Brand New Live @ Birmingham Academy

Looking at the set list for this evening's entertainment (see picture 20), you'd be forgiven for thinking that you were in for the night of your life.

"The Shower Scene", "No Seatbelt Song", "Mixtape" and "Seventy Times Seven" from their criminally under-rated début album, then the essentials ("Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows", "Sic Transit Gloria", "Play Crack the Sky" and "Jaws Theme Swimming") from Deja Entendu before filling the rest of the set with Devil and God goodness. If only they'd have played that setlist.

While the start is awesome on a par with going into remission on the same day you find out that Lindsay Lohan has cancer, Brand New let the more low-key moments over-power their set. While the prospect of a big finish would have made a perfect evening complete, the last two songs are jettisoned in favour of a solo Jesse Lacey performance of "Soco Arametto Lime". Which undeniably touching it was, especially as the crowd join in for the chants of "You're just jealous 'cause we're young and in love", we couldn't help but think how much more awesome it would have been had we the opportunity to follow that up with "...and you can think of me when you forget your seatbelt, and again when your head goes through the windshield".

Regardless of our predilection for the punkier moments of the emo-rock collective, the night was not one to be sniffed at. Opening act, one Mr. Kevin Devine, fit the bill like a particularly well-fitting glove, plying the crowd with cuts from his exceptional Brother's Blood album, which, to our surprise is apparently not available on U.K soil yet. One for the to-do list for you all we think!