Brand New at SOMA
Last night was day two of Brand New’s two night stand at SOMA. It also happened to be the night Hannah Montana was playing at the Sports Arena. If you go to SOMA, you know that their overflow parking is the Sports Arena parking lot. So a sold-out Hannah Montana show means a clusterf**k for parking. I ended up parking on the back street (Kurtz) but it was still relatively close, so cool. Knowing that I had to deal with the parking situation, I got there relatively early and was able to catch most of Thrice’s set. I really want to like this band but I just have never been able to get into them. I’ve also seen them live and even then I was not convinced. This time around was not much different though I did like some of the more mellow stuff they did from their latest release “Fire and Water”.
I was prepared for a good showing from Brand New. This is the fourth time I’ve seen them this year (previously seen at HOB Vegas, SOMA, and Street Scene) and it seems that Jesse and the gang are hitting in on all cylinders. On a production note - the stage is usually very minimalist, but they had a pretty good lighting rig going. And I actually recognized both their sound guy and their lighting chick from previous shows. I gotta say that the lighting chick was really good. It was actually pretty interesting to see her do some of the effects. (Yes, I am wearing my geek hat right now.) Okay, so setlist first:
Brand New
SOMA San Diego
11/8/07
Tautou
Guernica
Millstone
The Archers Bows have Broken
Jesus Christ
Sic Transit Gloria...Glory Fades
Good To Know That If I Need Attention All I Have to Do Is Die
Coca-Cola
Handcuffs
Luca
Limousine
Not The Sun
Sowing Season
You Won’t Know
Degausser
Encore:
Untitled
This was the second night of their two night stand at SOMA and I got a peep at Wednesday’s list and they had quite a few different songs. (I missed “Play Crack” on Wednesday. Boo.) But I am not complaining. Starting off the set with a “Tautou” and “Guernica”, two standout tracks from “Deja” was genius. Then getting into material from “The Devil and God”, you might as well go for it with “Millstone”. And “Archers” is definitely a fan favorite with the “freezing over hell” lyrics. And a song like “Jesus Christ” is actually 100% better live. So five songs in, I was already completed stoked. Also, Jesse was changing up some of the vocal arrangements so you weren’t guaranteed to be able to sing along perfectly. But not for “Sic Transit”. Oh no. Try the entire crowd screaming “Die young and save yourself” at the appropriate times and you get one clearly fired up crowd. So then they slow it down. An acoustic “Coca Cola” was Jesse at his finest - strumming away singing his heart out. He wasn’t as talkative as I have seen in the past, but he told this horrific story about what the song “Limousine” is about - apparently there was a drunk driving accident in Long Island a couple of years ago where a mom who was riding in the car behind saw her daughter wrecking and ended up holding her daughter’s severed head on the side of the road (!) Horrific. Definitely made me shudder as he told that story. But I was able to gather my wits about me to enjoy the strong ending of “Sowing Season”, “You Won’t Know” and definitely my fave off “Devil and God” , the epic “Degausser”. It was already 11 when they finished “Degausser” so I was surprised there was even an encore. But the encore was short - an instrumental even. (And Len was upstairs with his flashlight annoying the sound guy with his warning they needed to get off stage.) I would have been fine with ending the evening with “Degausser”. But hey, at least I got the set list. 3 of 4 for the year is not too shabby.
Afterwards, I debated on where to go, but I was dead tired, so I headed to the Ken Club for a Stella and to wish Rosey a happy Blogiversary and that was that. And I’ve got a ton of stuff to do, so I’m out.
Have a good weekend everyone!!!
