Brand New Live

Brand New

Vancouver May 10

Croation Cultural Center

Written By: Princess Brock

“The book is coming, probably sometime in the winter……2008, maybe 2009. “-Jesse Lacey

Just before the Brand New show on May 10, I had the chance to briefly talk with lead singer, Jesse Lacey, where he let me know the lyric books are coming and he had lost a whole bunch of them over seas. He’s writing all the lyrics by hand, give the guy a break. To hold you over, he recommended viewing the website for all the lyrics. And yes I know all you creepers are dying for his hand written copy. Never have a I met a guy, who is so lively on stage and so mellow in person. He looked absolute terrified of crowds, but was nice enough to sign my shoe(which he said he liked very much) but refused to take a picture. He was very humble and really down to Earth, not the Jesse I later saw that night.

At just after Eight, the Croatian Cultural Center was full, with hundreds of kids anticipating Brand New. They hit the stage playing a very unique set order. Starting from songs of, Your Favorite Weapon, leading into, Deja Entendu, into their latest CD, The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me. A dark stage, was filled with the intro to, “Okay I Believe You But My Tommy Gun Don’t” At that instance every person in the crowd yelled, and sang along to every word, as well as break out in mosh. This was a pretty intense mosh which mellowed out through out the night as the songs changed from upbeat to slower and more instrument driven. “Sic Transit Gloria” followed by “Jaws Theme Swimming” came next. They chose not to play their hits of their debut CD, probably because they had worn them out, such as “Mix Tape” “70×70″ and “Magazines”. The first song of Deja Entendu, was “Me Vs Maradonna Vs Elvis’ ending the first half was “Play Crack the Sky.” Their was a brief stint where Lacey talked to the crowd, and the lights went out again.

Into the, “Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me” opening with “Sowing Season”. Followed by “Millstone”, and just when you think their going play “Jesus”, they go into “Archers”. This was definitely my favorite song to watch live. Their whole light set up was amazing, but the stage presence was even better. Hidden in the shadows was an extra guitarist and a few other musicians. There was never to much light on any of the band either. Most of them had hoods on, just another secrecy of the band. Where other bands depend on their good looks to become famous, Brand New, likes to keep hidden, and just play the music. It occured to me then that Brand New are such great musician’s, and are really under appreciated. After a fantastic version of “Archers”, “Luca” was played, followed by a story about the next song, “Limousine” The finale was definitely the icing on the cake. “Welcome to Bangkok” and “Untitled” were blended into one, with the guitar tech, the whole band, groupies, pretty much the Brand New team, came on stage and were playing their hearts out. Jesse started playing drums from the front, while the drummer( Brian Lane) kept going. Jesse pounded away and began kicking the drums, throwing them around, the lights grew dimmer, people started walking off, till all that was left was Lane This was probably the greatest spectacle I have ever seen. There of course was no encore after this mess, but that didn’t bother anyone. I have never seen something so genuine and so magical in my life. This was defiantly the best show of my life, and here’s hoping the decide to come back to the wonderful rainy West Coast.

Ten Second Epic

 

Article By: Brock
Date: Feb 2, 2007
A wedding was taking place on the big stage in the Croatian Cultural Centre on the nice chilly night, and so the bands took the smaller stage, a stage fans would dream to see their fave band play on. Around 100 kids, no security guards (except for one on the side, in case anyone tried to steal the bands equipment,) and band members hanging out with the fans at the merch was the scene at Croatian Cultural Center on Friday night before the Ten Second Epic show. Already, I knew this concert was going rock.

First up was Cowboy and The Prize Fighter. They opened with a boring instrumental song, not a very good start to the show. The band had some energy on stage but it was pretty low. Cowboy and The Prize Fighter is a ska punk band with some decent tunes, but not enough to get the crowd moving. A small mosh pit started with around six people but ended rather abruptly. The band played around seven tracks then exited the stage with some hoots and hollers from the crowd.

