BILLINGS — Billings local bands Hibernator and No Cigar opened for Pierce The Veil, a post hard-core scene band from San Diego, at Metra Park's First Interstate Arena on Tuesday, breaking away from its North American tour with Blink-182.
“I’m sure every local band submitted or tried to submit to open for the show. You never even know if they’re gonna have openers," said Nick Miles, drummer for No Cigar.
The bands performed for 2,500 patrons on Tuesday, an opportunity provided to only a handful of local bands in the last decade, making this performance a major milestone in No Cigar's 11 year career.
“The Metra has always been a place in Billings that just has the biggest shows. It has the biggest capacity," said Zach Reiter, No Cigar's bass player.
Billed second to Pierce The Veil, Hannah Skiles and Zach Jurcich are bass player and guitarist for Hibernator, an eight year local band.
“You want to curate the vibe for the night," said Skiles, "This is gonna be somebody’s show 40 years from down the line.”
They say they hope performing at a venue like The Metra will bring out local audiences to smaller shows. More importantly, however, Jurcich said he hopes local musicians will be inspired by seeing other Billings bands perform for such a large audience.
“It presents opportunity and an option for younger bands to know that it’s realistic," said Jurcich, "Those kids that are doing that now can look at this and go, ‘Holy cow, that’s a local band that I’ve met at shows.’ Like, ‘That dudes talked to me when I bought a shirt.’”
