Where Did Fans First Hear Pierce The Veil Bulletproof Love?

I've been digging through old setlists and YouTube clips for this one, and here's what I can tell you from being that obsessive fan who bookmarks tour vids: 'Bulletproof Love' is a track from the 'Selfish Machines' era, and the band started playing it live around the time they were promoting that record in 2010. The album came out in 2010, and Pierce the Veil put the song into rotation pretty quickly during the run of shows that followed — so if you’re hunting for a first live performance, your best bet is to look at mid‑2010 festival dates and the smaller club dates on the album tour. Fan archives and old crowd-shot videos uploaded to YouTube tend to cluster around that period. I’ll be blunt — band setlists can be messy: sometimes a song gets one-off previews before an official “debut,” and sometimes it’s swapped into a set without any announcement. From what I’ve seen, early fans in 2010 were posting clips of 'Bulletproof Love' from shows not long after 'Selfish Machines' dropped. Sites like setlist.fm and archived forum threads from 2010/2011 are goldmines if you want the exact first date; they often list the earliest known playings and link to recordings. I personally found a few shaky-phone videos that match the arrangement on the album, which suggests the band had it polished for live play throughout that summer and fall. If you want a concrete next step, check setlist archives and YouTube by filtering uploads to 2010 and searching the song title plus 'Pierce the Veil' — you'll likely find the earliest bootlegs. I love doing that time‑travel thing where you peel back old fan reactions and see how a song grew into a crowd favorite; 'Bulletproof Love' went from album highlight to reliable live moment very quickly, and watching those early performances really shows the band tightening the arrangement and the crowd learning every word, which is a fun little slice of scene history to watch unfold.

There's something about the chorus of 'Bulletproof Love' that always begs to be stripped down — the melody is so raw that, in my head, it works beautifully on a single guitar and voice. From what I've dug up over the years, Pierce the Veil never released a widely distributed studio acoustic version of 'Bulletproof Love' on an official album. That said, that doesn't mean acoustic renditions don't exist: Vic Fuentes has done plenty of stripped-down performances in live or semi-live settings, and fans have captured some of those intimate moments on video. If you search YouTube for 'Pierce the Veil Bulletproof Love acoustic' you'll find several live acoustic takes and solo performances where the song loses its full-band roar and gains a different kind of emotional punch. I personally fell in love with one of those fan-shot clips late at night during a study session — it was just Vic and a guitar, a tiny room, and the lyrics landed harder than the studio track sometimes does. High-quality audio recordings sometimes pop up on SoundCloud or as part of radio session archives; occasionally a band will do an in-studio acoustic session for a radio station or web series, and those can be gems. For people who want to play it themselves, lots of tutorial videos and user-submitted tabs exist on sites like Ultimate Guitar, and many cover artists on Spotify or Bandcamp have posted mellow acoustic versions. A practical tip: if you want a fuller solo-acoustic vibe, experiment with a capo and open chords — many cover versions take the power-chord intensity and translate it into basic Em/C/G/D shapes or fingerpicked variations so the vocal melody can breathe. If you're hunting for the cleanest listen, check the band's official YouTube channel and Vic's social accounts periodically — artists sometimes release acoustic takes as bonus content or for anniversary streams. Also keep an eye on live albums, B-sides, or deluxe edition extras; bands in this scene sometimes surface alternate versions later on. And if you can't find an 'official' acoustic, the community is amazing: there are covers with inventive arrangements that highlight the song's vulnerability just as well. I love comparing different interpretations — some are sparse and aching, others add harmonies or subtle percussion — and that variety keeps the song feeling fresh to me, even years after first hearing it.

