Music
Review
Pierce The Veil Bring the Alternative Revival to Wembley
The San Diego band bring their sound to the UK's biggest stadium
When support act Cavetown asks Wembley Arena, “Who’s never seen Pierce The Veil before?”, it seems as though three-quarters of the room scream back. For a band who’ve been grafting around the UK club circuit since the mid-2000s, it’s a staggering response that tells us something far bigger than the state of the San Diego band’s career. Right now, alternative music is having a moment again.
A resurgence driven by both nostalgia and TikTok algorithms, over the past five years, bands once dismissed as ‘scene kids’ have been packing out arenas. Bridged by the power of music, side-fringed emo veterans who clung to 2012’s Collide With The Sky like scripture stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those who first heard ‘King For A Day’ buried in a For You Page edit. New generations of teens discovering that angst and heartbreak are evergreen, eighteen years into their career, Wembley is a proving ground for Pierce The Veil.
From the moment a crackly snippet of Vicente Fernández’s mariachi classic ‘El Rey’ morphs into the swagger of opener ‘Death Of An Executioner’, the four-piece prove they’ve outgrown their roots as scrappy metalcore kids. Their showmanship and musicianship are now built for scale, and the five glowing symbols behind them – one for each album – remind you just how long this band have been building to this point.
“Holy shit, are we at Wembley?”
The incredulous question leaves frontman Vic Fuentes’ mouth early on in their set, as if spoken by a wide-eyed child stepping foot inside the world’s biggest sweet shop. That excitement seems to radiate through every musician onstage, bassist Jaime Preciado never standing still to the point that the enormous stage feels barely big enough for him. As they rattle through a crash course on their evolution, jumping from the theatrical chaos of early cut ‘I’d Rather Die Than Be Famous’ to the intoxicating grunge-fuelled bravado of newer single ‘Pass The Nirvana’, the sincerity of the spectacle is impossible to ignore.
Sparking circle pits a-plenty with the likes of ‘Circles’ and ‘Bulls In The Bronx’ – even transitioning from a cover of The Pixies’ ‘Where Is My Mind?’ into the pop-punk flourish of ‘Floral & Fading’ – the most piercing moments come when the noise drops. Fuentes dedicates anthemic ballad ‘Emergency Contact’ to his wife, while midway through ‘Hold On Till May’ he asks, “How many people in this crowd can say that music saved their life? This song is for you.”
Voices pushed to their limits with each singalong, despite their differences in age, fashion, and life experience, everyone within Wembley’s four walls feels united in that moment. The night drawing to a close, Fuentes challenges the crowd to prove they’re the loudest fans in the world, a feat quite possibly met during the inevitable closing notes of ‘King For A Day’.
With one last moment to take it all in, as smoke disperses across the stage Fuentes declares, “This has been one of my favourite shows we’ve played in our whole career.” Undoubtedly a career milestone, Pierce The Veil’s Wembley debut doubles as a statement about where alternative music is right now. Proof that the revival is far more than just an internet hype, in 2025 pop-punk is no longer a guilty pleasure, metal is no longer confined to festival tents, and scene kids are now rock royalty. Colliding generations of misfits under one roof, they’ve been long overdue for a room this size, but tonight Pierce The Veil claimed their place as one of the genre’s crown jewels.
