A great way to start
The Brakes, who are made up of a collection of musicians from the likes of British Sea Power and Electric Soft Parade, warmed up for Editors at Newcastle Academy with a relatively short but concise set.
Fans were certainly not short changed by this as given that every other song, or so it seemed, clocked in at under one minute and a handful not even passing the ten second mark, The Brakes could still shoehorn most of their 'Give Blood' album into approximately half an hour. The album itself is only thirty minutes long and yet has sixteen tracks on it, giving you an idea of the length of some of their songs.
In between the short sharp shouty tracks were a mixture of seventies punk, The Clash and Roxy Music stand out as influences, and one or two country based tunes, a combination wh[ich made for a performance that for those who weren't familiar with this band had a surprise round every corner. 'Ring A Ding Ding' and 'I Can't Stand To Stand Beside You' are both set highpoints.
The Brakes are a hugely entertaining band, who are essentially just four mates having fun playing music. Sometimes when a band is formed from members of other bands, with the ultimate goal of jamming and mucking about, to you and I what they create can leave a lot to be desired. Not so the Brakes, as their raw enjoyment in what they do transfers well to the watching crowd. The power, energy and quick fire nature of their set made them an ideal warm up act as they set the night up perfectly.