As everyone was preparing for Thanksgiving, with friends and family coming home from all over the county, I Prevail was preparing for their last shows on the True Power tour at The Filmore in Detroit. With two sold-out performances in their hometown, it was an evening for the books, bringing with them a Texas metalcore band called Fit for a King and a returning Pierce the Veil.
519 Magazine was lucky enough to chat with I Prevail’s Steve Menoian as they were just about to start their 10-and-a-half-week tour and even back then he was pumped for what was to come. Bringing out the Thanksgiving musical dinner for the evening’s festivities, they started things off with their first course, from the new album True Power, There’s Fear in Letting Go. This song has a great build up throughout and it’s the perfect song to start everything off. Its big, cosmic and drives right down your throat.
In order, just like on the album, the band tore into my fav Body Bag. With both Brian Burkheiser and Eric Vanlerberghe trading lyrics back and forth, this song rolls at Mach 10. With carbon dioxide, smoke machines shooting straight in the air from the front of the stage, and a very elaborate stage design, everything was meshing so well together.
Pulling it back to 2016’s Lifelines, they showed us their Scars; for me this was the song that got me hooked on them. It’s been awesome to see the growth of this band both on record and the big stage. They owned it tonight. After 10-and-a-half weeks, you can tell they are a well-oiled machine ready to serve up the best they got. Everyone on stage is mesmerizing in their own way and spread out on the stage, they all looked like Immortals.
Off 2019’s Trauma, they pulled back the curtains and showed us their softer side with Hurricane and I’m loving the highs and lows of each track. Coming back to the new album, they worked the crowd with Judgment Night and Trauma’s Breaking Down.
It was almost time for this show to end and the holiday season to start. Finishing it all off was another fav of the new album, FWYTYK, as well as Come and Get It before the light fell and the crowd wanted their dessert.
Screaming for more, the crowd wasn’t ready to leave. With a thank you to all on this tour from the bands and the crew to all the family, friends that have always supported them, they wished us all well and then the cooked us with Gasoline and Bow Down. Coming out of this show, you could feel it was one of the ones you will remember for a while.
After a hiatus of more than five years, Pierce the Veil has finally made their triumphant return to Detroit. Looking through the crowd, you could tell there were lots of people rocking their merch.
Pierce The Veil at The Fillmore 2022. Photo by Maximus Reid
Born and raised in sunny San Diego, California, this four-piece Pop/Punk/Metalcore band was ready to tear it up. Starting right out of the gates, the crowd got nuts with lots of moshing and crowd surfing, as singer Vic Fuentes pumped everybody up by blasting through May These Noises Startle You in Your Sleep, Hell Above, and Pass the Nirvana off their soon the be released album The Jaws of Life, which is due on February 10, 2023.
This band comes out hot, right out the oven, and the crowd is steaming. Going back to 2012, they pulled out Bulls in the Bronx, a punk inspired ripper that had people flying around in a circle mosh, as security was pulling out one after the other from out front for surfing. I love the middle of this song as it has this Caribbean style break down that makes you feel like your beach side for a moment.
The momentum they had was incredible to see in person.
Going back a little farther to 2010, and a bit harder, they hit up Caraphernelia, smoked us a bit with Circles, Hold on Till May and A Match into Water, before ending their return to Detroit with King for a Day. After that set they should all feel like Kings what a killer set. It took a few minutes for all that adrenaline to wear off.
Fit For a King has been around for many years now and has changed line ups quite a bit over the years, but the power and ferocity are still very much intact. With their new album The Hell We Create just released in late October, they gave us a taste of it right off the top with Eyes Roll Back, then they crushed our brains with their 2018 hit When Everything Means Nothing.
The crowd was really coming alive after two songs. Raging on they played a few new ones: End (The Other Side) along with Falling Through the Sky. Finishing off their set, they went back to 2018’s Dark Skies for The Price of Agony, then hit us with another new one, Times Like These, which on the album features Johnathan Vigil from The Ghost Inside.
Their final song, God of Fire, featured lots of techno rage, bringing the room to boil.
I Prevail / Pierce The Veil / Fit For A King
The Fillmore
Detroit, MI
Nov.23, 2022
All photos by Maximus Reid
I Prevail
Pierce The Veil