On a rainy drive home sophomore year, 'Bulletproof Love' crept through my speakers and felt like someone had carved a diary into guitar riffs. I got hooked not just by the melody but by how raw the words were — there's a visceral feeling of trying to hold on to someone who keeps slipping away, and that tug-of-war is what most people point to when they talk about what inspired the lyrics. From what I’ve pieced together and heard fans and music writers say over the years, Vic Fuentes wrote much of the material on 'Selfish Machines' from personal experience: relationships gone sideways, guilt, and the kind of helplessness that comes when the person you care about makes choices you can’t fix. That emotional honesty is the backbone of 'Bulletproof Love'. I like to think of the song as equal parts literal heartbreak and metaphor. The title itself — a love that’s 'bulletproof' — reads like a bitter irony: the narrator wants to protect someone, but the protection either doesn’t work or is refused. Fans often interpret the lyrics through lenses of mental health struggles, addiction, or even suicidal ideation, because the imagery leans heavy toward loss, funerary metaphors, and emotional violence. Pierce the Veil's mid-era writing leaned darker and more intimate, and this track fits that pattern: the music swells like a panic attack and the words feel like an attempt to explain the unexplainable. Beyond Vic’s personal life, the song sits inside a post-hardcore/emo landscape where melodrama, cinematic phrasing, and confessional lines are almost expected — but 'Bulletproof Love' still stands out due to its stark vulnerability. I’ve heard older interviews where he talks about writing through anger and regret rather than polishing a pop hook, which matches the song’s rough edges. For me, it’s been a late-night anthem for times I couldn’t save someone and had to accept my limits. If you want a fuller picture, reading interviews around the 'Selfish Machines' era and diving into other tracks on the album gives context, because the whole record deals with messy human stuff in a very personal way. It still hits me differently every time I hear it — sometimes comforting, sometimes devastating.

I've spent more nights than I’d like to admit hunched over my amp trying to get the tone and feel of 'Bulletproof Love' right, so here’s how I’d walk you through it — from a relaxed learning vibe to the nitty-gritty technique. First thing: listen to the song a bunch and pick one part to focus on (intro riff, verse rhythm, or the chorus). If you're just starting, learn a simplified rhythm-accompaniment first so you can sing or play along, then layer on the lead fills and accents. For a playable stripped-down version, try basic open chords and a muted strum: Em — C — G — D works great for getting the harmonic feel under your hands even if the original has more intricate voicings. Use a steady palm-muted eighth-note pulse for verses, then open up the strumming on the chorus with an energetic down-up pattern (down, down-up, up-down-up) and let the chords ring. If you want to get closer to the recorded sound, experiment with tuning and power-chord shapes. Many bands in this scene use a dropped tuning (Drop D or Drop C) to get heavier, chuggy power chords; try Drop D first (low E string down to D) and see if the riff sits easier under your fingers. Use power chords (root and fifth) and palm-mute the low strings for the verses, then release the mute for big, sustained chords in the chorus. For lead touches, focus on simple pentatonic licks, double-stop bends, and short melodic fills — Vic’s style often uses tasteful bends and vibrato rather than flashy shredding. A bit of slapback delay, moderate gain, and a touch of reverb will push your single-coil or humbucker tone toward the track without becoming a wash. Practical practice plan: break the song into 8-bar chunks, loop slowly using YouTube’s 0.75x or 0.5x or a slowdowner app, learn the chord shapes at tempo, then add palm-muting and accents. Tab resources like community transcriptions can point you in the right direction, and watching a couple of covers on YouTube helps you see fingerings and right-hand technique. Finally, make the parts yours: if a fill is too hard, play a simpler slide or arpeggio — it still sounds good live. I still mess up the timing sometimes when I rush the fills, but slowing down and singing along keeps the groove honest and fun.

On long drives I belt out bits of 'Bulletproof Love' and then immediately look up the full lyrics the minute I get home — it’s become a tiny ritual. If you want the lyrics quickly and reliably, start with Genius and Musixmatch. Genius often has crowd-sourced transcriptions plus annotations that explain references and interpretations, which is great if you like diving into what the band might be hinting at. Musixmatch powers lyrics for a lot of streaming platforms, and their synced lines are useful if you want to follow along while listening on Spotify or Apple Music. If you prefer a one-stop search, a Google query like "Pierce the Veil Bulletproof Love lyrics" will usually surface snippets from multiple sites, but be careful: some lyric aggregators can have mistakes. AZLyrics and Lyrics.com are other common repositories that tend to be straightforward (no annotations, just the text). Also check YouTube for an official lyric video or the official audio — sometimes the video description includes the lyrics or a link to the band’s site. For absolute authenticity, the album’s physical booklet or the digital booklet that comes with purchases on iTunes will have the official printed lyrics. A few practical tips from my own use: confirm lines against a couple of sources if something sounds off, especially with screamed or mumbled parts. If you’re into context, browse fan discussions on Reddit (try the band's subreddit) or Tumblr, where people often debate lines and meanings. And if you want to support the band while getting the words, stream the track on Spotify or Apple Music (they’ll often show synced lyrics), or buy the album so you get the physical/digital booklet. I still like to sing along while reading the lyrics on my phone — it makes road trips and late-night playlists feel extra cathartic.

