Brand New

If you haven’t heard of Brand New by now, then I must pose this question. Where exactly have you been? Formed in 2000 in new jersey, Jesse Lacey and crew have had two successful albums entitled ‘Your favourite weapon’ and ‘Deja Entendu” with the third released earlier this year, the controversial ‘The devil and god are raging inside of me”.

The band enjoyed successful stints supporting Finch in 2003, where they gained a fierce fan base and had their last UK tour in early 2004. Since then, all has been quiet on the music front with the band slipping out of the circa, only to blast back into it last September with a one off gig at London’s Brixton academy, which was warmly welcomed.

I hadn’t seen Manchester’s Apollo this excited in a long time. The atmosphere was on an all time high. Anticipated shouts and whispers filled the auditorium to its full capacity and pleasantly, the crowd was a mixture of fans old and new.

Lacey entered on stage alone to a dimly lit purple and red haze, his face shrouded in darkness by his hoody as he slowly picked at his guitar strings and delivered the introduction to the song that put Brand New on the scene; ‘Jude law and a semester abroad.’ Except this time it was without the rest of his band. The song was played acoustically but just as emotively and worked surprisingly well. After all, we do like pop punk to stay loud enough so we can bounce around and screech along to the choruses.

After a thunderous applause, the rest of the band appeared on stage. The backdrop was lit up and delights from the first album were offered in the form of ‘Shower scene’ and ‘Seventy times 7’ before slowing down the raucous crowd with ‘Soco amaretto lime’ and I have to say that in that moment, with the stage lit so low apart from a few white sparkling lights I could feel the emotion in the crowd.

Lacey is a front man boasting many a vocal talent. The ability to screech with such power on songs such as ‘The quiet things..’ and ‘Geurnica’, mixed with the low and heartfelt melodies on quieter tracks ‘Me vs Maradona vs Elvis’ and ‘Okay I believe you but my tommy gun don’t.’ Lacey is as varied in vocals as the band is with their song lyrics and titles, a particular favourite of the fans and this was definitely a gig to sing along to, so much so that at points all I could hear was the crowd.

Deja Entendu was played in entirety bar one song, as the set was rounded off perfectly with the beautiful ‘Play crack the sky.’ But this left one question in our minds? Where was the third album?

In a tactic I’ve never seen before, Lacey played 5 songs off the third record as an encore. ‘Sowing season’ and of course ‘Jesus Christ’ were delivered along with some of the more instrumental tracks which shows just how much growing up Brand New have done in the past few years, taking them down roads not too dissimilar from bands such as Explosions in the sky. Instrumentally they have become impeccably tighter and stronger, and Lacey’s vocals for me will never grow old. An absolutely one off gig, and 2 hours did not seem nearly enough to justify the talent of this band. I believe Brand New have something for everyone who has a passion for music.

FUTURE GIGS

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