"Tuned Into Pop Culture" guest contributor Nick Carrabine is a News-Herald staff writer.

I feel kind of weird coming back from New York City and not being able to tell anyone about Times Square, Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty, my unsuccessful attempt to find Nas’ house in Queens or any other popular New York tourist location.

The only thing I did see, was really the only thing I cared about, and that was the Brand New show Saturday night at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Long Island New York, right down the road from Hofstra University.

My three friends and I didn’t even get to New York until after midnight Friday night/Saturday morning and we were up so late that night, we didn’t even bother to do anything productive before the show on Saturday, besides eat at a New York Deli, and of course, I ordered eggs instead of a sandwich.

But this isn’t a blog about New York, in which I could literally write a 20 page paper filled with curse words about the 12 hour drive on the way home, in which five of those hours were just sitting dead stop in traffic, but that’s neither here nor there.

The show started at 6 p.m. with Kevin Devine taking the stage first, I got in my seat during his last song, so it was hard to take anything away from his performance.

Up next was a band that I’ve been very much into since seeing them open for Brand New back in October and that was Manchester Orchestra. They played an extremely small 5-song, 30-minute set but they couldn’t have picked a better selection of songs closing with the haunting seven-minute “Where Have You Been?” featuring Kevin Devine.

Thrice took the stage around 7:15 p.m. I saw lead singer Dustin Kensrue perform an acoustic solo set earlier this year at the Grog Shop but I haven’t really paid much attention to Thrice since high school. Not because I don’t like them, just because I kind of fell behind and never caught up with their last three releases which have been applauded by most critics.

Needless to say, they only played two songs that I knew (aka pre-2003) and the set was filled with newer material that wasn’t bad, just hard to judge because I don’t know much about it.

The fourth band to take the stage, and one that was just as anticipated by most of the fans as Brand New, was Glassjaw.

As for me, I’m not drinking the Glassjaw kool-aid. I could go as far as saying I hate Glassjaw. Way too heavy for me and on top of that, they haven’t released any material in seven years but the fans loved them as their set was filled with a whole lot of energy and a whole lot of loud, really loud.

Just after 9 p.m, Long Island’s own, Brand New, took the stage immediately jumping into the instrumental track, “Welcome to Bangkok,” of The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me with three guitarists, two drummers and a bassist on stage.

The band then jumped into Sink, the seventh track off their new album, Daisy. When I saw Brand New in October, they took an odd approach as to not playing any new material until the seventh song of the set. This time, it was the second song.

For the next 90 minutes, Brand New played a heavy mixture between their new album, Devil and God and Deja Entendu before finishing off just before 11 p.m. with perhaps the song their fans love most and a song rarely performed live, Seventy Times Seven, which was the only song performed off their first album, Your Favorite Weapon.

My personal highlight was lead singer Jesse Lacey playing a solo electric version of my favorite Brand New song, Limosine, towards the beginning of the set, something he didn’t do when I saw the band live in October.

Another shining spot of the night was when the lead singer of Manchester Orchestra, Andy Hull, assisted Lacey with performing the acoustic, Play Crack the Sky.

The venue, which holds about 18,000 people was not filled to the brim, as expected. But I would venture to guess there were between 12,000 to 14,000 people in attendance in which Lacey, among the other lead singers, thanked constantly noting there wouldn’t be that many people there if all the bands weren’t there together.

All in all, it was a pretty incredible experience but just don’t ask me anything else about New York.

Brand New’s setlist:

Welcome to Bangkok
Sink
Degausser
You Won’t Know
Okay, I Believe You But My Tommy Gun Don’t
Sic Transit Gloria...Glory Fades
Limousine
Vices
Gasoline
Sowing Season
You Stole
Luca
Archers
Jesus
Bought a Bride
At the Bottom
Play Crack the Sky
Seventy Times 7