Brand New – Camden Roundhouse, London – 11th February 2012 (Live Review)
Monday, 20 February 2012
Written by Ben Bland
There are not many bands in the world like Brand New. Their last record, 2009’s 'Daisy', may have been a record founded on short, sharp shocks but it still led to them headlining Wembley Arena in January 2010. They may have done pretty much nothing in the interceding years, including their deliberate avoidance of the media, but that has not meant that their legions of loyal fans have disappeared and forgotten about them. Tickets for this date sold out so quickly that, within a couple of hours, a second date at the venue had been confirmed. All across the UK, fans have desperately scrabbled to get into shows on the band’s first full UK tour for at least three years, depending on what you class as a ‘full tour’.
Why do Brand New inspire such devotion? The answer is simple; there really are no other bands like them. Brand New are a band completely founded on emotion, and when I say emotion I don’t mean the tired teenage angst that bands like My Chemical Romance became known for, I mean the pure emotional pain that some people will be lucky enough to go their entire lives without experiencing. When Brand New released “The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me” in 2006 they created a record that, almost without precedent, took every strand of heartbreak, anger and insecurity felt by young people (not just teenagers) across the globe and mixed it into an, at times vicious, at times beautiful musical cocktail. Six years on there still hasn’t been another record quite like it.
So, it really is no surprise that there are still so many people who want to see this band despite their prolonged absence. With nobody else to capture the darkest of thoughts and feelings, Brand New return unchallenged to the UK as the world’s premier ‘emotional alternative rock’ band. Taking into account the seemingly vast amount of people who still pay to see them on the basis of their earlier pop-punk stylings as well, and you get a sure fire combination for superlative gigs. From the moment the acoustic guitar that marks the opening of instrumental “Welcome to Bangkok” begins emanating from a stage almost completely in darkness time seems to lose all structure and meaning. The most insane crowd reactions may come for some of their less mature early output but the most explosive moments are when the band rip into cuts from 2006’s magnum opus. 'Limousine' and 'Jesus Christ' inspiring sing-alongs and, no doubt a few tears. An hour and forty minutes in, with no encore forthcoming, frontman Jesse Lacey is leaving his mic stand sprawling on the stage while spewing the final words of his, at times chaotic but always powerful sermon.
“They say in heaven there’s no husbands and wives. On the day that I show up they’ll be completely out of their forgiveness supplies…and I can’t use the telephone, to tell you that I’m dead and gone so you won’t know”.
Nothing else quite compares.
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