TheHawthorne slowly filled up last Sunday night with fans of The Bravery. Teenagers crowded around the merch table eager to pre-order the new album in order to get a VIP pass to meet the band after the show. Not a bad idea to get pre-sale numbers up. The opening band, The Dustys, didn't get started until half an hour after scheduled. Most likely due to the fact that the other opening band The Living Things could not continue on because when they got up that morning, their van and trailer of equipment had been stolen. Regardless, the show must go on and The Dustys played a good 30-minute set, although it was pretty clear who the majority of the crowd was there to see when The Bravery took the stage.

The Bravery got things started with “Unconditional” and “No Brakes” off of their 2005 debut album. The show was a mix of songs from all three of the bands albums, as lead singer Sam Endicott put it, “We're gonna play some new shit. We're gonna play some old shit. We're gonna play some middle shit. And then we're gonna play some shit you don't know where it came from – some mystery shit.” Both the crowd and the band were not lacking in energy during the hour and a half long show. During the show, there were images and video clips projected on a screen on the back of the stage. It was visually interesting, but also distracting because it sometimes kept your focus off of the band. The best thing about the night was being able to hear some of the songs off the upcoming album (Stir the Blood out 1Dec). We got to hear “Jack O Lantern Man” and “Hatefuck” among others, and of course, the current single “Slow Poison”. After the three-song encore, I left, but many young fans stuck around with their VIP passes to get their moment with the band.