After ten and a half weeks on the road the “True Power Tour” made its final stop in Detroit for two back-to-back sold out shows at The Fillmore Detroit. The first leg of the tour included special guests Pierce the Veil, Fit For A King, and Yours Truly. The second leg of the tour included special guests Pierce the Veil, Fit For A King, and Stand Atlantic.
Written by Jessica Trail
The Australian pop-punk band Stand Atlantic started the evening off on the right foot. The four-piece band from Sydney is made up of lead singer/guitarist Bonnie Fraser, David Potter on guitar, Miki Rich on bass, and drummer Jonno Panichi. They started the set with “Hate Me (Sometimes)” from the 2020 Pink Elephant. Singer Bonnie was a very energetic singer who was able to easily draw energy from the crowd and project that energy back into the crowd to make for a fun and lively show. After several songs there was a break for the band to partake in the Australian tradition of drinking from a shoe, known as doing a shoey. It was a great set, and they said they were grateful to join the three other bands for night one and let the crowd known the first night was their last night on the tour.
See full photo gallery for Stand Atlantic here.
Up next was Texas metalcore band, Fit for a King, who ensured that the growing crowd was wide-awake on the Tuesday night. They started their set with “Eyes Roll Back” from their brand-new album The Hell We Create. The crowd was excited to see the new music live. The band’s lineup has changed drastically over the last fifteen years but that hasn’t changed the energy and enthusiasm that they bring to the stage. The band’s current lineup is fronted by Ryan Kirby who brings the growling vocals, Ryan “Tuck” O’Leary who plays bass and provides clean vocals, Daniel Gailey on guitar and provides backup vocals, and Trey Celaya on drums. During the set they took a pause to hype up the crowd for Pierce the Veil and express their excitement to be on the tour with Ryan telling the crowd, “we’re excited to be part of such a huge tour!” They ended the night with the heavy and powerful song “God of Fire” from the 2020 album The Path.
See full photo gallery for Fit For A King here.
Pierce the Veil was up next. They are a pop-punk/metalcore band from San Diego, California. Their front man Vic Fuentes started the band in 2006. Shortly after the band started Tony Perry on lead guitar and Jamie Preciado on bass joined the band. For the tour they were accompanied by Lionel Robinson on drums. This tour was a long run and even included two stops in Las Vegas for the epic “When We Were Young Festival” on October 23rd and 29th. (Sidebar: Pierce the Veil’s set was the first one I caught of the day at the Sunday date of the festival, and they were simply amazing to put it mildly!)
They started out the night in Detroit with “May These Noises Startle You in Your Sleep Tonight” from Collide with the Sky and the crowd was loving it from the moment it started. They continued with “Hell Above” also from Collide with the Sky. The third song was “Pass the Nirvana” from their upcoming 2023 release The Jaws of Life. As the song ended, they had to take a long break to ensure someone got the medical attention. They continued the set with “Bulls in the Bronx” once everyone was ok. The crowd was very appreciative of the band’s willingness to stop and check on the crowd when needed. This amped up the crowd to finish out the set. They ended the night with “King for a Day”.
See full photo gallery for Pierce The Veil here.
If there is one thing to know about, I Prevail it is that Michigan and specifically metro Detroit is their hometown show; they made sure to make special call outs to the venues and fans who come out to support them. The five-piece band consists of Eric Vanlerberghe on growl vocals, Brian Burkheiser with clean vocals, Dylan Bowman on rhythm guitar, Steve Menoian on lead guitar, and Gabe Helguera on drums. They also played the “When We Were Young Festival” on October 23rd and 29th. Their set was later in the evening for those dates and played their hearts out on the Stripes Stage.
After being on the road from early September until late November they still brough a solid performance to The Fillmore Detroit that in no way indicated they were at the end of 10-and-a-half-week tour. They came out swinging with their newest single, “Fear of Letting Go” from their 2022 release True Power. The next song up was “Body Bag”, a fast-paced song with a lot of harsh vocals that make it worthy of all the headbanging and moshing that had picked up by this point. As they continued, they started playing the opening riffs of “Raining Blood” by Slayer before going into “Judgement Day”. The next two songs, “Breaking Down” and “Paranoid” were notably slower than the rest of the set. These songs were very well received as it shows the band’s great versatility.
Singer Eric took a pause to shout out to Stand Atlantic for their last night on the tour and wanted to “send them out with a fucking bang.” And wished them “much luck and success on their ventures” He also asked the crowd to “make some noise for our good friends in Fit for a King.” Then he continued with “last and certainly not least make some noise for those handsome motherfuckers in Pierce the Veil!” He then welcomed anyone who had never seen I Prevail before to the family.
The band continued to play three more songs from True Power including “Choke”, “Fake”, and “FWYTYK”. Eric then took a pause to address the crowd again saying “Goddamn, it’s good to be home!” and mentioning how they grew up coming to shows at the venue and showing love for the Midwest and especially Michigan. They ended the main portion of the set with “Come and Get It” from the 2016 album, Lifelines. They left the stage and came back out for an encore of heavy hitters and “Gasoline” and ended the evening with “Bow Down which the whole crowd sang and growled along with. It was really a great ending to an amazing evening of a seemingly perfect blend of metalcore and pop-punk music.
See full photo gallery for I Prevail here.
All Rights Reserved by Jessica Trail / JETRAIL Photography, LLC
