A Special Time

A little while ago Sleeping With Sirens and Pierce The Veil announced a co-headliner tour not only within the United States but also for Europe. As the bands are close friends privately they had the idea of touring the world together after hanging out for one evening. Their fans also asked for such a great tour previously. In total, they had 51 concerts in North America and 19 in Europe.

One of these 19 concerts in Europe was in Cologne, Germany. Supporting act for this evening was the 2012 founded US Metalcore band Issues from Atlanta, Georgia. They are also classified as Post-Hardcore, Nu Metal and Contemporary R&B. The band was created by former Woe, Is Me singer Tyler Carter (rap and clean vocals). Further members are AJ Rebollo (lead guitar), Skyler Acord (e-bass), Josh Manuel (drums) and Michael Bohn (screaming vocals). In 2013, their first EP ‘Black Diamonds’ charted on place 96 (US Charts), 2014 they released their debut album ‘Issues’ (Rise Records) as well as a second EP ‘Diamond Dreams’. The newest album ‘Headspace’ was released in 2016. The band’s musical style tries to combine the actual pop style with metal, just as Nu Metal combines Heavy Metal with Hip-Hop. As supporting act they did a really great job and animated the crowd. I didn’t know the band before, only one or two songs that I really liked. After seeing them I liked them even more.

 

 

First main act of the evening was Pierce The Veil, a 2006 founded Hard Rock and Post-Hardcore band from San Diego, California (USA). The band consists of the brothers Vic (vocals, rhythm guitar and keys) and Mike (drums) Fuentes as well as Tony Perry (lead guitar) and Jamie Preciado (bass). After their successful full-length albums ‘A Flair For The Dramatics’ (2007) and ‘Selfish Machines’ (2010) under Equal Vision Records, their success rose extremely with the album ‘Collide With The Sky’ (2012, Fearless Records) that reached place 12 on the Billboard Top 200. The fourth album ‘Misadventures’ (Fearless Records) was released in 2016 and started with place four in the US Album-Charts.

Musically, the band can’t be classified as only one style. The music combines harder with softer guitar riffs, clean with screamed vocals, acoustic with electric guitars and different genres such as Metal, Rock, Punk and Pop. As they also use instruments such as pianos, Spanish guitars and castanets, their fans also classified them as ‘Mexicore’. The texts are mainly written by Vic Fuentes and are based on personal experiences, family, friends, relationships and are inspired by their tour experiences.

I really liked their gig. They seemed to have a blast on stage and animated the crowd to jump, sing and clap along. Despite jumping and running around themselves on the stage, the music itself sounded great. At the end of their concert Kellin Quinn, the singer of Sleeping With Sirens joined the band as guest vocalist before he and his band had their gig themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last band of the day was Sleeping With Sirens, an in 2009 founded Post-Hardcore band from Orlando, Florida (USA), consisting of Kellin Quinn (vocals), Justin Hills (bass), Nick Martin (lead guitar), Jack Fowler (rhythm guitar) and Gabe Barham (drums). Until now the band released four full-length albums which are the debut album ‘With Ears To See And Eyes To Hear’ (2010, Rise Records), ‘Let’s Cheers To This’ (2011) and the acoustic EP ‘If You Were A Movie, This Would Be Your SoundtracK’ (2012) which started on place 17 of the official Album-Charts (US). In 2013, they released their third full-length album ‘Feel’ which started on place three of the official US Album-Charts and 2014 ‘Madness’ (Epitaph Records), the fourth album, was released and started on place 13 of the official US and Australian Album-Charts as well as place 26 of the official UK Album-Charts. Musically, the style can be classified as Post-Hardcore. However, the band tries to use as little breakdowns as possible and sees themselves more as a Rock band. Kellin Quinn’s outstanding and unique sounding voice makes the band even more outstanding and special. He uses a mix of clean and screamed vocals, however, the main part of the songs is sung with clean vocals. Further genre influences that can be found might be Pop-Punk, Pop-Rock, Metalcore, Emo and Alternative Rock. This crossing of different genres, as well as the unique voice and their talent, make them a very outstanding band. The texts are written by the band themselves and are about topics that bother the band members.

Their concert was absolutely amazing. All the members seemed to have a blast on stage, enjoying the fans singing along, jumping clapping and moshing around. Halfway through, they added a few acoustic songs which were the cover version of the Go Go Dolls’ song Iris and Roger Rabbit. For Roger Rabbit, Kellin Quinn added a few beat-boxing beats which made the song even more special, as it’s a slightly different version than on the EP.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All three bands were absolutely amazing, professional and seemed to have a great time with a lot of fun on stage. They really did what they love and delivered great performances. The light show and some special effects with confetti and steam underlined the show and suited the music perfectly, creating a quite intimate and magical atmosphere.

However, unfortunately, the sound and volume were poorly which seemed to be a technical issue of the club. The volume was way too loud which made it hard to hear specific instruments and facets of the singers’ voice. All sounds, voices and instruments seemed to just mosh together in one undefinable tangle of notes. Even tough, I’ve been to other concerts before, except a very small gig of Carl Barat in England, this was the loudest concert I’ve been to which made me feel a little uncomfortable at the end. However, I think the technic was to blame and not the bands themselves. The venue itself, the E-Werk in Cologne, was really suitable and has a great and unique atmosphere. With it’s interior it combines something classical with an old industrial fabric-like building style. The main room fits up to 2000 visitors and is used for different kinds of events such as concerts, banquets, galas, fairs, exhibitions, product presentations and many more.

 

 

In total, it was a special time and an amazing evening with really talented and passioned bands that I’m really looking forward to see again in 2017.