Time and Tide Wait for No Man

I saw Brand New for the first time last night. I also saw Brand New for the last time. I do not know this, but I think I do. Rumors of Brand New’s eventual demise first surfaced a little over a year ago, and since then, the band’s intense online fan community has speculated to almost no end about the future of the band, treating each concert speech, music rerelease, and t-shirt design as another puzzle piece that, if arranged delicately enough, might just reveal the band’s future. It seems every performance is an opportunity to analyze, and that nothing should ever be taken at face value. 

The "face value" way to explain last night’s show at EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, VA is that it is just one more performance on a tour that began in October and concludes next week. Jesse Lacey said as much after the band had finished playing “Handcuffs,” the closing song on their 2006 album The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me, which was performed in its entirety. In his only comments to the crowd of the night, he said “playing a show every night, or every other night, playing the same songs, you start to feel anonymous.” In fact, for much of the show it seemed Lacey, if not all of Brand New, tried to retain a level anonymity. Thick clouds of fog concealed the bands faces for most of the show, Lacey drifted away from the microphone at nearly every opportunity, and when the songs were supported by a bright light show, he and guitarist Vin Accardi deflected the lasers off their guitars back into the audience. You were supposed to hear Brand New, not necessarily see them.  

And then towards the end of the set, the band turned out a nearly 9 minute version of “You Won’t Know” - a song I am convinced holds an extra special, secret meaning to Lacey judging by its past live performances - teasing the crowd by letting the coda fade out before tacking on “Tautou” and one extended jam after another. The band kept on playing, so we kept on watching and jumping, not knowing when they were going to stop, not caring if they even could.

Brand New may think that their time is up, but for one song, it seemed like they could go on forever.