[ATTENDED: October 17, 2023] Don Broco
I know of Don Broco from a tour in which they did not play when they were supposed to. They opened for Pierce the Veil and The Used at the Stone Pony Summer Stage. But that night a huge storm was forecast, so they moved the whole show up (and cut the show short).
We walked in after Don Broco finished. The only evidence we had of them was when singer Rob Damiani came out later to sing with The Used. He was a character and he had a great voice.
So when this headlining tour was announced, I grabbed a ticket to check out what I missed. I grabbed a ticket early because that’s what I do, but I had no idea that the show would sell out. Rob told is that Philly was (probably) the first show of the tour to sell out.
The opening band The Home Team told us that Don Broco would blow us away. And they did. They came out and from the start they were running on all cylinders, with Ron wearing a tight white T-shirt that had homemade writing I ♥ Don Broco.
“Gumshield” is super heavy but it opens with this weird little kinda cheesy synth riff (which is really catchy). As is the chant at the end of the song “Yes, I’m angry and I’m disappointed.”
The crowd was with them 100% right from the start–singing along to every word, even the very very British “Manchester Super Reds No.1 Fan” (which has several super catchy parts).
I was also pretty pleased to read about the meanings behind some of their songs, which only made me like them more. “Manchester” is (according to reddit)
The song’s actually about toxic fandom and bullying on social media, which is pretty much the opposite of “oi oi lads lads lads” in my opinion.
Rob said “I wanted to write something about an aspect of social media culture I’d really noticed in the last year. Of people tearing other people down, with much of that destructive negativity coming from the supposed fans of bands and teams. In football, you get these ultra fans who go way beyond the point of criticism into cruel, unadulterated bullying.”
I enjoy the way Rob sings with such intensity but when he sings the opening of “Uber,” he throws in an much thicker accent than he has when he speaks. And the song is explicitly anti-racist
The song is a fairly explicit recounting of experiences the band had while in America, particularly drawing inspiration from racist Uber drivers they rode with. “Within the space of a week three separate Uber drivers were openly racist in front of us, I guess assuming as white guys we’d share their views.” The lyrics reflect those experiences, with lead vocalist Rob Damiani fiercely singing: “I’ve been dealing with the driver who’s sorry for my lot/’Cause my country got us mixing our blood/And it’s boiling his blood/And it’s spoiling my blood.” “‘Uber’ is about being angry about that,” the band said, “being angry that racists seem to be growing in confidence to speak their hate in public and it’s a reminder to me to call out that discrimination whenever I see it.”
The woman in front of me recorded all of “Come Out to LA” (her camera was right in front of and her footage was so jumpy and erratic that if she watches it again she might throw up). The drummer Matt Donnelly sings the high vocals in this song (as well as all the harmonies and extra vocals). His voice is a nice contrast.
And guitarist Simon Delaney was not at the show. He evidently had to stay back in England for some reason. For this tour, he was replaced by Marc Okubo from Veil of Maya. I don’t know if he replicated the band’s sound well, but I thought the guitar sounded amazing.
Rob has been very pleased with the moshing going on and after “Automatic” he insisted on a wall of death shoving mosh pit. It went very well and when the song was over her called up on stage the kid he had seen in the crowd (a ten year old whom he called fearless). The kid invited up his brother and Mother? Sister? to be introduced and they were allowed to stay on the side of the stage or get back in the pit. Tough choice. I’m not sure what they chose.
A lot of the Don Broco songs feature screamed/chanted parts. Like “Pretty” which has some quiet moments features a chanted “eight days a week, sucker eight days a week,” which the crowd loves. “One True Prince” has a quiet opening that reminds me of Deftones with the whispered way that Matt sings over the quiet guitars.
I also really enjoyed the sound that bassist Tom Doyle managed–a good variety of slapping, funk and really deep and heavy rumbling. Like the way “Endorphins” starts kind of poppy but then has a huge metal chorus.
Rob talked about how great the Philly crowd was. He talked about when they played with Pierce the Veil and The Used and how great the crowd was there (that’s the our that my son and I went to, but Don Broco was cancelled because of the rain).
Then he introduced the song with his favorite riff–“Bruce Willis.” The song is crazy catchy with the Willis-quoted chorus “Yippie Ki Yay Mother Fucker.” Someone in the crowd had a black bedazzled cowboy hat which Ron wore for the whole song.
“Everybody” has the insanely catchy rising vocal line “No one’s ever seen me like this!”
They ended the set with “Birthday Party,” their new single. It’s stupidly catchy and featured everybody else–The Color 8, Ryan Oakes and at least the singer from The Home Team) on stage to sing and jump around the stage. It was delightful chaos and a fun way to end the set.
I knew there’s be an encore (everyone else got one and they loved Philly). It took a while, but eventually they came out with the heavy new-ish single “Fingernails” which reminds me of the “eight days a week” part of the show with the chanted “one by one by one by one.”
The final song was an older one, “T-Shirt Song,” in which everyone in the crowd waved their (recently purchased one assumes) T-shirts around. (In one case the T shirt was a spangled bra which made its way to the stage).
I couldn’t see all that well for the show (I was very far back) and videos and pictures were not easy to get. There were also a few tall guys in front of me. But it sounded great and I had a lot of fun.
But when that show was over, I bolted out there happy to get out of Philly before the game (which Philly killed in) was over and the fans hit the streets.
I’m really glad I went.
Incidentally, if you like music videos, Don Broco makes AMAZING ones.
SETLIST is not quite accurate but is close.
- Gumshield Æ
- Manchester Super Reds No.1 Fan Æ
- Uber Æ
- Come Out to LA ⊕
- Automatic €
- Pretty ⊕
- One True Prince Æ
- ACTION ®
- Endorphins Æ
- Bruce Willis Æ
- Everybody ⊕
- Birthday Party ‰ (with The Home Team, Ryan Oakes & The Color 8 to Perform the USA Remix)
encore
- Fingernails ψ
- T-Shirt Song ⊕
‰ single (2023)
ψ single (2022)
Æ Amazing Things (2021)
® single (2019)
⊕ Technology (2018)
€ Automatic (2015)
Incidentally, when they played Asbury Park, their setlist was only seven songs. My show was a much better way to see them.
- Pretty ⊕
- Everybody ⊕
- Come Out to LA ⊕
- Gumshield Æ
- One True Prince Æ
- Bruce Willis Æ
- T-Shirt Song ⊕
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