Is that what you call a getaway?
Megan and I have had our tickets to see Brand New for quite a while. I had bought my ticket approximately seven minutes after the presale had started, and she'd bought hers a week or so later. I honestly never thought the show would get here because it seemed so far away at the time.
Once Wednesday finally gets here, we get into my car (which has since been named Shithead) for the two and a half hour drive up to the House of Blues in Orlando. Seventy miles up 95, exit 180, and about three songs off of Futures by Jimmy Eat World later, my car stops accelerating. I blinker into the right lane to get into the grass beside the highway. Mind you, this very dark, desolate highway in the middle of Florida. We give the car some time and try to go again. It manages about an inch.
I take about thirty seconds to panic and call my dad. The realization that I will not be seeing Brand New is far more upsetting than my car being stranded. My parents are frantic. They go get my aunt's car because it's in better condition than either of theirs.
Megan and I have about an hour and a half until they're close. We actually, despite the situation, have a fantastic time sitting in my car waiting. She's probably writing a much better description of our time in Shithead than I ever could, so I won't elaborate.
My parents arrive. My dad temporarily fixes the car well enough to drive it home. He takes Shithead while Megan and I drive in my aunt's vehicle with my mom. We listen to the local popular music channel until it gets out of range. My aunt has an odd assortment of CDs in her car. We go from Don McLean to Depeche Mode to UB40. We also almost get run off the road by a truck hauling a boat, who was encroaching on our lane while we were still in it for no apparent reason.
Being home was welcome, but I had to go to sleep that night without having seen Brand New.
Fate was on my side after that, however. Brand New played on Wednesday in Orlando, Thursday in Tampa, and another Friday in Orlando. Thursday, after class and work, I managed to get my Friday work shift covered. Megan bought our tickets Friday morning from FYE before she had class.
And the process begins again. Shithead hasn't moved since it pulled into the driveway, so Megan offered to drive. Her mother intervened and we took her mom's car afterall.
We spent our time on that same highway that we broke down on looking for where the spot was. We saw about five spots that we thought were where we'd broken down at before we gave up.
If there was a Brand New show that we were meant to be at, it was the Friday show. My friend Emily was at the Wednesday show, and she said they didn't play anything off of Your Favorite Weapon. Friday's show, however, had a fantastic setlist. I don't think they could have disappointed me with a setlist, though, because I'd be happy just being around Jesse Lacey if he weren't singing.
I'm certain they opened with "Welcome to Bangkok" and then after that I'm lost as to order.
It became apparent that the newest album, Daisy, wasn't evenly received throughout the Brand New fan base because there were quite a few people upset with their choice to play it. I feel like if I didn't accept the new album as I've accepted the previous three, I had no right addressing them as my favorite band. They performed "Vices", "At the Bottom", "Gasoline", "You Stole", "Sink", and "In a Jar" off of Daisy, all of which were fantastic.
Off of TDAG, "Sowing Season", "Jesus Christ", "Degausser", "Limousine", "You Won't Know", and "Luca" were played. The lines, "We're never gonna feel as full as we felt, so let's go outside and we'll play William Tell. Take your time drawing your bead. I'll stand as still you need, 'cause you're so good at talking smack, you heart attack, but you're the apple of my eye anyway," are my favorites on that album and hearing them live is always amazing.
Deja got significantly less play than it had at previous shows. I may be mistaken and missing one, but I think they only played "Tommy Gun" and "Play Crack the Sky". I could say that every song off that album is my favorite song, so those songs were fantastic choices, even if there were only two of them.
And! Your Favorite Weapon is their first full length, and they played three wonderful songs from it. "Jude Law and a Semester Abroad" was, I think, their "hit" off that album. They've only ever made three and a half music videos over the span of their career so far. Hits aren't really their thing? They played "Mix Tape", which is always a classic and the inspiration for my MySpace name since I got a MySpace whoa back when.
"Seventy Times 7" is something I never thought I'd get to see live. It could easily be most Brand New fans' favorite song because it gives us all license to hate Taking Back Sunday, except maybe the first album because it's awesome. I assumed it was just one of those songs that they'd stop playing because after that fight was over, the song stops meaning anything to the band.
Sometimes when I'm at Brand New shows, I feel horrible about myself because I feel like Jesse Lacey actually hates all of us. If I were him, I'd have stopped miles ago because there's only so many times I can hear that wonderful man get sung over during songs. There's a difference between singing with and singing over. If you want to sing over, go put the God damn CD in in your car and yell along there.
