the filmore

Dinosaur Pile Up, Man Man, and Brand New
The Fillmore – Silver Spring, MD
Sunday, July 13th 2014

I’ve loved Brand New for years now and for a while it seemed like I would never get the chance to see them live considering how quickly their shows sell out. Well, I finally had my opportunity to see them this past weekend and it did not disappoint. As a bonus, I also got to see them play at one of my favorite venues, The Fillmore in Silver Spring, MD.

To kick the night off, Dinosaur Pile-Up took the stage. The set-up for the band takes the shape of a triangle, with guitar, bass and drums on each of the pointy angles. This UK trio brought a ton of energy to the big room, and their blend of grunge and alt rock was plenty enjoyable. Their vibe was very reminiscent of The Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana, which I was throughly excited about. The band made the most of their 30 minute time slot, and by the end of their set it seemed like they had won over more than a few new fans.

Next up was Man Man, whom I had not heard of before. Their stage set up was very unique, it placed the piano and drums in the center facing toward each other. On the right side of the stage there were keyboards, a bass and a saxophone and to the left side of the stage was a single drum, guitar and keyboard. Man Man crashed through its set, sweating, screaming, and costume changing, which included an oversized fur jacket. Lead vocalist/pianist, Honus Honus was hitting every odd accent and note of its complex throughout their set. Their performance was really fun and light-hearted and seemed to put the crowd in a god mood.

Now was the moment the audience had waited so long to see. The stage went completely black, and as the band walked out the place erupted with excitement and cheers. Brand New launched right into their fast and chaotic rendition of “Sink” to start things off. They followed it up with three more Daisy songs, each one receiving a very strong crowd response. The next part of the set was heavy with Deja Entendu tracks, and fan favorites like “Sic Transit Gloria” and “Okay I Believe You But My Tommy Gun Don’t” got the crowd especially pumped up.

As the last half of the set progressed things really got intense, as that’s when the Devil and God songs were brought out. When they played “Limousine,” Jesse stayed out on stage alone at the end with the distortion of his guitar cranked to full blast as he yelled the final bit of background vocals again and again (“I”ll never have to buy adjacent plots of earth/We’ll never have to rot together underneath the dirt/I’ll never have to lose my baby in the crowd/I should be laughing right now”). As if that wasn’t enough, they closed out the set with the one-two punch of “Degausser” and “You Won’t Know,” which probably couldn’t have closed their set off any better. Jesse thanked the crowd before the band disappeared off stage and that marked the end of a very eventful Sunday night.

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Written by Caitlyn Willard