Brand New Returns Home With Mixed Results

Brand New, Glassjaw, Crime in Stereo
Oakdale Theater, Wallingford CT
November 25th 2009

On the night before Thanksgiving, Brand New would make a stop in Connecticut on their way to a homecoming show on Long Island. While it would have been easy to mail it in knowing home was less than two hours away, the band put in another great effort, ripping though old favorites as well as the majority of tracks from their latest effort, Daisy.

Just like in Boston a week earlier (read my review here), new songs received only a luke-warm reception, while cuts such as “Jude Law and a Semester Abroad” and “Okay I Believe You but my Tommy Gun Don’t” had the crowd up in arms. The only disappointing aspect of the set was that it was about 15 minutes shorter than their Boston effort and excluded other fan favorites such as “Mixed Tape” and “The Shower Scene.”

The shorter set shouldn’t take away from the fact that Jesse Lacey and Co. were once again first-rate, proving that even when they should have one foot out the door, they’re still one of today’s great live bands.

Brand New, Glassjaw, Thrice, Manchester Orchestra, Kevin Devine
Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale New York
November 29th 2009

You would think this one would deserve its own review, wouldn’t you? Unfortunately, Brand New’s  biggest ever headlining show didn’t quite live

Glassjaw's Palumbo

up to expectations. With support from a hand full of their favorite bands at an arena just minutes from where they grew up, I think everyone who made their way inside the Nassau Coliseum was expecting something special. What they got was something very ordinary.

The main reason the show wasn’t the rousing success it should have been was the time constraints placed on each band. Five acts on one stage is too many, and it became quite obvious when openers Kevin Devine, Manchester Orchestra, and Thrice were all limited to very short sets. Main support Glassjaw was allowed to play longer, and put on the type of show that has made them Long Island legends, at least to those who mixed it up on the floor of the cavernous arena. Daryl Palumbo was at his deranged best, singing and screaming his vocal cords to shreds.

The best way to describe the headliners set would be “loud.” The speakers which towered above the stage pumped out the type of sound that could finally do justice to tracks such as “Sink” and “Gasoline.” The band did their part by turning in the frenzied performance all of their fans have come to expect.  There was very little between song banter for a hometown show, which wasn’t much of a surprise considering Jessey Lacey is rarely one to wax poetic in such situations.

The most memorable moment of the night was not an individual song, but was when the band finally paused to look around at the thousands of occupied seats stretching high up the rafters. Understated as always, Lacey simply said “This is big… Bigger than my bedroom.”

The band closed the set with “Seventy Times 7” much sooner than the crowd had hoped, most likely due to a curfew imposed by the venue. While the thousands who filed out of the arena left satisfied, this should have been the type of show that is talked about for years to come, but I doubt that will be the case. The second acoustic stage featuring old favorites Vinnie Caruana of The Movielife and Andy Jackson of Hot Rod Circuit was a very nice touch, as were the four bands who opened on the main stage. However, the next time Brand New returns to Long Island, hopefully they will keep the focus where it belongs, which is squarely on themselves.

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