Brand New/Thrice Show

Brand New, Thrice, Mewithoutyou (Sunday 12/1)

Drove off to Baltimore Sunday night with a monsoon-worthy downpour beating against the windows. Arrived at UMBC despite the elements' best counterefforts.

It's a quaint little campus (albeit in the middle of nowhere), however it'd be nice if they had a few signs along the roads so one doesn't have to drive around the circle three or four times! Fortunately a friendly police officer was able to direct me to the 4000 cap. fieldhouse, where the show was being held.

Arrived fashionably late and missed out on Mewithoutyou, but I wasn't too remorse. They put on an energetic live show, but I didn't really care for their last record too much, and my excitement for seeing Brand fucking New was kind of overriding any desire to wait through two sets by other bands PLUS the downtime in between. However I did get to see...

Thrice
Entered the gym to the last chorus of "All That's Left", apparently the opening number of Thrice. I don't have their setlist, but it was the usual mix of 60 percent new record, 40 percent old material. One or two songs from every record but Identity Crisis were played.

I was blown away at how much their sound has improved in the four years since I last saw them. It's much more polished and cohesive now, with few notes wasted. Dustin Kensrue's voice was positively spine-tingling as he serenaded the crowd with "Digital Sea", a haunting cut off Thrice's new record The Alchemy Index: Vols I & II.

Older songs such as "Kill Me Quickly" and "Silhouette" sounded just as good. Of course they played "Deadbolt", with a rocking extended outro, and closed with a monsterous rendition of "The Earth Will Shake."

Wonderful set, had kind of lost interest in them lately, so this show has re-invigorated me to them. I'm going to go buy the new album as soon as I get a chance.

Thrice - Burn the Fleet - this song just KILLED live

buy "The Alchemy Index: Vols I & II" at Amazon!


Brand New

The event I've been waiting years for! Needless to say, having only several rows of bodies between me and songwriting idol Jesse Lacey was nothing short of a religious experience. Despite Brand New's reputation for being pompous assholes in real life, I decided to not to pre-judge.

Setlist:
Play Crack the Sky
Luca
Jesus Christ
Handcuffs
Limousine
Welcome to Bangkok
Sic Transit Gloria (Glory Fades)
Okay, I believe you...but my tommy gun don't
Archers
Jaws Theme Swimming
Degausser
Millstone
You Won't Know
Sowing Season (Yeah)

Encore: Untitled jam

Drawing exclusively from their last two albums, the show began with Jesse alone center-stage, armed with an acoustic guitar and draped in a golden spotlight hue. He busted out with "Play Crack the Sky", a slow ballad from Deja Entendu. It caught the majority of the crowd, who were expecting a rocking beginning, off-guard. Hearing the man who wrote the song deliever the words was great though, and most people were singing along.

The new songs translated live more effectively than I thought they would. The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me is a slow record and I was worried that the energy might sag, but that wasn't the case. Tunes like "Luca", "Jesus Christ" and "Limousine" were skillfully navigated by Lacey and his band, who have the crescendo from nothingness to hellbent intensity down pat.

The crowd seemed a little lethargic at first, sleepy college kids bundled in jackets from the sub-zero rain outside were perhaps less inclined to get into than usual crowds. A lot of younger people, which is suprising to me because the new album is less poppy.
But then Brand New launched into "Sic Transit" and the kids went BATSHIT. I used to hate that song, but it was actually one of the better ones of the night. This began the "Deja" section of the setlist, in which two out of the next three songs were off that abum.

Never a band to shy away from grandeur and excess, Brand New brought out not one but TWO drumkits which were used for only two numbers that I could tell, the semi-pointless instrumental "Welcome to Bangkok" and the encore: an extended jam version of the song "Untitled" on the new album. It would have been nice for a couple of the slower songs to be traded out for "The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot" or even something off their first album Your Favorite Weapon. Brand New is notorious for shunning their old material though, so I wasn't too suprised or disappointed.


Brand New - The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows (live) ...wish they had played this

buy "The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me" from Amazon.



Overall great show, well-worth the 25 bucks.