This is probably the only band that I get upset at the crowd for when they sing too loud.
I had a fantastic time, though.
Once Wednesday finally gets here, we get into my car (which has since been named Shithead) for the two and a half hour drive up to the House of Blues in Orlando. Seventy miles up 95, exit 180, and about three songs off of Futures by Jimmy Eat World later, my car stops accelerating. I blinker into the right lane to get into the grass beside the highway. Mind you, this very dark, desolate highway in the middle of Florida. We give the car some time and try to go again. It manages about an inch.
I take about thirty seconds to panic and call my dad. The realization that I will not be seeing Brand New is far more upsetting than my car being stranded. My parents are frantic. They go get my aunt's car because it's in better condition than either of theirs.
Megan and I have about an hour and a half until they're close. We actually, despite the situation, have a fantastic time sitting in my car waiting. She's probably writing a much better description of our time in Shithead than I ever could, so I won't elaborate.
My parents arrive. My dad temporarily fixes the car well enough to drive it home. He takes Shithead while Megan and I drive in my aunt's vehicle with my mom. We listen to the local popular music channel until it gets out of range. My aunt has an odd assortment of CDs in her car. We go from Don McLean to Depeche Mode to UB40. We also almost get run off the road by a truck hauling a boat, who was encroaching on our lane while we were still in it for no apparent reason.
Being home was welcome, but I had to go to sleep that night without having seen Brand New.
Fate was on my side after that, however. Brand New played on Wednesday in Orlando, Thursday in Tampa, and another Friday in Orlando. Thursday, after class and work, I managed to get my Friday work shift covered. Megan bought our tickets Friday morning from FYE before she had class.
And the process begins again. Shithead hasn't moved since it pulled into the driveway, so Megan offered to drive. Her mother intervened and we took her mom's car afterall.
We spent our time on that same highway that we broke down on looking for where the spot was. We saw about five spots that we thought were where we'd broken down at before we gave up.
If there was a Brand New show that we were meant to be at, it was the Friday show. My friend Emily was at the Wednesday show, and she said they didn't play anything off of Your Favorite Weapon. Friday's show, however, had a fantastic setlist. I don't think they could have disappointed me with a setlist, though, because I'd be happy just being around Jesse Lacey if he weren't singing.
I'm certain they opened with "Welcome to Bangkok" and then after that I'm lost as to order.
It became apparent that the newest album, Daisy, wasn't evenly received throughout the Brand New fan base because there were quite a few people upset with their choice to play it. I feel like if I didn't accept the new album as I've accepted the previous three, I had no right addressing them as my favorite band. They performed "Vices", "At the Bottom", "Gasoline", "You Stole", "Sink", and "In a Jar" off of Daisy, all of which were fantastic.
Off of TDAG, "Sowing Season", "Jesus Christ", "Degausser", "Limousine", "You Won't Know", and "Luca" were played. The lines, "We're never gonna feel as full as we felt, so let's go outside and we'll play William Tell. Take your time drawing your bead. I'll stand as still you need, 'cause you're so good at talking smack, you heart attack, but you're the apple of my eye anyway," are my favorites on that album and hearing them live is always amazing.
Deja got significantly less play than it had at previous shows. I may be mistaken and missing one, but I think they only played "Tommy Gun" and "Play Crack the Sky". I could say that every song off that album is my favorite song, so those songs were fantastic choices, even if there were only two of them.
And! Your Favorite Weapon is their first full length, and they played three wonderful songs from it. "Jude Law and a Semester Abroad" was, I think, their "hit" off that album. They've only ever made three and a half music videos over the span of their career so far. Hits aren't really their thing? They played "Mix Tape", which is always a classic and the inspiration for my MySpace name since I got a MySpace whoa back when.
"Seventy Times 7" is something I never thought I'd get to see live. It could easily be most Brand New fans' favorite song because it gives us all license to hate Taking Back Sunday, except maybe the first album because it's awesome. I assumed it was just one of those songs that they'd stop playing because after that fight was over, the song stops meaning anything to the band.
Sometimes when I'm at Brand New shows, I feel horrible about myself because I feel like Jesse Lacey actually hates all of us. If I were him, I'd have stopped miles ago because there's only so many times I can hear that wonderful man get sung over during songs. There's a difference between singing with and singing over. If you want to sing over, go put the God damn CD in in your car and yell along there.
This is probably the only band that I get upset at the crowd for when they sing too loud.
I had a fantastic time, though.