lowstring

I had another chance to check out one of my favorite bands on Friday; Brand New. I’m not a fan of seeing bands at colleges, because it always seems that the students are just there because “everyone else” is doing it, but it did seem the crowd actually wanted to be there and were fans of the artists. I missed opening band Me Without You (because I was late) but I did get a chance to check out Thrice. I have a couple Thrice albums, and also the Dustin Kensrue solo album, but I wouldn’t say I am a huge fan. Digging that Alt Country sound, I really enjoyed Dustin’s album Please Come Home, and was impressed at how much of a departure it was from any Thrice material to date. Still, I am an alternative / alternative metal fan, and was looking forward to seeing what Thrice was all about. The band to me, sounded very tight. Kensrue obviously can sing, and I enjoyed the show. They played a couple of new songs (new to me at least) and the crowd seemed to enjoy the show. I will have to go back to my iTunes library and listen to those Thrice albums some more.

On to why I was really there; to see Brand New! When you see the same band on the same tour, you are always assuming the set list will not change. To my surprise Brand New really mixed up the set list from the last time I saw them, playing a mostly new set, with some oldies thrown in. They played every song of off The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me, with the exception of “untitled” although the encore jam, seemed to mimic “untitled”. All in all I thought the show was great, and the sound was excellent. Sometimes gyms aren’t the best place to see shows for acoustic reasons, but the sound guy was on top of things and did a good job. They didn’t play many songs off of Deja, but that is ok, I enjoyed hearing the latest songs live. The show was stopped because someone was injured down in the pit, so maybe they took a couple songs out of the set list to make up time, I don’t know.

If you have the means, I highly recommend checking out a Brand New show in your area. Or better yet, drive your ass somewhere and check them out!

I finally got to see one of my favorite bands last week, and that band is Brand New. They played @ SUNY Cortland, down in Cortland, New York (which is about a 2 hour drive from me). I have heard they are good in concert, but I have seen many a good shows in my 26 years on earth, so I was skeptical. Well the rumors are true, and I may have to just rank this concert right up there in the top 5 concerts I have attended!

The set list was pretty good, although I would have like heard more off of Deja Entendu or Your Favorite Weapon. They also did not play “Limousine” which is a favorite of mine off of their latest album The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me. All in all though, I thought it was a good mixture between the 3 albums. One thing I did notice was how little anyone in the band spoke (which is fine with me). The only time Jesse did anything but sing was right before he strapped on the acoustic for “The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot”.

The highlights of the night for me, was Jesse playing “Play Crack the Sky” (from Deja), and also the guys playing “Jesus Christ” (also off the new album). They ended the night with “Welcome to Bangkok” off of TDAGARIM, which climaxed with the whole band and tech’s banging on the 2 drum sets they had set up. Jesse and Vinnie both dropped their guitars and left them on stage, resulting in some of the sweetest feedback I have ever heard! I highly recommend checking these guys out, although most of their shows have been selling out! For some reason this show was not advertised on their website, so I guess I was lucky I found out about it. Now if I could only get to a New Amsterdams show :-/