The next band, Theset, really impressed me. The lead singer brought out a mic stand covered in flowers, with equalizers for his microphone to change his voice. The equalizer added some really cool effects for this screamo/punk group from Victoria. Theset is a the band you need to know in 2007. Their debut CD just came out, and it is amazing and very original. They played a very disserve list of songs, including two brand new songs that are still in the works, some really old songs, and a bunch of songs of their debut CD including, “Matador,” “Twelve Thirty Four,” a song that really brought the mosh, and the title track, “The Philosophy of Time Travel.” At the end of the set, the lead singer went wild with the voice changer, and let out a huge rawr, that changed into a scream, which then went into a whimper, it was ear shatteringly amazing. The fans all murmured for a second, and then erupted into a loud cheer. I really hope to see this band again because they were amazing. Check ‘em out.

Up next was the band everyone wanted to see, otherwise known as Ten Second Epic, a new band from Alberta. TSE’s new single and title track from the new album, “Count Yourself In” is currently on constant rotation and making the band a household name in Canada. It is definitely one of my favourite songs by them. Ten Second Epic played some of the material on their debut EP for the older fans, “Home In The Heartland” was amazing, but for the most part, they played the new tracks. It was unfortunate it took the band so long to set up and get ready, because they didn’t end up with much time to play, and played for just over an hour. However, that didn’t matter, the time they were on was amazing, a big mosh pit took place in the centre, while fans sang along to every word. The band was very down to earth and loved the crowd (which obviously returned the love.) The band finished with “Count Yourself In” with no encore after, unfortunately.

Ten Second Epic put on an awesome concert, and the bands on the bill are for sure the next big things in music. I Definitely want to see more smaller shows like this…because they rock.

Billy Talent

Photo: Ian D’Sa and Jon Gallant
Article By: Brock
Date: January 19th, 2007
On the second day of their first tour of 2007, Jon and Ian from Billy Talent sat down with SaintRockNRoll.com to chat about their music, tour, and friends. Sitting at a table at the catering room of The Coliseum, the guys answered all your questions plus some…and sang.

1.First of all, I would like to congratulate you on going double platinum in Canada! What was your first reaction when you found out?

Ian: Umm…Are you talking first or second record?
Second.
Ian: Oh yeah, it was pretty cool.
Jon: We were really… It just shows our fans were really good and so we’re happy.
When did you find out?
Jon: I think we found out earlier this week…Oh it’s really weird how it works, ’cause ahh, some people told us that had gone gold or platinum based on the number of records were in the stores, but we get our manager’s sales record every few weeks in emails, so I don’t know which ones supposed to be the gage.
Ian: I think it’s how many that’s sold in stores.
Jon: It’s pretty amazing.
Ian: Amazing.
Jon: We Don’t try and look to much into it. Were more concerned about touring and writing songs and stuff. It’s an awesome thing though, and we’re glad fans support our band.

2.So how was the show last night in Victoria?

Ian: It was good, it was our first show of the tour, it was little nerve racking, just making sure everything was going to run…
(Stops his sentence as Nardwuar comes over and gives him stickers and a calendar.)
Do you still get nervous before shows?
Jon: Oh I was nervous, I was shitting bricks before the shows, ’cause this was all very new to us, this whole arena business… so I get nervous all the time. By the end I wont be so nervous, but I think I’ll always be a bit nervous, you know?
Ian: Did you know Duff Mcgean played in a punk band? (Flipping through his newly gained possession- Nardwuar calendar)
Jon; NO man.
Ian: He was the drummer in 1981.
Jon: He’s the bass player In Guns N roses. He played the drums in the Fast Track.
3.So you guys don’t go to the island so much do you?

Ian: No.
How did you find it last night then?
Ian: Oh it was really fun, yeah it was good.
Jon: We went to a really funny karaoke bar, called Sopranos. It was really fun.

4.How do you find the rain and snow in Vancouver?

Jon: Well we don’t see much snow, we know you guys got rocked but yeah, the rain gets depressing, We recorded both of our records here during the winter time, and it would just rain for weeks, and we’re not used to it, so, its nice not to deal with the cold weather, I think I’d rather have Toronto weather.
Ian: Yeah when it goes dead of winter in Toronto it goes frigging cool.

5.So what are some troubles you face while touring the world.

Ian: The main thing I guess is the language barrier, and your just looking or something simple as toothbrush, and no one speaks English, and you don’t speak their language, so it’s just a minor thing, but I mean getting directions, getting home, you know.
I was in Tokyo, Japan and I got stuck on a subway line for four hours all night, like over night, cause I couldn’t find a the hotel stop and no one could speak English, and I stopped at every single spot asking the operators but none of them spoke English, I ended up going backwards for two hours, and then I had to go back when I finally got to the end of the line. I didn’t get back until like 10:30 in the morning.
Jon: We didn’t know where he was and our flight was at like 12:30 in the morning.

6.Is it weird going to the states, where you’re not very big yet, and then come back here and your one of the biggest bands in Canada?

Ian: Umm its strange actually. It is… I dunno, it’s just like land and people, It’s like as soon as your cross the border, it’s a whole new place, it doesn’t really make sense, yeah I guess that’s how the worlds like.
Jon: Growing up I always just thought we were the same, but no, after touring I found that it’s just in attitude, it’s everything, it’s shocking the stuff that happens down there. But it’s fun. Yeah…
Ian: we can still pull a pretty good crowd in places like Seattle and border towns like Detroit because they get a lot of Canadian radio, so I guess they hear our stuff.
Jon: And we’re doing a headlining tour there in March so it’s going be fun, We’ll see how it goes.

7.Speaking of the U.S. tour, are you excited for it?

Jon: Yeah, we haven’t done a headlining tour there in two years, so it’s going be fun, and we’re bringing some supportive bands.
You guys are bringing Cancer Bats and Drive By. Are you fans of these bands?
Jon: Oh yeah, yeah for sure.
Have you guys played any shows with them?
Ian: Um no, we haven’t, but Gavin Brown, who produced our first record, and co produced our second record, just recorded their record, and I just heard it and it’s great. I’ve seen them live before, and they are a great band and great people.

8.What kind of music have you been listening to lately?

Jon: Oh man I’ve been all over the map, I’ve been listening to Rush and a lot of Against me!
Ian: Oh yeah man me to, I’ve been listening to Against me! Uhh The Clash.
Jon: Sometimes I start getting into my old records ’cause that’s what I grew up on, and that’s what got me into punk rock. So I’ve been listening to a lot of Rush.
What’s the last CD you bought?
Ian: Hmm…it was the Tom Wait’s Orphans CD, it’s really good.
Jon: What CDs did I buy…I always buy 4 or 5 at a time. It’s like when I see those three for thirty, and I go hmm maybe I should get Steven Miller Greatest Hits…(laughs)

9.So you’ve toured with a lot of great bands, if you had to tour with one band you haven’t toured with, which band would it be?

Ian, Jon: I want to tour with Against Me! for sure.
Did you see them On Warped Tour?
Ian: Oh yeah, they were really good.

10.Seeing as how you are touring with Anti-Flag, we are wondering iff you could sing one of their songs for us.

Ian: Like sing? Oh that will be easy. “Die for Government”, that’s my favorite song (laughs).
Ian (to Jon): Lets do this slow and harmonized. function EvalSound(soundobj) { var thissound=document.getElementById(soundobj); thissound.Play(); }

11.If you could get Anti-Flag to cover one of your songs on stage tonight, which song would you chose and why? Ian: Oh I think they’d do an awesome “Voices Of Violence.” Jon: Oh yeah. I think it’s up to their speed, were a little more…relaxed. Ian: I want to cover the “Press corpses.” Jon: and “This is the End.” (Ian starts humming “This is the End (for you my friend).”) 12.Have you guys been writing new stuff on the road? Ian: I’ve written some guitar parts, but we’re not really a writer band on the road, we usually wait till we get home. So how long are you going tour before you go back in the studio again? Jon: I think were going tour right up to the end of the year. Are you going come back here to Canada? Jon: Probably, yeah, maybe in November. (During the concert, Ben actually informed the crowd that Billy Talent will be back in Vancouver with My Chemical Romance in May.) 13.Here are some questions that I got from the message board? Jon: I read That! OH, woah that’s kind of weird… Who is the biggest slob, and who is the most photogenic? Jon: Ben is definitely the most photogenic, and Aaron is definitely the biggest slob. Ian: Aaron? Oh yeah man, you’re right, Aaron left his luggage in the backroom last night, just spread all over the place. We each had our own junk bed. He’s old school style…we had our own junk beds. (laughs) If you could invent any one saying what would it be? Jon: Hmmm…all my sayings have been invented. Ian: Does it have to be our own? Doesn’t Matter. Jon: Don’t eat Yellow Snow. Ian: Yeshi Mes, I wish I had invented that. Jon: What doess that mean?? Ian: Yeshi mesh, BORAT! Jon: Oh, haha. Ian: Yeshi Mesh… Johnm what is your favorite fruit? Jon: (Laughs) I saw that questions. Lately I’ve been all about mangos. Ian: Mangos? Jon: But overalls bananas the most, followed by apples, I like them all. And Ian… Ian: My Favorite Fruit? No your favorite vegetable. Ian: Umm, favorite vegetable, umm, oh I was all ready for fruit answer. I like melon, watermelon melons are good and I like, uhh…Broccoli, but no it’s not my favorite… Ian: (thinks) Mushrooms! Jon: Mushrooms are fungi. Ian: What??!! Jon: It’s a fungus. Ian: Fungi is part of vegetable. Jon: No, Different category. Ian: How do you know? Jon: I don’t know…it’s high school stuff. Jon: How about white asparagus? Ian: Yeah white asparagus, but you can only get in Germany. Do you guys find it weird that people care what your favorite fruit and veggies are? Jon: I don’t think people even care, I think they just think its funny, I don’t think anyone actually gives a shit. So you guys obviously read your message board. What’s the craziest message you ever got? Jon: Some girl once emailed me saying how we got too popular in Germany and stuff like that. I don’t know how to really respond to that, I mean the same thing happened to me with Metallica when Mettalica got huge. I was like uh… I don’t know if I like them anymore. Ian: Yeah same thing happened to me. I got a email, a really long one actually, about why we are playing big venues, and why we aren’t playing small clubs, like how are we supposed to reply to that? Am I supposed to say sorry for our band becoming popular? You know we can’t play small clubs anymore, because they’ll sell out to fast, and that’s not fair to people who cant get tickets. That’s why were playing arenas, so everyone will get a ticket.

Incubus

Article By: Brock
Date: Jan 5, 2007
About thirty minutes before doors opened, the line up to get into the Queen Elizabeth was at least a block down the street. Curious older people couldn’t figure it out. What would a few hundred youth be doing outside a theatre, where such great plays as Mama Mia have been? Well I don’t think they would ever know, but the others all knew they were going to see Incubus, and could care less about the other band, whoever they were.

So at 7:30 sharp, five dudes took the stage before a quarter filled theatre. The lights went out, a few dozen people clapped, and the band started playing. After the first song, some guy in the back row yelled out, “Play a good song,” and the lead singer replied “sorry, Incubus asked us to be here.” He also said they were called Wolfmother, which confused the hell out of everyone in the building. A bunch of people thought they were, but I’m here to inform you they were most definitely not. Most people were yelling out, “What’s Your Name?” and “You Suck,” and I’m not going lie, they were boring. It was Albert Hammond Jr., without a decent song. This was definitely the worst opening bands I have ever seen, and even writing about them hurts. SO I’m going save you the trouble of reading and jump straight to the reason everyone came.

At 8:45 the band everyone came to see hit the stage. The theatre was full, the pot smoke was touching the roof, and people were standing up clapping, before one note was played. The concert opened with, “Quicksand” and then straight into “A Kiss To Send Us Off.” The place exploded, I have never seen people so into a band. By the fourth song, “Anna Molly,” headliner Incubus’ first single from Light Grenades, the latest album, the room was one big Hot Box, and people were going crazy (even though it was a theater). The lights were very intense, shining bright blues, yellows, greens, and a miscellaneous of other colors.

Forty Five Minutes into the set, the electric guitars were put away and Incubus did an acoustic set. They started with “Wish You Were Here,” and then into a really old song of theirs, called “New Skin.” The song has became so obscure that even some die hard fans wondered what it was. The vocalist Brandon said they haven’t played this song in over ten years. What a treat! Incubus finished the mini acoustics set with “Drive.” During “Sick Little Sad World,” Brandon played with the sparklers. He then took out flashlights and shone them on guitarist Mike during the solo. It was the most beautiful solo I have ever seen. The audience was captivated in the moment. The set finished with “Megalomaniac.” The fans were not satisfied and wanted more, every member of the audience shouted So Incubus, and they arrived. Playing three more songs for the encore, and ended with, “Earth To Bella 2.”

The audience got everything they wanted, Incubus played songs spanning their fifteen-year career, and played every song to perfection, it was quite the amazing night.

City And Colour

Article By: Brock
Date: Aug 19, 2006
Acoustic music under the stars, what else could you want? With one amp on stage, two guitars (one for Dallas, one of Wade), and a microphone, the premise was simple, but the music was incredible.

Wade from Alexisonfire, opened the night off with his band, The Black Lungs. Missing his partner on piano, he still put on one hell of a show. Wade plays for about twenty minutes, which was unfortunate, because through his rough singing, he produced some brilliant and emoting songs. His new album is coming out this fall, be on the lookout for it. The vocalist/guitarist told a lot of jokes and asked the crowd who went to the Victoria show the previous night, to which only a handful of kids screamed, “YEAH!!!!” This could be also the only time The Black Lungs play an All-Ages show, because usually they stick to the bar shows which are nice and personal. After his set, the sun went down and kids got excited for the main act.

Dallas Green (a.k.a. City and Colour, Dallas Green, City and Colour, get it?) hit the stage around nine. “Who?” you might ask (if you have been living under a rock for the past year). He is the one in Alexisonfire who sings the melodic parts and plays electric guitar. Tonight he was armed with an electric guitar, (he used a acoustic on the album, but likes to mix things up for the concert) and a beautiful voice. Dallas started playing just as the stars started twinkling in the night sky. The birds, bugs, and frogs, stood still to hear him, as did the audience.

Never has such a pretty voice hit Stanley Park; its very haunting. It’s a voice that gives you chills down your spine much the same as Johnny Cash during his rendition of Hurt. He sang almost every single off Sometimes, a few of his old EPs along with his newest song, “My Sensible Heart”, which I find to be his most beautiful song. Dallas stood on stage and played for an hour and stopped only for a few seconds to take off his shirt and go on a “pee break”- simply amazing. People were lying on the fields with blankets, lighters out or in most cases cell phones, and the hardcore fans in the front cheering him on. The people on the left side also got to see Leah Miller, from Much Music, as she was sitting on the sides, supporting her new boy toy, Dallas. Sorry Ladies.

Dallas is back with Alexisonfire in October, and supposedly writing new songs for his next album, which will probably be even better then his debut. Hopefully the people who missed his sold-out show will get to see him again, because words can hardly describe what you will see and hear.