug and told him he was amazing and i would definitely be in the crowd to see him at Warped Tour.
When Pierce the Veil finally came on, I was front row. They were amazing. I got separated from my friends because I was pushing for the front so I made friends with the people around me. These concerts feel like home to me and everyone is so friendly. Pierce the Veil played Hold On Till May, and I bawled my eyes out because that song saved my life. I was so happy at that moment. And they sang Tangled in the Great Escape, Jason came out to sing his part and it was just...too amazing. A great night, and a great concert.
After the concert, and the two-song encore, ended, I saw a guitar pick laying on the stage, and I didn't even think twice about crawling onto the stage and grabbing it. <3 It was Vic's (The lead singer)
I will be seeing them again May 3rd with Mayday Parade, All Time Low, and You Me at Six. Expect the same result. (:
La Dispute is a post-hardcore band from Grand Rapids, Michegan. The band includes five members: lead vocalist Jordan Dreyer, drummer Brad Vander Lugt, guitarists Chad Sterenberg and Kevin Whittemore and bass guitarist Adam Vass. The band formed in 2004, however, nothing was released from them until 2006. Since then, they have released multiple EP's and two albums. Those albums were, Wildlife (2011) and Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair (2008). These albums are, in my opinion, some of the greatest purchases i have ever made. Not only do i find their music heart-wrenchingly beautiful, but they have gotten me through some of the toughest times of my life. The phrase "Sountrack to My Summer" really suits this situation.
However, being completely honest, my first reaction to their music was "wt* is this", when you take the time to listen to the beauty of the lyrics and the pain or emotion in his voice, you will fall in love. i have rarely heard lyrics as geniously crafted as these, and the songs are just beautiful.
The first song i ever heard of theirs is Such Small Hands.
It is amazing, i highly suggest it.
Black Veil Brides is a glam metal/rock band from California. The 5 current members are (respectively) Christian "CC" Coma, Jinxx, Andy Biersack, Jake Pitts, and Ashley Purdy. Let me just start by saying: Yes, they are guys. Yes, they wear makeup. Yes, they (mostly) have long hair. I know, rough concept, haha.
Anyways, Black Veil Brides was started in 2006, however, the only founding member remaining is Andy Biersack. In 2009, their first single, "Knives and Pens", was a massive hit, and they came out with a video for it. This song is actually one of my favorites by them, even though they were just starting out here. I personally think it was a great video as well.
Their three albums, "We Stitch These Wounds", "Set the World on Fire", and "The Wretched and Divine", have all done pretty well too. Their most recent album, "The Wretched and Divine", was released in December 2012. This album came with a movie counterpart, which I have heard was "creepy, but awesome". The album was supposed to tell a story, which the movie played out. Now, since i haven't seen the movie, I can't say if it was any good or not. You can read the idea behind the movie here.
However, I did preorder the album, and it was AMAZING. Their single from this album was entitled "In the End" and there is an amazing video to go with it. The video kind of gives you an idea of how the movie was. I, personally, think they have come a very long way.
If you have heard of Pierce the Veil, good for you! If you haven't, you're probably listening to the wrong type of music. Just kidding, I'm not one to judge, but they are amazing. I mean, I made my through-and-through country fan listen to Pierce the Veil and she is now a committed fan.
Pierce the Veil is a pop-punk / post-hardcore band that originates out of San Diego, CA. The members are (respectively) Tony Perry, Jamie Preciado, Vic Fuentes, and Mike Fuentes. Yes, the Fuentes' are brothers. (: This past year has been particularly rewarding for the band, as they have come a long way from 'struggling artists'. After the 2012 Vans Warped Tour, in which they headlined, Pierce the Veil announced their own headlining tour, which is now coming to an end. In addition to that, they have a second headlining tour quickly approaching, and they will be on the AP Tour with All Time Low, You Me at Six and Mayday Parade (!!!). They have come from small garage band to doing 3 headlining tours a year! I, for one, am proud, as I know their fan base is too.
Live picture, by me, from Warped Tour.
Pierce the Veil was recently featured on AP Magazine's cover as well. There are three different covers for the magazine, one of Mike and Vic Fuentes, one of Tony Perry and Jaime Preciado, and the one of the band together. The AP Tour is also sponsored by this magazine.
