Montag, 10. Jul 2006, 2:11

I saw Brand New in Las Vegas on Thursday night.

Drove all night through the desert, exhausted standing in line for the show…but excited. Nervous. Jittery.

…you see…this is probably the first show I'd ever been to where I'd been a fan of the band for more than two years or so. Sure, I've seen some musicians before that have been great influences on me (Radiohead and Pedro the Lion, for example), but none quite like Brand New. Deja Entendu, their last album (released in 2003) pretty much served to define my senior year of high school and freshman year of college. Finally getting to see them in concert…well, it was a big deal.

So, in short…it was the most amazing, phenomenal, depressing, heart-breaking rock show I've ever been to.

Amazing/phenomenal because Jesse Lacey and Co. are sound genius live. Like nothing I could have ever imagined. Every song was executed to perfection, from the opener "Tautou" to the closer "Play Crack the Sky." Jesse's voice was possibly even greater than I could have imagined, and he frequently slipped into higher vocal ranges, serving to lift the songs and drown out the crowd attempting to sing along.

But that was just it.
Basically, I was thinking about writing a big "screw you" letter to 99% of the crowd at the House of Blues (Mandalay Bay) last Thursday, but I realized how pointless that is when who really needs to be addressed is (most) Brand New fans in general.

And when I say "fans," I mean these people:
–Those who feel compelled to scream every word back at Jesse in a screech that would make a cat take a gun to it's head.
–Those who moshed–seriously, there was a circle pit at one point–at the show. (These kids should go to Sounds from the Underground and get eaten my cannibal metal-heads.)
–Everyone who only likes Your Favorite Weapon.
–Everyone who stood around confused when Brand New played through their new songs, thinking they were too slow.
–All the girls who cheered during "Me vs. Maradona vs. Elvis" at the line "It's ladies night/and all the girls drink for free" (even though the entire song is about a guy who is taking advantage of a girl by getting her drunk).
–The people behind us who decided to talk about their stock portfolios (or God knows what) throughout the entire set.

In fact, besides the bands, I only have three people to thank:
–Omar, a guy from New York (and from the band Music in the Missionary Position), who was standing next to us, and made waiting for the show to start less unbearable.
–The guy at the bar, who got super excited when I gave him a tip when he got me a cup of ice water.
–My girlfriend (for bearing the drive with me).

No one seemed to get it when Jesse explained that he isn't the boy who wrote "Soco Amaretto Lime" anymore…that he's 28, and he wrote the song when he was 18…and that even though he doesn't feel like the person who sings the song, he hoped that the crowd still got some enjoyment out of it…
…when he changed the lyrics to the last line from "You're just jealous because we're young and in love" to: "I'm just jealous because you're young and in love," I nearly teared up. (Never before had the lines "Watch me as I cut myself wide open/On this stage, as I am paid to spill my guts" been made more clear.)

Read the message boards, and fans are complaining that Jesse is more reclusive on stage…that he barely interacts with his audience…that the band seems cold and uninterested. Realize that these comments are usually made by 14 year olds. I'd never seen a man more honest with a room full of people he (I hope) wishes would grow up and understand.

And yeah, Jesse looked like he was having a blast. He joked on stage, jumped around, got into it, and flat-out rocked the House.

But here's the deal.
Brand New is growing up. And they're going to be big.
And I know this is a big claim to make, but they could even become Pitchfork big. (Not withstanding the fact that Deja garnered a pretty unheard of 6.9 for a Long Island punk/screamo album.)
Because their new music is destroying the genre that they practically created themselves. The two songs they played live (which, in raw form, can be found on the Fight Off Your Demos that are floating around the Internet) are brilliant, and Jesse seemed most excited and happy while playing them, even though the crowd looked aghast.

Brand New…becoming…indie rock?

This is the future.

The new album (unarguably rumored to be titled Fight Off Your Demons) is supposed to drop sometime around October. Until then, I'll be holding my breath.

One hopes that Jesse is ready to play 18+ and 21+ venues.
And that this tour was more of a "thank you to my young fans who have waited for so long…but wake up…because the times, they are a'changin'."

…and I get chills just thinking about it.