December 17th - The Best Day Ever
I still don't have all the words thought out about yesterday.
The instore was amazing. Brand New at one of its finest.: small, intimate, quiet. Jesse's vocals were golden. At first, I was a little pissed off that the posters were pre-signed. But then when the owner of Looney Tunes said that Brand New was going to be playing for an hour, I forgot about the posters. I've already meeted and greeted them for a signed CD. The guys made lots of jokes about each other and themselves. The best was the "first band names", Oral Birth was one of the funniest things I've heard (and I instantly got an image of Cartman throwing up a baby.) You Won't Know was the best of the set, in my opinion. It's my favorite of The Devil and God... and hearing it acoustic blew me away. In the beginning of the set, Jesse said that the instore was fairly unrehearsed, then said that the show a the Gramercy would be "about 5 years unrehearsed". I was grinning from then on. And then when Jesse actually said about half way through the set that they would be playing all of Your Favorite Weapon at the Gramercy, I nearly cried. The tears were there, they just didn't fall.
Amazing.
The Gramercy show was also one of the band's finest: loud, energetic, but still had a feeling of intimacy. They played all of Your Favorite Weapon straight through, except for Seventy Times Seven, which was substituted with Moshi Moshi (FINALLY!!), and then played as the closer. The guys all seemed to be enjoying themselves with this well appreciated throwback. Vin was all smiles and laughs throughout the entire set as each member messed up numerous times. Garrett actually moves! He did an awesome bass sling during the “WOO” in Logan To Government Center. Naturally, lyrics and parts were forgotten or messed up, but the crowd fixed them. No one actually needed to sing on stage, everyone else knew what words happened when. The atmosphere was great, the crowd was great, getting into it like I was 14 again was great. Even the lighting fit well. During Soco the lights were gold and making the triple crown logo. While I’m on the Soco subject, I don’t want Jesse to play it alone anymore. I want to hear the “cut me open” parts throughout the verses and each part at the end of the song. The whole night I was in awe, question myself if it was actually happening.
Highlight of my night (besides Moshi Moshi): Mixtape. In Hoboken during the acoustic tour with Kevin Devine (who was also there last night!), Jesse said that is was physically impossible for him to play it.
Yes, Kevin was there! He came out with Jesse before Brand New took the stage. They played Ballgame and Jesus Christ (Kevin style). Then the rest of Brand New took the stage, minus Brian on drums, and played Cotton Crush. Then Jesse started playing Temple of the Dog’s Hunger Strike, and Jesse made jokes about how Derrick was dressed verses the song.