Four friends in a room [Live review].
"Four friends in a room who love each other" is a lyric from their most recent single. But on Friday night it was 120 friends in a room - a very small room - who love to dance to this band. Mosh pits, mums on shoulders and Taylor falling off monitors framed the night. The crowd was roaring from the get go, packed into the space, bumping into the monitors. Pushing, shoving, dancing, singing.
Brand New Friend are no strangers to playing festival stages and packed out venues, but it's in these small intimate gigs that the fans can see what they're really about. Friends playing to friends, indie pop songs, heartfelt words and humorous anecdotes.
They began with Cold, riling the crowd up with distortion pedals and guitar shredding. The song seamlessly transitioned into Seatbelts for Airplanes, that contains the poetic lyrics, "come on, call me a taxi and have it drop me at your feet". Old song Settle Down got a cheery reaction from the crowd - we still love its colour! Before playing Sleep On My Floor, Taylor took the chance to thank all the people who have been supporting the band since the beginning - since the "American Wives days". The crowd knew all the lyrics for Your Friends Hate Me and Taylor invited them to sing the first verse while he watched in amazement, still humble as ever. Before playing new song Girl which sounds like a pop-y Ramones song, Taylor told the story of when they supported The Undertones and the band apparently thought they'd stolen the song from them! They played crowd favourite A&E and Lauren introduced it by saying,"Gonna do one of those cringey things bands do and say we're gonna take it down for a minute ... but we actually are" and got the audience to chant "slow song, slow song, slow song". It was an emotional performance, the kind of bit in the set where you grab your friends beside you and shout into their face - "SHE WANTS TO BE A PARAMEDIC". A good respite for the moshers and a quiet moment for the mums.
They began with Cold, riling the crowd up with distortion pedals and guitar shredding. The song seamlessly transitioned into Seatbelts for Airplanes, that contains the poetic lyrics, "come on, call me a taxi and have it drop me at your feet". Old song Settle Down got a cheery reaction from the crowd - we still love its colour! Before playing Sleep On My Floor, Taylor took the chance to thank all the people who have been supporting the band since the beginning - since the "American Wives days". The crowd knew all the lyrics for Your Friends Hate Me and Taylor invited them to sing the first verse while he watched in amazement, still humble as ever. Before playing new song Girl which sounds like a pop-y Ramones song, Taylor told the story of when they supported The Undertones and the band apparently thought they'd stolen the song from them! They played crowd favourite A&E and Lauren introduced it by saying,"Gonna do one of those cringey things bands do and say we're gonna take it down for a minute ... but we actually are" and got the audience to chant "slow song, slow song, slow song". It was an emotional performance, the kind of bit in the set where you grab your friends beside you and shout into their face - "SHE WANTS TO BE A PARAMEDIC". A good respite for the moshers and a quiet moment for the mums.
During Hate It When You Have To Go Taylor tried to stand on top of the monitor and slipped off nearly knocking over everyone in sight. "Did anyone see me almost kill lauren?" He asked after the song had ended, "Wasn't that cool? wasn't that really punk?". Lauren laughed it off saying, "If anyone videoed that they're gonna get £200 from 'You've been framed'!" Taylor claimed, "It's not a good gig until someone's nearly died" . They played an encore of three songs, American Wives earning a cheer from the crowd, before the show was over and everyone was sweaty and sad. Brand New Friend - we hate it when you have to go!!!
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