Brand New Concert w/ Thrice and MeWithoutYou
I recently had the opportunity to see Brand New at the International Centre in Mississauga, and it was an AMAZING experience. As with the central theme of all my reviews, I’m not here to critique them, as much as I am to boast about how great they are live. I was a bit sceptical heading in to the concert because I was not a fan of Thrice’s The Alchemy Index or Brand New’s The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me. Besides that, I found Mewithoutyou to be just ok. As expected by any concert Mewithoutyou put on a good performance, but I was not overly impressed with the music. Thrice also had a stellar performance, and I was quite pleased that they played a couple songs off Artist In The Ambulance, but for an hour long set, it was just not nearly enough. Being satisfied, I felt that the concert had at least lived up to the exciting, adrenaline-rush experience that I expected of any rock concert.
That’s when Brand New came on, and definitely stole the show making a successful effort to end the concert with a BANG. And quite the set it was, for at least an hour and a half Brand New played most of the songs off Deja Entendu (which happens to be my second favourite album of all time), and TDAGARIOM. Now as I mentioned before, I was never a fan of Brand New’s latest album, but the set they played was something I was not expecting. They played a perfect list of songs in the perfect order, which reminded me why I had enjoyed Deja so much in the past. Deja as several parts, is just decent (ok maybe it’s fantastic), but as a whole, it’s an album that I am excited to hear each and every time. I felt the same way about Brand New’s performance, the songs they played ranged from good to incredible, but the set list as a whole blew me away. It was an hour and half long experience of listening to raw vocals, riveting guitar, and pure emotion.
Brand New never paused when they were in the zone, playing song after song. They stopped maybe once to greet the Torontonian fans, but it was not necessary with their outstanding performance. The vocals and instrumental work was spot on to their records with an added flare for a truly unforgettable live performance. The vocals had just a bit more emotion, the bridges were played just a little longer, and the solos were just a little more intricate. All this combined for a PHENOMENAL show. Brand New had songs ranging from post hardcore screamo to softer more melodic sounds. If you are a fan of Brand New definitely CHECK them out live, and if you’re not, CHECK them out live. If you don’t know if you’re a fan, Allan has already written a review for The Devils And God Are Raging Inside Of Me, so go ahead and give that a read. I’d also like to say Thrice and Mewithoutyou are worth seeing live if you’re a fan of post-hardcore/screamo music.
Here are a couple of my favourite tracks off Deja Entendu:
Brand New – Sic Transit Gloria… Gloria Fades
Brand New – Okay I Believe You But My Tommy Gun Don’t
That’s probably the only thing stopping me from seeing Brand New, when I don’t dig their latest stuff. Some people really liked TDAGARIOM though.