Show Review

The Brothers Past, three days into a month long tour, hit Burlington with a hard punch to the head. The show at Higher Ground was a duel headlining gig with The New Deal. Both sides of the club would take turns presenting each band back to back, and his night really exemplified why having two "clubs" in one for Higher Ground can make live music so interesting.

The Brothers Past, whose new album This Feeling’s Called Goodbye, which was just picked up by SCI Fidelity Records for international distribution, started the night off with a nice segue of "What’s On Your Mind" into "Up In Arms." They were holding their cards close at the beginning, hinting slightly at what was to come later. During their last break from the road the guys wrote some new songs, one of which, "Swimming At Night," they debuted this night. It was a nice, mellow song and proved that the band is not stagnating on their brief periods off the road.

As Brothers Past ended, The New Deal started right up on the other side of the club. The danceable manifestations of sounds that The New Deal presents are mind melting.. They played some new compositions and a bunch of old classics, setting up a power play for The Brothers Past.

Brothers Past returned for their second set with a confident version of "Bitches &Candy" as they pushed through the composed parts of the song into a nice jam that took on many different personalities and transitioned through a couple other songs before finishing out strong. Later in the set during "One Rabbit Race," their drummer Rick Lowenberg switched roles with guitarist Tommy Hamilton and played classically inspired guitar, while Tom Hamilton raged the beats on a sequencer. This was all very impressive and during the transitions, neither player missed a beat.

While Brothers Past finished their second set, The New Deal started up the night’s final set of music. The hard driving three piece went through many different personalities and held back the high energy of the first set in favor of a more subdued set that included a nice dub section. At the end, one can only walk out of the twin billing with a grin and sweaty brow.