Officially Stefny

Okay, so this is my concert review of my favourite band ever, Brand New. They are from Merrick, New York and feature Jesse Lacey, Brian Lane, Vinnie Accardi, and Garrett Tierney; Derrick Sherman is also in the band unofficially, as a touring member and on their third and most recent album “The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me.” Jesse was previously a member of the band Taking Back Sunday before they were famous, and has written several songs about the experience in the band and with his friend John Nolan. Since you have no prior knowledge about their music, I will provide background information on the songs if there is one. Also, since this was a Brand New concert, everyone there obviously wanted to be there because they spent the $35 on the tickets; therefore, all songs were met with tremendous audience appreciation.

After the two headliners, mewithoutYou and Thrice, Brand New took the stage around 10:30pm. Their first song was track 7 from their latest record, “Welcome To Bangkok.” The song is instrumental but they always find new ways to make it even more amazing than it already is. The original song is only 3:06 but they stretch it out to probably 5 minutes. At the show in April, Kevin Devine and members of Manchester Orchestra came and helped out with the song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry2x0jp6Ar4), but no one from the opening bands played at this show. Nonetheless, the song is brilliant and even more so live.

The second song was “Jaws Theme Swimming” off their second album “Deja Entendu.” This song is up and down in terms of feeling and volume. The verses are pretty mellow but the chorus steps it up a lot.

Before I go any farther, there are no songs from their first album, “Your Favorite Weapon.” Toward the end of the show, some people around me were shouting things like “YOUR FAVORITE WEAPON!” and “JUST SAY THE WORDS ‘YOUR FAVORITE WEAPON’ AND I’LL BE HAPPY!” Alas, they played nothing from “Your Favorite Weapon” which is sad because they always do…

Third up was “Guernica”, off “Deja Entendu.” This song is amazing, beautiful… no other words can define it. It was written my Jesse about his grandfather being ill. The chorus is: “Nobody plans to be half a world away at times like these so I sat alone and waited out the night. The best part of what has happened was the part I must have missed, so I’m asking you to shine it on and stick around. I’m not writing my goodbyes.” It’s a very up tempo, high energy song with an amazing drum part at the beginning. This song is always greeted with louder than average applause and screaming because it is just that spectacular.

“Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don’t” is also a Brand New classic from “Deja Entendu”. The lyrics are genius. The song is basically just saying “I’m better than you, you wish you were me, I am the greatest” and of course this is true. =) This song is also always met with EXTREMELY LOUD audience reaction.

Another new song, “Millstone,” was next. This song has been speculated about many times. It’s pretty obvious it’s from the Bible, but exactly which verse is unknown. It has been brought up in Revelations and Proverbs (I think) but no one but Jesse really knows. This song is on the slower side but gets pretty upbeat during the chorus and bridge.

“The Archers Bows Have Broken” is another new song that everyone loves. It’s very upbeat and resembles one of the band’s leaked “Fight Off Your Demons” demo songs. This song is loved by the mosh pit, let me tell you, but not as much as the next song.

“Sic Transit Gloria… Glory Fades” is by far Brand New’s most famous and most loved song by their fans. This is THE FAVOURITE of moshers and THE BEST music video since their conception. It is very bass driven and has a wonderfully upbeat chorus. The song’s lyrics follow a young man being forced into sexual acts much earlier than he would’ve liked and “despite everything he learned from his friends he doesn’t feel so prepared.” The bridge is the absolute best part of the video and unfortunately Jesse does not act this portion of the video out. Don’t worry, the video has absolutely nothing to do with the song. The video follows Jesse running from something (we don’t see it) and into a bar with a sheep on the door. As he enters and sits at the bar, he notices that every move he makes is done by all other bar patrons and he realizes that he can control them. After the bridge, it is discovered that another, shadowy, man can control Jesse. My opinion is that this is who/what Jesse was running from at the beginning of the video.

The last song on their new album, “Handcuffs”, is next. This song is an anomaly among the rest because it was not written by Jesse Lacey, but by Vin Accardi. It’s a pretty slow song and for the most part just two guitars. A bit into the song, drums come in and there are also other random sounds. This song was also met with a tremendous amount of applause and screaming.

