brand new
Cardiff University, February 12 2007.
words by Laila and a special thanks to Adam Gasson for letting us use his captivating photography.
The Great Hall is tonight hosting Long island quartet Brand New and there is an understated aura of excitement among the ranks of the young audience.
Brand New is a band that, not unlike Marmite, excites an equal amount of furious hatred or complete and utter devotion and tonight the people attending are here to worship.
Unlike many of their peers and fellow Long Islander (mainly Taking Back Sunday), Brand New have not followed the MTV route after signing for a major label and their third album was the result of almost three years of waiting and the battle with a lot of personal daemons. And tonight those daemons came out to play some amazing music.
Aided only by a back drop of kaleidoscopic lights the rest of the show is left to the music and the voice and charisma of front man Jesse Lacey.
The band opens with the classic Jude Law and the semester abroad, from the first album Your favourite weapon and it is a good choice as the audience feels compelled to jump around and joins in with a contagious sing-along.
The choice of set list for tonight is every fan dream come true, Brand New plays all the classics from the first album, including the haunting and melancholic SoCo Amaretto Lime and it is clear in the shift of the lyrics that singer Jesse Lacey really mean it when he sings “I am just jealous cause you’re young and in love”
And the audience falls in love all over again tonight.
The rest of the set is made mostly of the gorgeous songs from the most celebrated Deja Entendu and there is a sense of desperate desire for communicating, expressing and declaring a full range of emotions that build up to a crescendo of intensity and burning rage. The music is flawless, the voice is powerful, emotional and real and the kids in the crowd know that they are witnessing something that will be hard to forget.
The last part of the set is made of the new songs from their third album The Devil and God are raging inside me, from the blistering Luca to the apocalyptic Jesus Christ up to the fragile, haunting beauty of You won’t know all the songs, even the newest ones are what makes this band so unique.
They are honest, brutal, uncompromising and that’s why this night is a night where rage and love and passion and violence and courage are all blend together, as one.
As the pulsing, living heart of the crowd.
Carving songs and words across a plateau of beautiful and contemporary music and feelings Brand New demonstrate that you really do not need elaborated apparel to be amazing, to tell a story, to paint the world a different shade.
All you need is the passion and the music and the courage to fail and win and maybe fail again. Maybe be hurt again, maybe suffer again. And then, after all that.
Maybe, certainly, SURVIVE.
See more of Adam's photography by clicking on the following link:
