Brand New: 6-20-06 @ Starland

Last Thursday after hearing the previously sold-out Brand New show had tickets available on ticketmaster I immediately went to ticketmaster's site and snatched two up. So I made my way to Starland around 730 and made my way to the bar area. The two opening bands (Ultra High Frequency & Colour Revolt) I had never heard of and didn't really have any interest in seeing them so I just chilled in the bar/lounge area. The music was still very clear and there were two TV's showing what was happening on stage so I really didn't miss much. UHF seemed alright, I thought a couple of their songs were decent but nothing special. Colour Revolt, however, I thought was really bad. I ignored most of their set.
About 15 minutes after CR's set I headed down to the main floor to get a good spot for Brand New's set. It took them awhile to set up, about 45 minutes. They finally went on at about 9:35.
Now, I will preface this by saying this was my second time seeing Brand New and the first time I saw them play anything off of Deja Entendu. They might have played one or two new songs when I saw them four years ago but I don't remember them enough to count.
They opened with Tautou which really set the mood for the night. The show was generally a melodic acoustically driven show. After Tautou I expected "Sic Transit.." however Jesse went right into Untitled 8 with full band accompaniment. It sounded excellent and was the first of three new songs that Brand New played on the night. "Okay, I Believe You..." was the next song and again it sounded excellent. For the next two songs BN kicked it up a notch with "The Quiet Things..." and "Jaws Theme Swimming" They followed with "I Will Play..."at which point the show switched back to slower more melodic songs, with the exception of "A Shower Scene". I am not going to comment about each of these individual songs, suffice to say they all sounded superb.
The encore consisted of Untitled 6, Sic Transit Gloria, 70 x 7, and Play Crack the Sky.

General comments about the show as a whole: The sound was excellent. It sounded tight and fine tuned throughout. Jesse's vocals which I was very unimpressed with the last time I saw them have greatly improved. I was amazed at the emotion he carried through his voice in every word. I was actually amazed at how the whole band was able to fill the room with such sweeping sounds and emotion. This was one of the best shows I had ever been too.

Quick Notes:

• Before they played "A Shower Scene" Jesse announced that this was the first song they had ever written as a band.
• I am not sure exactly when but at some point around the 4th-7th song Jesse commented that they had just finished recording the album the day before and that "this was the best welcome home he could have imagined, thanks for staying with us."
• During "Untitled 7" in the encore it looked and sounded like Jesse was playing a slide guitar. I really couldn't see though and I heard someone else say he was holding/playing an effects pedal which is definitely more probable. (edit: He was holding an effects pedal)
  
• This is totally unconfirmed but I read from someone else's comments about the show that before they played "70x7" in the encore Jesse turned to Vinnie as they were debating which song to play and said "this is the last time" so perhaps that was it for "70x7". (edit: It seems that Vinnie wanted to stop playing and Jesse was convincing him to play one more song)
  

Set List

1. Tautou
2. Untitled 8 (Yeah)
3. Okay, I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't
4. The Quiet Things No One Ever Knows
5. Jaws Theme Swimming
6. I Will Play The Game Beneath the Spin Light
7. The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot
8. Untitled 7
9. The Shower Scene
10. Me vs. Maradona vs. Elvis
11. No Seatbelt Song
12. Soco Amaretto Lime

Encore

1. Untitled 6
2. Sic Transit Gloria... Glory Fades
3. Seventy Times Seven
4. Play Crack the Sky