On Saturday night, I finally had the opportunity to see the new group Middle Brother. If you haven't heard of them (or their music yet), Middle Brother consists of the lead singers from three bands: John McCauley of Deer Tick, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes & Matt Vasquez of Delta Spirit. This tour also featured Deer Tick and Dawes opening these shows for the new group.
Deer Tick & Dawes have been alternating the opening slot with Middle Brother finishing the show and on this night Deer Tick would take the stage first. I've seen Deer Tick several times but it was cool to hear some songs off their latest album, "The Black Dirt Sessions", which came out last year. John and the guys have a lot of energy so they always put on a good live show but I really enjoyed some songs I haven't heard live like "Twenty Miles" & "Christ Jesus". The closer to the set was "Mange", a song that really lends itself to a powerful live performance, really comes alive in person.
After a short intermission, Dawes took the stage and played a solid mix of some older tunes off their album "North Hills" along with some new songs that will be on their upcoming album (slated for release this year!). I've seen these guys a bunch over the last couple years and I think they just get better and better every show, the older songs have really grown over the last year or so. The new stuff sounded great, at one point Taylor split the crowd in half to sing the chorus (felt like a Ben Folds moment). I especially loved "Peace In The Valley" and "That Western Skyline", two great songs off their debut album.
About half way through the Dawes set, the guys invited Jonny Corndawg on stage to sing a few tunes, the highlight probably being "Trashday", which went out to all the "married people", haha. The whole set was great but the best part was when they played a raucous version of "When My Time Comes" with guest appearances by John McCauley & Matt Vasquez, I filmed video of this one (see below), check out John on the harmonica!
Middle Brother closed the show and played mostly songs off their self-titled album that just came out about a week ago. This album is really solid so definitely pick it up if you don't have it yet. As I usually find, there's always a song that I think is just okay on an album but really impresses me in concert, I give the nod to "Blood and Guts" this time around. Taylor absolutely owned this song, really, really good performance and got me listening to the song all day. I took some footage of another tune, "Blue Eyes", which you can check out below.
All in all a great night out in Brooklyn at one of my favorite venues. You often hear people complain about ticket prices nowadays but for $25, you couldn't get a better 4-hours in my opinion, worth every penny. These guys will be on tour over the next month or so, try to see the show if they're coming your way.
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