The Best of 2012 Reader's Poll, conducted by this magazine, also ended very, very well for Pierce the Veil. In it, they won nine titles in total. This included: Best Live Band, Album of the Year, and Artist of the Year. Another music magazine, Rock Sound, ranked them #33 on their album of the year list. The album creating all this fuss is "Collide With the Sky". I truly believe it is some of their best work yet, and I applaud them. Another site, allmusic, listed Pierce the Veil's peaks on various billboards here.
The song that made it high on the Rock Billboards was "King For a Day" featuring Kellin Quinn (Sleeping With Sirens). I have a (shaky) video of this from Warped Tour, as you can imagine, it's pretty hard to record in a crowd like that, but to give you and idea of how good it was, I almost cried. This song was a single from their album Collide With the Sky. Seeing them live was definitely one of the best days of my life.
Pierce the Veil also released a new video for one of the songs on the album, Hell Above. They used real live footage from Warped Tour and their headlining Collide With the Sky tour. Basically, besides this video being awesome, it either makes you want to cry because you HAVEN'T seen them live, or just makes the post-concert depression way worse.
The band truly cares about their fans, too. This is what I love about the music I listen to. A lot of the artists are truly humble people, they care about their fans and they know that the fan base is the one who made their fame happen, they are grateful. I hear all over Tumblr, stories of fans meeting them, and I have never heard anything but the best about them. This is a status that the lead singer posted on Facebook.
I just think that everyone should listen to Pierce the Veil at least once. They truly are heroes, leaders, and role models to many teenagers around the world, they're mine, that's for sure.
Yesterday (February 12th, 2013), I saw Of Mice & Men live in concert at the Bottom Lounge (1375 W. Lake Street) in Chicago. They are a metalcore band from California. They have 4 members and a touring member, Austin Carlile, Tino Arteaga, Phil Manansala, Alan Ashby, and Aaron Pauley.
I'm going to start by saying, OH MY GOD. It really was amazing. They had 4 openers, Volumes, Capture the Crown, Texas in July, and Woe, Is Me. The openers were all good, they did their job getting the crowd ready for the headliners to come out. I usually don't know most of the openers for concerts, so I was surprised that I knew 3 out of 4, that was nice. None of the openers were bad either, they chose good bands to open.
When Of Mice & Men came out the crowd literally went insane, obviously, they were the reason we were all there. The first song they played, O.G. Loko, was the song I took the lyrics from to paint on my nails ("Meet my dedication, inspiration), it was awesome. (: This isn't my video, but I was standing in the same area as the girl that filmed this was. The first minute is kind of just the band entering the stage.
(Caution: some explicit words and 'scary' metal music, haha)
After this, they continued to play all of my favorite songs. Honestly, almost all of my favorites were played. Some of them included: Product of a Murderer, The Calm, The Storm, The Flood, The Depths (the 4 songs from their re-released album). During the song The Depths, Austin likes everyone to get down on to one knee because the first words are "Get Up". Once he says this, every person in the crowd jumps up and screams the lyrics along with Austin. Being a part of this for the first time was really great, it shows how dedicated all of the Of Mice & Men fans are. The same girl that taped the previous video caught this on film too.
This was supposed to be the last song of the night, but as the exited the stage, the whole crowd chanted "One more song" until they came back. Austin announced that he would not play one more song...he was going to play TWO! The two songs they played were amazing, 'The Great Hendowski' and 'Second and Sebring'. The Great Hendowski is my favorite song by them, i eventually will get a tattoo with lyrics from that song, it's a meaningful song for me. The greatest thing about the band, Austin in particular, is that he truly is a good person. Before he started he said, "I want all of you to go home and listen to these lyrics, because this song was written for you". I could cry.
The very last song, Austin told us he wanted us to sing the song to him, and, being the dedicated fan base that we are, the entire crowd, in unison, sang Second and Sebring to Of Mice & Men. It is a moving experience to be part of a crowd like that, it feels like home, like a family. The last lines in particular "This is not what it is, only baby scars, i need your love like a boy needs his mother's side", I know they hit home for every Of Mice & Men fan, it's the song that brings us all together.
