Shooting Our Mouths Off

For their 2024 New York performance, the band took the stage at The Paramount in Brooklyn. This time around, they played at Brooklyn Steel. Opened in 2017, the venue remains a relatively new addition to the city’s live music scene. Housed in a former steel factory, it retains much of its industrial character.

The surrounding neighbourhood shares the 1,800 capacity venues raw, utilitarian vibe, offering a stark contrast to the glitz of Manhattan. Still, it has its charms: sweeping views of the Empire State Building across the East River and the Williamsburg Bridge provide a striking backdrop, as a few band members discovered during a pre-soundcheck stroll.

Early start times can be tricky – especially in a city like New York, where traffic is notoriously chaotic. As a result, people were still arriving when the band were scheduled to hit the stage at 8pm. Rather than delay the show, the band improvised and kicked things off with ‘Attention’, making sure no one would miss out on any tracks from Laid.

After delivering a single extended set the night before in Boston, the band returned to the two-set format in Brooklyn – a reminder that with them, you can never quite predict what’s coming next, and that spontaneity is part of what makes them so beloved.

Tracks from Laid were spread across both sets, alongside a generous selection of fan favourites and two standout songs from Yummy – ‘Stay’ and ‘Way Over Your Head’. In a surprising shift, ‘Shadow of a Giant’ was left off the setlist for the first time on this tour.

The night’s biggest surprise came just five songs in, when the band launched into ‘Hymn From a Village’ – not only a tour debut, but the first time it had been performed live since its featured role during their orchestral tour in 2023.

After opening the night on a slower note, the band brought things full circle by closing with the tender ‘Out to Get You’ – a track that builds to a beautiful chaos, with Saul’s frenzied violin and Dave’s tumbling drums weaving together in a way that felt both collaborative and combustive.