Brand New nostalgia.
Due to Jeremy Enigk (former front man from Sunny Day Real Estate and The Fire Theft) pulling out of the tour there are only two bands playing tonight; the brilliant but under represented Mewithoutyou and of course, Brand New. Obviously the vast majority of the audience is here to see the latter, judging by how much noise they make when the band finally make an appearance; and luckily, technically they don't disappoint. Jesse Lacey has a great live voice and does all the tracks justice, however it does feel a touch like the Jesse Lacey show at times; often the lights go down low and he appears sitting down in spotlight with a guitar, this happens a touch too often and it seems a bit strange to leave the rest of the band out in the cold like that. The audience doesn't really seem to notice, or care though and they all sing along at the top of their lungs for the most part.
Brand New start by playing about half the tracks from their first album "Your Favourite Weapon" which seems to impress the hardcore fans in crowd no end as they were probably just expecting to hear tracks from the new album, then they move on to album two: "Deja Entendu" and they play it in its entirety...it starts to become apparent at this point that unless they're going to miss out the new album completely then this is going to be a monster length set. And yes, it is. After going off stage briefly after playing "Deja Entendu" they come back and play only four or five tracks from the new album "The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me" finally finishing after a massive two hours.
It's obvious that this crowd, used as they are to an average of 45-60 minute sets at the uni, have found it hard work towards the end. Even the biggest fans have become a bit quiet having wrecked their voices after about the half way point by screaming along and the majority of people can be seen shifting their weight painfully from foot to foot and checking their watches. True, Brand New exceeded expectations technically, but unless they're your favourite band in the entire world, two hours can feel pretty self indulgent and like a really long time when there's nowhere to sit down; you get the feeling that they might have outstayed their welcome for most people.