There’s something about 'Bulletproof Love' that always hits me in the chest — it’s raw, jagged, and oddly compassionate. The song is primarily written by Vic Fuentes, Pierce the Veil’s vocalist and main songwriter, though like most band tracks the final shape comes from the whole group playing off each other. It appears on the album 'Selfish Machines', and if you listen closely you can hear Vic’s signature: poetic, almost stream-of-conscious lyrics paired with that theatrical, emotionally overwrought delivery he’s known for. Over the years fans and casual listeners alike have pointed to his voice and writing as the driving force behind the song’s outlook and narrative voice. What inspired it feels like a mix of personal observation and storytelling. I’ve read bits of interviews and watched clips where Vic talks about pulling from real life — not always his own direct experiences, but from stories of friends, people around him, and the darker sides of relationships. 'Bulletproof Love' reads like a painful vignette about someone trying to hold on to love that’s become dangerous or self-destructive; the imagery flips between protective instincts and violent breakdowns. To me, that tension — the desire to save someone and the helplessness when rescue isn’t possible — seems central. That’s different from the more straightforward heartbreak songs; here there’s a moral gray, where affection is tangled up with harm and regret. I first noticed just how many people connect with this song at a small summer show years ago. The crowd sang every line with a kind of knowing grief, like they’d been inside the story. For anyone curious about context, listen to 'Selfish Machines' as a whole — the album has a recurring obsession with messy loyalties and fractured identities, which helps place 'Bulletproof Love' in a broader emotional landscape. If you dig deeper, you’ll find that the band’s collaborative energy — Jaime Preciado’s bass grooves, Tony Perry’s guitar textures, and the rhythm work — helps amplify Vic’s lyrics into something cinematic. It’s the sort of song that makes you think about the people you defend and the thin line between protection and enabling, and it stays with you long after the chorus fades.

If you're picking up the guitar or trying to sing along to something that hits like a punch, 'Bulletproof Love' by 'Pierce the Veil' is absolutely within reach — but with some realistic expectations and a bit of creativity. The track sits in that emo/post-hardcore zone where energy, attitude, and phrasing matter as much as technical precision. The guitar parts mix melodic picking with crunchy chords and fast transitions; the vocals jump between vulnerable clean lines and gritty, pushed notes. For a beginner, the full studio version might feel overwhelming at first, but you can capture the spirit without nailing every trick. Start by stripping it down: learn the chord shapes that underpin the song and play a simplified strummed version. Use a capo or drop the key to fit your vocal range so you’re not forcing strained notes. For the guitar leads, slow them down and loop small sections until your fingers memorize the shapes. If you’re new to heavier tones, a basic overdrive pedal or even a slight amp distortion will give you the attitude without needing complex gear. Practice vocals separately — work on breath control for the long lines and gentle gritty textures for the emotive parts. I’ve taught myself a few of these kinds of songs by doing acoustic covers first, then layering in the heavier bits once I was comfortable. So yes, beginners can cover 'Bulletproof Love' — just expect to adapt, simplify, and slowly add the flourishes. Try recording yourself early; hearing small improvements is addictive and keeps you going.

Hands-down one of my go-to Pierce the Veil moments is 'Bulletproof Love' — it’s on the album 'Collide with the Sky'. That record dropped in 2012 and honestly became my road-trip soundtrack for months; I still catch myself humming its melodies when traffic turns into one long, late-night blur. If you dig the high-energy, heartfelt emo vibe, 'Collide with the Sky' is packed: think big singalongs like 'King for a Day' and the darker, more intimate corners where 'Bulletproof Love' sits. I bought the CD back then, but these days I usually spin the whole album on a playlist and let it cascade — the sequencing really makes the emotional peaks land harder. If you haven’t heard that track in a while, give the album another run from top to bottom. 'Bulletproof Love' sits better in context, and it’ll remind you why Pierce the Veil had that weird talent for mixing raw lyrics with stadium-ready hooks.