Brand New, Kevin Devine @ TheEnmore Theatre, Sydney(25/3/10)

Wed 31st Mar, 2010 in Gig Reviews

2008 wasn’t a good year for Brand New’s frontman Jesse Lacey. Amidst the final world tour dates with his band, Brand New, reports arose of him infuriated by singing, clapping fans; as well as telling American festival goers that they should be elsewhere instead of watching them. Needless to say, it would have been an uncomfortable experience for the audiences.

Thankfully, Lacey was able to vent all that anger and depression into Daisy, last year’s addition to the Brand New discography and home to some of their finest work to date. Returning to Australia for the first time since Daisy’s release, it’s now we can make it official: Lacey’s alright. Still pissed as hell, but he’s not taking it out on the audience anymore – rather, it’s all packed into a memorable, emotive performance that pleased fans of all eras.

“Hi,” mumbles the frail-looking figure on stage, dimly lit and holding on firmly to his guitar as the rest of his band tunes up (Brand New’s guitarist Vin Acardi amongst them). “My name’s Kevin Devine... and this is the Damn Good Band.” Many Brand New diehards would have known plenty about Devine and his work, given their close association – there were even a few attendees that Devine himself recognised from his solo acoustic show at the Annandale the night before. Still, for many, it was an introductory experience to the New York-based musician.

Although it took him a fair amount of his set to loosen up and begin to enjoy the performance, Devine still left a strong impression in his time on the Enmore stage. The set borrowed mostly from his latest album, Brother’s Blood, with songs like Another Bag of Bones and the brilliant finale of the album’s title track serving as highlights. The latter earned Devine a tonne of respect for persevering through the end of the song in spite of his guitar failing him entirely. After all, the show must go on – and even if his guitar couldn’t be heard, Devine’s high-pitched wails and pleas most certainly could. A thrashing cover of Nirvana’s School was also wheeled out to a surprisingly small rate of recognition – not that this effected the onstage energy one iota. Devine put on an impressive show, proving that even the most soft-hearted acoustic troubadours can “go electric” without cries of “Judas!”

There was absolutely no fanfare leading up to the arrival of Brand New. The house lights went down, the stage lights came on. No intro music, no “Good evening, we’re Brand New”, nothing – apart from the cheering from the packed-out audience, of course. The band simply walked on, one by one, plugging in and launching into the visceral stomp of Sink, one of Daisy’s highlights. Given the distinct lack of interaction and the muted communication between the guys onstage, it really should have been nothing but caustic and discomforting. The quintet/occasional sextet were seemingly in a world of their own, with Lacey only briefly thanking the audience for coming to the show. Given the quality of the music, however, most of the crowd barely seemed to notice. After all, we were far too busy engaging with such activities as bouncing off the walls to Vices, singing our hearts out to Okay, I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don’t and vicariously getting pissed at John Nolan during old favourite Seventy Times Seven, which Lacey began with a turn to drummer Brian Lane and a click of his heels.

Though they may have looked distant, they certainly didn’t sound it. The triple guitar attack of Lacey, Acardi (tonight performing with what appeared to be an injured foot) and Derrick Sherman was forceful and well-arranged; particularly in tracks like the fantastic Daisy slow-burner You Stole. Lacey’s vocals were delivered passionately and energetically; though not always clear in the mix. As it turned out, the sound issues were the only major fault of the evening. During the performance, it was often quite difficult to hear everything going on. Though there was no Devine-esque blowout for Brand New, elements of the band’s sound suffered – notably Garrett Tierney’s normally emphatic bass, tonight mostly background noise. It was frustrating at times, but when it died down and things became clearer – the beautifully done Jesus springs to mind – nothing else mattered but the music.

These are the songs that many amongst the audience evidently appeared to have a strong emotional bond with, with many singing along with closed eyes and clenched fists or with their sweating palms held tightly to their chests. From Your Favourite Weapon to Daisy, the setlist was balanced and versatile, despite a no-show from The Quiet Things That No-One Ever Knows. It was for this reason that it was such a thrill to hear some of these heartstring-pulling anthems performed live, and why the group didn’t need to add an encore following Lacey and Acardi’s stripped-back performance of Play Crack The Sky. Really, there was nothing else to say.

Check out the photos from the gig