Brand New - Music Hall of Williamsburg, 7/11/09

I hadn't exactly realized at the time that I managed to get them on TicketMaster exactly how hot the tickets to Brand New's first show in forever in New York were, but there were (probably untrue) rumors that at least one single ticket (thanks to the will-call only policy that all bands who wish to dampen scalper activity should implement) went for close to $1000. Absense, as my companion last night pointed out, makes the heart grow fonder, and for many more fans in New York than the Music Hall of Williamsburg can hold, it has been a very, very long time.

For those lucky enough to have been inside, the show was anything but the experimental run through a bunch of new material that at least this intrepid blogger expected. There were, in fact, only 3 new songs performed from the forthcoming Daisy, which is slated for a September 22 release. I only got the name to one of them: "Bone Dry."

What follows is the rest of the setlist, from what I can remember. Students of psychology are sure to be familiar of the effects of primacy and recency on memory, especially for remembering things in order. Add a few beers to that, and this is what you get:

1. Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't
2. Sic Transit Gloria, Glory Fades
3. The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows
4. The Shower Scene

...and then the best I can recall from the rest of the show minus the 3 new songs mentioned above, in no particular order:

- Jaws Theme Swimming
- Mix Tape
- Jude Law and a Semester Abroad
- Seventy Times 7
- Guernica
- Sowing Season
- Jesus Christ
- Flying at Tree Level (Version 1.0) (note: this was awesome)
- Archers
- You Won't Know
- Degausser

...and then the epic 1-2 punch finale:

19. Play Crack the Sky
20. Soco Amaretto Lime

So...wow, right? Add in there 3 new songs, 2 of which I thought were rad and one more I thought could be rad, and we're talking a fan's wet dream.

A few more things I've been thinking about since:

I love when bands just use all their set time on their set, and don't bother with the pageantry of an encore. If ever there was a time that a crowd would have screamed themselves hoarse for a real encore, this was it, but still the band took the road less traveled, and I thought that was cool.

Last time I saw Brand New, Jesse pretty clearly didn't even want to play Jude Law. It's nice to see the band (at least last night) playing that which they know their fans wanted. Like I said above, I had actually been excited for a whole bunch of new songs, but this was clearly a setlist designed to be a crowd pleaser, and please it did.

I think the crowd sorta botched the singalong during Soco Amaretto Lime a bit. That was still just as good a way to end a show as it was in 2001 though.

EDIT: there's a setlist posted here. The song I thought was called "Bone Dry" might actually be called "Bought a Bride"? I dunno, maybe. What am I, a reliable source for facts and information?

Jesse Lacey and Kevin Devine to tour together this summer

Looks like Jesse Lacey's going to take a brief hiatus from band life to tour solo with longtime friend Kevin Devine this summer. Kevin has opened for Brand New at some high profile gigs, and Jesse has been known to show his face at Kevin's shows (and recordings) once in a while. They're not coming close to New York, so I'll have to settle for belated YouTube videos, but this promises to be a show worth seeing. If they're coming to your town, get your tickets here.

Tour Dates:
Jul 17: Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
Jul 18: Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
Jul 21: Hollywood, CA @ The Roxy
Jul 22: San Diego, CA @ House of Blues - Delta Room
Jul 23: Phoenix, AZ @ Brickhouse Theater
Jul 25: Dallas, TX @ The Loft
Jul 26: Austin, TX @ Mohawk
Jul 27: Oklahoma City, OK @ The Conservatory
Jul 29: Lawrence, KS @ Jackpot Saloon
Jul 30: Omaha, NE @ Waiting Room
Jul 31: Iowa City, IA The Picador
Aug 4: Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre

The one unfortunate thing about this tour pairing is that Kevin probably won't break out his "Jesus Christ" cover.

Brand New to release new song: (Fork and Knife)

If Brand New's past release schedule is to be any indication, it might be a very long time before fans have a full-length follow-up to the phenomenal The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me to sink their teeth into. Which is why it's cool of the band to throw a bone out now and then. On Tuesday, Brand New will release a song called "(Fork and Knife)" on the usually suspect music download stores.

And of course, they're going on tour with Thrice, who rule. Dates at myspace.com/brandnew.

*UPDATE*
According to a Brand New Street Team email, "(Fork and Knife)" will sound awfully familiar to you if you're in possession of the leaked demos that came out prior to the latest record. It was the 7th track. Now if we can get #'s 1 and 2 released sometime too...

*UPDATE 2*
Here's the link to get it on Amazon's new download service, with no DRM: (Fork And Knife)

I was right! I was wrong.

Some time ago I made a completely baseless conjecture that "Sowing Season (Yeah)" by Brand New was inspired by a short story. Well, I was right in assuming there was some literary inspiration. I was just wrong about everything else.

The 2nd verse of Sowing Season is adapted from "If" by Rudyard Kipling. You read it here first. I read it in the liner notes. It used to hang on Jesse Lacey's father's wall.

The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me is out today, btw.

The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me

I'm sitting here listening to Brand New's The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me (out Tuesday). Honestly I don't even know where to begin. Or where to end. I'm just going to ramble for a while, I guess. If endless ebullient blubbering isn't your thing, the take-home message will be this: It's GOOD.

At 21 years old, a man in body but not yet in mind, I was an emotional wreck. Nobody's fault but my own. I know that now. But then, oh then. No record in the world could have fallen into my lap and done for me what Your Favorite Weapon did. God, I played the shit out of that. Over and over. I'm lucky my roommates didn't kill me. The vitriol.

