By Mark Zurlo
Illustrations by Louis Roe

For a certain group of Boston music fans, Memorial Day weekend wasn’t about barbeques or beaches or American flags. It was all about Brand New. The Long Island cult heroes were making their first Massachusetts appearance in nearly five years on Sunday at Boston Calling Music Festival, and to say it was eagerly anticipated wouldn’t be doing it justice.

With the festival taking over City Hall Plaza for the weekend, it would have be easy to overlook the three bands playing the House of Blues on Friday Night. Manchester Orchestra, Balance and Composure, and Kevin Devine all owe at least a small debt of gratitude to Brand New for their success and their sound, but they’ve each built very strong fan bases on their own accord.

Kevin Devine – a long time Brand New collaborator and tour mate, opened the show with a ten-song set that was backed by his “Goddamn Band”. Devine released two albums last year, and like most of his other releases, they were both pretty solid. During his set, Devine proved that he is a much better than “pretty solid” live performer – infusing the songs with a vitality that is sometimes lost in his recorded material.

Next up was Balance and Composure, a Philly five-piece who have become one of the most promising bands in a scene that Brand New helped create. While they seemed to have a strong following among the nearly sold-out crowd, their set wasn’t accessible or dynamic enough to win over many of the others in the audience.

Balance and Composure

Manchester Orchestra then took the stage in front of a crowd that was about 75% fixated on lead singer Andy Hull, and about 25% fixated on trying to decipher whatever their drunk buddies were screaming at them over the music. It was a weird atmosphere, but considering it was the start of a holiday weekend, it wasn’t all that unexpected.

The Georgia five-piece got their big break in 2007 when they were tapped by Brand New to support them on a full US tour. They’ve been riding high ever since, scoring a number of radio hits, Billboard charting albums, and sold out tours.

The band’s latest album Cope might be their best work yet, and it was somewhat surprising that only 4 of the 18 songs on the setlist came courtesy of the new record. Instead of focusing on promoting new songs, Hull and Co. seemed focused on promoting the fact that they are a very talented (and very loud) group of musicians.

The House of Blues is a cavernous venue, and it’s not uncommon for all the empty space and distant balconies to eat away at a band’s sound, but that was not the case here. While Hull’s intricate lyrics normally take center stage on a Manchester Orchestra record, in a live setting it’s all about thunderous drum fills, huge riffs, and the bombastic choruses that Hull belts out.

Manchester Orchestra’s Andy Hull On Guitar

The band’s Super Bowl Halftime Show-worthy performance even inspired a rare mosh pit in the middle of the floor. To this Hull quipped, “How’s Warped Tour doing out there? Are you guys going to be ok if we play this one acoustic song?”

So the set did have its quieter moments, and it didn’t inspire the same hysteria that Brand New’s festival slot did. However, Manchester Orchestra illustrated just how far they’ve come since they were an unknown opener hoping to ride  coat tails. They’ve made a name for themselves based on powerful, blow-the-roof-off-the music-hall style performances like this, and hopefully that will translate into their own open-air City Hall Plaza slot at Boston Calling next year.