Broods at First Avenue, Minneapolis (09 August 2016)

Jarryd James’ Setlist

Opening up the show was Australian singer/songwriter Jarryd James, playing some selected tracks from his debut album Thirty One (which landed #2 on the ARIA Albums Chart). His music was previously released locally, but his U.S. debut EP High came out earlier this year. The record was produced by Joel Little, who previously worked with Broods, and maneuvered the duo to appear on James’ standout track ‘1000x’. For that song, the Nott siblings came out to play.



James ended his set with his debut sing ‘Do You Remember’, which had some audiences singing along to his signature song.



Broods is back with their danciest/happiest (but lyrically filled with darkness and sadness) second album Conscious (Capitol Records). We previously reviewed the record, noting that “if you like to dance and if you like to sing along, you will love this album. The beats and the lyrics are easy to remember, and there are sure to be huge crowds of people singing and dancing along to these songs in cars and on dance floors everywhere.”



What Broods delivered is pretty much their entire Conscious presented live, with only a few old favorites from Evergreen thrown in near the end. From past experiences, usually this means that the band has really grown away from when they started and just really eager and happy to show us their new and current music.



Learning from their humble U.S. debut club tour in 2015, the band’s current shows are a 1000% improvement. With a larger stage to work in, the band had custom lights (with specific sequences for specific songs), smoke machine, and stations for new touring members Camilla, on keys, and their cousin Johnnie on drums. Although it would have been nice to get Tove Lov to help sing on ‘Freak of Nature’, Camilla filled in nicely.



To keep with the dark and light theme that they have with Conscious, singer Georgia and keys Caleb first appeared on stage in black outfits. After their two-song acoustic set (‘All of Your Glory’, followed by ‘Taking You There’), the stage’s lights went out and the two quick re-appeared in brand new white outfits. We’ve seen costume changes before, that usually requires a brief intermission – not this rather lightning quick costume change. We believe that the two had those costumes already under their clothes the whole time.



Broods ended their 75-min set with their lead single ‘Free’ from Conscious. The song got huge applauses from the audience, indicating that this may be Broods’ hit song, even though their three-song encore ‘Four Walls’, ‘Bridges’ and ‘Couldn’t Believe’ also got just as massive cheers.



Conscious is out now on Capitol. Check back after August 28th, as we are also hoping to provide additional coverage at Emo’s in Austin, Texas. Stay tuned.



Broods continue their US tour until early September.