It was a sea of striped hoodies, swooping haircuts and boys dressed in girl-pants as the line formed outside the Town Ballroom this past Thursday.
Brand New kicked off their nationwide tour here in Buffalo, and they were as pumped and ready for action as the crowd.
However, the other half of the attendees seemed to be a bunch of Alpha Beta rejects who accidentally missed the Tri Lamb convention next door, as they cared more about causing a scene than listening to the music.
Manchester Orchestra opened by plugging their debut album entitled "I'm Like a Virgin Losing a Child." Lead singer and guitarist Andy Hull took control of the crowd, instantly charming them with his strong vocal prowess.
"At first he sounded like the lead singer of Placebo," said Kimi Falkowski, a sophomore environmental ethics major. "But as they continued to play his voice sounded completely original and different from what most singers sound like."
Right off the bat the band had to deal with select audience member's disinterest and rudeness, which seemed to grow exponentially as the show continued. In between songs, certain members broke out into senseless "Let's Go Buffalo" chants.
Fortunately, Hull seemed to be a veteran of confused crowds. He and his band continued their short set list with faster paced songs such as "Wolves at Night" and "Neighborhood is Bleeding."
Manchester Orchestra ended their set with the song "Golden Ticket" to which the band finally edged into their groove, creating a finale of movement and energy.
Brooklyn born singer/songwriter Kevin Devine was up next on the bill. Devine recently released "Put Your Ghost to Rest" with major label Capitol Records. Fans once again seemed infected with obnoxiousness. Right before Devine introduced his last song, a small group of girls attempted to jeer him to get off stage.
Being the strong performer that he is, the incredibly pale, incredibly bearded Devine resolved to play his heart out. The biggest and brightest spot of the night was when Devine played a rendition of "Cotton Crush" with dual vocals provided by Brand New's Jesse Lacey.
After what seemed to be an eternity, Lacey reappeared onstage, drawing the crowd into frenzy with an electric solo version of "Jude Law and a Semester Abroad" from their debut records "Your Favorite Weapon."
The rest of the band joined Lacey onstage as they chronologically went through their favorite tracks off of all three of their CD releases with a strong intensity for their opening tour date.
Brand New ended their set of songs off of "Your Favorite Weapon" with crowd favorite "Soco Armetta Lime," a song that Lacey says "(doesn't) really mean much to me anymore. It was such a long time ago. We like to play it because our fans love it."
Then Brand New took a big risk and decided to play every song off of their sophomore effort "Deja Entendu." They had the audience eating out of the palms of their hands while playing slower songs like "The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot," to the hardest song on the record "Guernica."
Unfortunately, without fail, some of the drunken crowd members in attendance continued to cause commotion.
"I had to break up numerous fights during the show," said Justin Helman, a security guard at the venue. "And then the crowd was being rude and overly obnoxious about everything."
After all of the shenanigans, Brand New did their last batch of songs from "The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me," including singles "Yeah" and "Jesus Christ."
Easily the strongest song out of Brand New's set was the encore, "You Won't Know," to which Lacey began screaming the lyrics of the chorus into his guitar pickup.
Despite all the hooligans and scallywags in attendance, Brand New seemed to put everything they had into this show.
"I'm still waiting for the day when we play, and no one shows up," Lacey said. "Thanks for giving us one more shot tonight though."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