Is that what you call tact?
You're as subtle as a brick in the small of my back.

And then the summer of 2003. Deja Entendu never left my cd player. It was darker. More grown up. There was responsibility in the lyrics. Turns out Jesse wasn't able to stay 18 forever, stay like that forever. Turns out it's more complicated. Turns out life on the road isn't all parties and fun. Turns out people expect a lot from you when you're their favorite band. They expect a whole lot from you, and you're just a kid.

And we won't let you in...

And the critics got on board. A major label deal. And then three years of silence. Cancelled shows. Was the pressure too much?

8 untitled, unfinished songs leak. More silence. And then a few shows. A small tour. A bigger tour. Videos of the new songs start to surface on youtube. The faithful work themselves into a frenzy. We knew it was going to be good. We knew they'd come through.

My bright is much too slight to hold back all my dark

Believe me when I tell you that it's better than you thought it would be. That it was worth the wait. I haven't even had time for all of it to sink in, yet. But believe me, believe me, believe me. Believe me. It's good.

Sowing Season

The first single from Brand New's forthcoming record The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me (see the full tracklist) will be "Sowing Season (Yeah)." If you're one of the callous scofflaws that downloaded the leaked Brand New demos a while back, track 8 of that demo would eventually evolve into "Sowing Season (Yeah)."

A quick google search on a slow day yielded this short story by one Thomas O'Malley, titled "The Sowing Season." It's a quick read and I quite enjoyed it.

The best kind of blog posts are the ones that propagate unsubstantiated rumors, so here's something for you to chew on: Thomas O'Malley is a professor at the University of Missouri. Brand New recorded this record at Sweet Tea in Oxford, Mississippi. Both states start with "Miss." So Jesse Lacey almost definitely read this story and named the song after it. You read it here first.

If you preorder the record, you'll get a copy of the single for free, with an exclusive b-side called "Coca Cola." I did it.

***UPDATE*** you can now stream "Sowing Season" at myspace.

th dvl nd gd r rgng nsd m

According to the band's Wikipedia entry (although qualified with the speculation disclaimer) Brand New's latest record will be called The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me. Here's the (supposed) tracklisting:

1. Sowing Season (Yeah)
2. Millstone
3. Jesus Christ
4. Degausser
5. Limousine
6. You Won't Know
7. Welcome to Bangkok
8. Not the Sun
9. Luca
10. Untitled
11. Archers
12. Handcuffs

According to the band's own site, it'll be released November 21st.

All the blood just rushed out of my head.

Brand New - Webster Hall, 7/28/06

First, an admission of guilt. Almost always, I like to try to get to shows early enough to see every band that's playing. Sure, you sit through some stinkers that way, but I've also discovered some of my favorite bands by seeing them open shows. But at Webster Hall, doors open at 6:30 for shows because they have to end early enough for the venue to go Optimus-Prime and transform into a dance club until whatever ungodly hour those kids get tired. And I wasn't able to get there until around 8. Let's just say it involved some liverwurst sandwiches. I don't want to talk about it.

So I saw two bands. I don't even really know if there had been one on before I got there or they just made those poor emo kids wait a couple hours before the music started.

Colour Revolt, from Mississippi, was, put briefly, pretty rad. Loud, but melodic. 3 guitars. Screaming. And a kick-ass drummer. A++++++ EXCELLENT EBAYER WOULD DO BIZ WITH AGAIN!!!

And, during Colour Revolt's last song, they were joined on stage by the guys from Brand New. The last night of a tour is the best night to see a tour, for reasons like this. Garrett (bass) maintained his reputation for being the absolute weirdo in the band by wearing a silver mexican wrestling mask. One time that guy handed me my ASS in beer-pong. I don't want to talk about that either.

Ok, so Brand New. Since I'm a borderline lame-o fan-boy, I'm going to skip the "review" part to spare you the blubbering, and just list the highlights:

• An acoustic verse from "Ziggy Stardust." Most of the audience looked confused.


• Guitars thrown EVERYWHERE.


• A trashed drumset before the end of the show (one of the flying guitars).


• The announcement at the beginning of the 5 song encore: "We're called Brand New. The show begins now."


• A solo, mellowed out, and seemingly unplanned version of "Jude Law and a Semester Abroad."


• While the band seemed to trod perfunctorily through some of the older stuff, they really seemed to come to life with the new songs they played, and their energy transferred right over to a crowd that's been starving for a new record for years. It's not always the case that the new/unknown music is the best part of the show. This time it was.


• This one really might be me being crazy: I know Jesse Lacey loves Springsteen, just like me. Before one song he stood up on stage and said "How you all doing tonight? [cheers] That's good. [more cheers] This is...uh..." in the exact same tone/cadence the Boss uses at the beginning of "The River" on the Live 75-85 set. It was too uncanny to have been an accident. And as I've often said, who better to imitate than Bruce? Nobody, that's who.

It wasn't a perfect show. There were some potty guys to my right who WOULD NOT STOP YELLING SONG NAMES, which is basically the douchiest thing you can do (and if you're the type of guy who does that, kindly punch yourself in the face). And it was hot as hell in there. But man, oh man, was it good.

Look for a new record from Brand New this fall. It's been a long time coming. And if this show was any indication, it should be worth the wait.