The Blood Brothers and Saetia at Irving Plaza was pure chaos (pics)

The Blood Brothers are back again, for the first time since their 2014 reunion tour, and the extra decade away has done nothing to tame this band’s chaos. If anything, they were even better at NYC’s Irving Plaza last night (12/13) than the two times I saw them on the last run, which at the time followed a hiatus of only seven years. The current tour partially celebrates the new 20th anniversary reissue of Crimes, but they stuck to a career-spanning set and touched on fan favorites from all five of their albums. From the moment co-vocalists Jordan Blilie and Johnny Whitney looked at each other to telepathically count in show opener “Set Fire to the Face on Fire” to the “Guitarmy”/”Fucking’s Greatest Hits” one-two punch that kicked off the explosive encore, The Blood Brothers were on one all night. Johnny Whitney spent at least half the show hovering over the crowd or straight-up crowd surfing, and the crowd gave all that same energy right back to the band. There were very, very few moments where band and/or audience members were standing still.

The Blood Brothers made the very cool decision to have a different opener at every show on this tour, and this show–their first of four in NYC–had one of the most exciting openers of the entire tour: reunited NYC screamo legends Saetia. Saetia finally returned in 2022 after 23 years away, and they’ve only played a select amount of shows since; this was their first hometown gig since the three shows that kicked the reunion off two years ago. The lineup for the reunion has onetime bassist/guitarist Steve Roche moving to drums and touring guitarist Tom Schlatter (of You & I, The Assistant, Hundreds of AU, and more) alongside vocalist Billy Werner, guitarist Adam Marino, and bassist Colin Bartoldus, and they took us right back to the late ’90s with an OG screamo set that just got better and more captivating as it went on.

It was a huge treat to get to see Saetia, and people on both coasts will have at least one more chance to do that: they’re teasing shows for NYC on April 27 and LA on May 3. Details are coming in January.

The Blood Brothers’ NYC run continues at Irving Plaza tonight (12/14) with Jivebomb, Warsaw on Sunday (12/15) with Uniform, and Warsaw on Monday (12/16) with Venus Twins. After this run, they’ll wrap up the tour with a Detroit show and a three-night run in Chicago.

Pictures from last night’s Irving Plaza show by Amanda Hatfield continue below. Also see pics from one of their LA shows here.

The Blood Brothers @ Irving Plaza – 12/13/24 Setlist (via)
Set Fire to the Face on Fire
Trash Flavored Trash
USA Nails
My First Kiss at the Public Execution
Laser Life
Ambulance vs. Ambulance
Burn, Piano Island, Burn
Peacock Skeleton With Crooked Feathers
Camouflage, Camouflage
We Ride Skeletal Lightning
Teen Heat
Vital Beach
Rats and Rats and Rats for Candy
Crimes
Beautiful Horses
Birth Skin/Death Leather
Mutiny on the Ark of the Blood Brothers
Love Rhymes With Hideous Car Wreck
Cecilia and the Silhouette Saloon

Encore:
Guitarmy
Fucking’s Greatest Hits
Jennifer
The Shame