Hey everyone, it’s Josh from Mercy Blue.  Emily asked me to write a guest blog for the site and I thought I’d write it about the AMAZING show I just saw at Johnny Brenda’s last Friday.

The Brakes held their record-release party on June 6th to celebrate their new Hyena Records release, Tale of Two Cities.  The album is a live album comprised of performances from their 2007 residencies in Philadelphia and New York.

On to the show…

Carney opened the show, however, i was outside smoking a cigarette during their set and didn’t really hear them, but i’m sure they’re good.  Ben Arnold & Band hit the stage at 10pm and absolutely ROCKED The place.  Matt and Zach from the Brakes are currently in Ben’s band so they were pulling double duty that night.  It’s almost like a right of passage in the Philadelphia music scene to play in Ben Arnold’s band once you’ve reached a certain level.  in the past, it’s included people like Jim Boggia, Scott Bricklin, Todd Bareson (of the lowlands) a ton more names.  My point is, Ben has a rotating cast of musicians in his band and in a lot of cases, that makes it tough to sound cohesive… but Ben pulls it off better than anyone I’ve ever seen.  I really don’t think anyone would have known that his band hasn’t been playing together for years.  And speaking of his band… HOLY SHIT, can Matt Kass wail on guitar.  What makes it even more insane is that he’s left handed, playing a left handed guitar, strung like a right handed guitar… yup, it’s UPSIDE FREAKING DOWN!  I just can’t wrap my mind around that.  Ben’s performance featured guest spots from Jim Boggia and Adam Flicker from the Brakes as well, and I don’t think anyone could have done a better job at getting the crowd ready for the Brakes to hit the stage.

At about 11:15pm, the Brakes hit the stage and started off mellow…  sort of calming the audience down a little bit… you know, sort of a song that makes you sit in aw an think “damn, they’re really really good.”  It didn’t take them long though to bring the rock.  A couple of songs in, they broke out Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” and it was pretty obvious the crowd was loving them.  The band played for about an hour and ten minutes and played a perfect blend of songs off of their new album, loud rocking songs and softer mellow songs mixed perfectly together.  Derek Feinberg is one of the nastiest slide-guitarists I’ve ever seen live and his harmonies blended perfectly with Zach Djanikian’s lead vocals.  Zach is also a pretty sick bass player and while he did show off his skills a little here and there, he was never out of the pocket and never too flashy… completely tasteful and really solid.  One thing about the Brakes in general, but especially their live show that sets them apart from the rest of the pack, is their keyboards and horns.  Adam Flicker plays just about every instrument on the planet and his keyboards during their set ranged from rock n’ roll hammond organ to spacey synth pads… and a little bit of his trumpet thrown in for good measure.  What made the night a little bitter-sweet was the fact that the Brakes just lost their drummer, Josh Sack to leukemia earlier this year.  In the middle of the show however, Zach and the rest of the band raised a glass for Josh in a toast that sort of just brought the whole evening home.  It was a really nice moment and a really nice way of letting Josh in on the record that he was such a big part of.

They left the stage around 12:10am and that was met with one of the loudest ovations I’ve ever heard from Johnny Brenda’s sold out crowd.  The band came back out for their encore and invited Ben Arnold back up to sing “Squeeze Box” by the Who.  The night came to a close with the entire crowd singing along and rocking out.  The band gave everyone their money’s worth and then some, and I’m really sort of disappointed it’s not going to be until at least September to see them again. They’re great guys, a great band and talent that really needs to be watched, because the great things they’re doing now are just precursors to the AMAZING things they’re going to do in the future.