The first “official” single off “The Devil And God…” is “Jesus Christ” or sometimes just “Jesus.” I have this song on a 45 and it’s even more phenomenal on there. It’s a slow song with a false finish. Even all the fans at the show begin clapping before the ACTUAL ending because the song is so sensational live and they are overcome with the need to applaud.

“Luca” is another song from the latest album and my mom’s favourite. Rumour has is that the name for the song comes from “The Godfather” but I have never seen the movie so I wouldn’t know. The song is acoustic for the first 40 seconds until another guitar, bass, and drums come in. Unlike most other songs, the chorus is actually slower than the verses. The second verse has a weird sireny sounding guitar part that is just great. The bridge is almost a whisper and back to the acoustic, then suddenly at almost 4 minutes into the song, it goes from a whisper to a scream (kinda like the song) and brings all the instruments back in.

“Limousine” is truly a very sad song. It is on “The Devil and God…” and is about a true story. About a mile and a half from Jesse’s house, two limousines were following each other after a wedding reception (or to a wedding reception). A 7 year old girl named Katie Flynn (http://blahblahfreakingblah.blogspot.com/2005/07/drinking-and-driving-and-little-katie.html) was in the front limousine and her mother and the bride were in the back limousine. A young Long Island over-privileged kid had a bit too much to drink and was going the wrong way onto a highway exit. He hit the first limousine with such force that the driver was killed instantly and Katie was decapitated. After the accident her mother went to find her daughter and found her head on the road. Anyway, the song is pretty slow until 1:50 and there are explosions and loudness. The song gets gradually more quiet after that. A bit after 3 minutes to the end he repeats one chunk of song with a few minor changes. The first two times he says “I love you so much, do me a favour baby don’t reply. Cause I can dish it out, but I can’t take it.” Then he counts “One will love…” to “Seven loves…” and then he repeats seven again and ends repeating “I said I loved…” until the song ends at 7:42.

I was SO EXCITED when they played “Not The Sun” from their new album because they didn’t play it back in April (and it was the only new song they didn’t play). It’s very upbeat and rocking and I love it; it’s my 2nd favourite on the album. I think because they didn’t play it last time, this song got great reaction from those of us in the crowd.

The first “unofficial” single from “The Devil and God…” is “Sowing Season” and it was prefaced by a nice little speech from Jesse. You see, back in April, at this very location, Jesse was pelted by a shirt or a hoodie or something in the middle of this song and he refused to finish it. He started cussing the guy out and then apologized because he doesn’t like cursing. But basically, he asked “Why do you pay to go see somebody and then throw stuff at them when they’re singing?” Anyway, this time he brought that up (which suprised me because I didn’t think he’d even remember that it happened, much less WHERE) and asked that if anyone had something to give him to wait until the show was over. =) So it turns out that they got to finish the song this time and everyone was happy!

“You Won’t Know”, another new song, was next. This is my favourite Brand New song. Period. End of story. It’s beautiful, amazing, wonderful, spectacular, breath-taking, mind-blowing, astonishing, staggering, sensational, incredible, remarkable, etc. It starts out very chill but when the first chorus rolls around it is quiet no more. Well, actually it is during the bridge later on, but it doesn’t stay that way for long. The end of the song is Jesse repeating the words “You won’t know” and he always makes it last an extra 20 minutes. Well, not actually 20, but he does drag it out way longer than usual.

Another of my favourites from the new album, actually probably tied for second, is “Degausser”. This was technically their last song before the encore, but the encore is standard and everyone knew it was coming. When the opening chords began, some idiot beside me said “This sounds like demo number 8!” and I pretty much let him have it. Besides, Demo 8 is the “Sowing Season” demo so this guy was just an all-around moron and was probably just being smart by saying it.

The encore was another instrumental song but is not titled and is simply called “Untitled”. This real song is only around 2 minutes long but they made it super long and super exciting (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKGLOfSbnwk – the title says “Welcome to Bangkok” but whoever typed that is stupid). There is a little riff in the background of the recorded song that they brought to the forefront and extended beyond imagination. The song starts out with just Derrick, Vinnie, and Garrett but Brian and Jesse soon come back out. Brian doesn’t have a part in the song, but he’s out there anyway. As soon as Jesse walks back out the crowd erupts with more screaming, as they do every time Jesse appears on stage.

As you can tell, Brand New is the best band of all time. Now that you know this, you should give them a listen. Try the links I’ve supplied you with. Your life will be changed. You will be addicted. I promise.