Brand New @ Carling Academy

Acknowledging and subverting their pop-punk origins by opening with a stripped down Jude Law and A Semester Abroad, Brand New are notoriously difficult to pin down. Their recent release, the difficult The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me, is overlooked in favour of crowd-pleasers: this seeming defeat for progression marks a victory for atmosphere, as the audience expresses fanatical worship. Part Jimmy Dean, part Rivers Cuomo, Jesse Lacey delivers his acutely self-conscious lyrics with verve: drums are taut and overlapping frantic guitars combine to deliver a complete sonic attack. Highlights come from their breakthrough album Deja Etendu, played in its entirety, although it is the slower acoustic numbers like I Will Play My Game Beneath the Spin Light that best realise their ambition. The two hour set leaves band and crowd exhausted and exhilarated. Although tonight's performance is unlikely to have gained new converts, Brand New surprise and excite the already faithful. [Mark Oliver]