This band knows how to make people in the crowd feel like they belong and are loved. Austin recognized one of the fans and had him come on stage, he had met him before. Austin called him on stage and announced to everyone that the kid was in a local band, and that we all had to go home and look it it because "we all start somewhere, I was this kid at one point, support your local music". It touches me how much a huge famous star cares so much for his fans. This picture is actually my own.
So, overall, I would call this small concert, one of the greatest that I've been too. Truly amazing.
Dance
Policy
That is a link to a letter that we all received before the turnabout dance.
I think the dance policy, as a senior, is a total joke. This is the way
everyone I know has been dancing since freshman year here. First of all, the document
we received was a bit ridiculous. I really don't think the lines about
"touching of breasts or genitals" and such were necessary. If you
know what grinding is, I don't think an explanation of it was necessary, and
if you don't, well you probably aren't grinding. Second of all, that isn't the
only way to grind, just because we were graced with the presence "young
sluts" last year does NOT mean that everyone dances like they did. I
honestly don't think it was necessary, either kids are going to go and grind,
or they aren't going to go at all.
It's just the way we dance nowadays, this
isn't footloose, let's get real. The impact is obvious. No one's going to go.
after my experience of THE WORST HOMECOMING EVER, i would NEVER spend and money
to go and have an equally boring time. They already ruined my senior
homecoming, i left in 45 minutes. I definitely will not be attending turnabout,
same with most of the senior class.
Just as an update, my friend had to go to the dance to take pictures, and she said that less than half the gym was full, and only one row of the parking lot was taken, THAT is the impact the dance policy had.
These albums are, in my opinion, some of the greatest purchases i have ever made. Not only do i find their music heart-wrenchingly beautiful, but they have gotten me through some of the toughest times of my life. The phrase "Sountrack to My Summer" really suits this situation. 
This past year has been particularly rewarding for the band, as they have come a long way from 'struggling artists'. After the 2012 Vans Warped Tour, in which they headlined, Pierce the Veil announced their own headlining tour, which is now coming to an end. In addition to that, they have a second headlining tour quickly approaching, and they will be on the AP Tour with All Time Low, You Me at Six and Mayday Parade (!!!). They have come from small garage band to doing 3 headlining tours a year! I, for one, am proud, as I know their fan base is too.
Pierce the Veil was recently featured on AP Magazine's cover as well. There are three different covers for the magazine, one of Mike and Vic Fuentes, one of Tony Perry and Jaime Preciado, and the one of the band together. The AP Tour is also sponsored by this magazine.
Yesterday (February 12th, 2013), I saw Of Mice & Men live in concert at the Bottom Lounge (1375 W. Lake Street) in Chicago. They are a metalcore band from California. They have 4 members and a touring member, Austin Carlile, Tino Arteaga, Phil Manansala, Alan Ashby, and Aaron Pauley.
I'm going to start by saying, OH MY GOD. It really was amazing. They had 4 openers, Volumes, Capture the Crown, Texas in July, and Woe, Is Me. The openers were all good, they did their job getting the crowd ready for the headliners to come out. I usually don't know most of the openers for concerts, so I was surprised that I knew 3 out of 4, that was nice. None of the openers were bad either, they chose good bands to open.
I think the dance policy, as a senior, is a total joke. This is the way
everyone I know has been dancing since freshman year here. First of all, the document
we received was a bit ridiculous. I really don't think the lines about
"touching of breasts or genitals" and such were necessary. If you
know what grinding is, I don't think an explanation of it was necessary, and
if you don't, well you probably aren't grinding. Second of all, that isn't the
only way to grind, just because we were graced with the presence "young
sluts" last year does NOT mean that everyone dances like they did. I
honestly don't think it was necessary, either kids are going to go and grind,
or they aren't going to go at all. 
It's just the way we dance nowadays, this
isn't footloose, let's get real. The impact is obvious. No one's going to go.
after my experience of THE WORST HOMECOMING EVER, i would NEVER spend and money
to go and have an equally boring time. They already ruined my senior
homecoming, i left in 45 minutes. I definitely will not be attending turnabout,
same with most of the senior class.