With a classic old school sound reminiscent of The Buzzcocks combined with the early Orange County sound, the Briefs have a great sound and put on a great live show. At their Detroit gig, it felt like I was transported to the early days of punk.
"Ay Detroit"
With no fanfare and no loud introductions, the Briefs took the stage. With a simple "Ay Detroit." They tore into their set. From their '80s outfits to the fast pop punk they played, this was all really old school.
The Briefs tore into their set fast and furiously, just playing hard and rocking out. As they blasted through "Stuck on You", the floor was bouncing and the amp stack was shaking. Some bands at the Magic Stick (the Briefs as well as Gogol Bordello) get the crowd dancing so hard and the floor shaking so much that it gets me thinking that it's only a matter of time before the floor collapses, and we all drop into the bowling alley below the Stick. With their snotty Brit-punk attitude and their Ramones-style humor, the Briefs set continued to tear on, working the crowd up into a frantic dancing mass. Most of the Briefs songs are slightly goofy, and they played them all. "My Girl (Wants To Be A Zombie" had the crowd pumping their fists, and "Silver Bullet" with its chorus of "Kill Bob Seger right now" got the Detroit punks singing along and having a laugh at the local classic rocker.
"Everybody Pogo!"
Mid-set, when it just looked like the crowd might be slowing down, Steve E Nix announced that everyone should pogo, and the crowd was jumping again, and my thoughts about a floor collapse were renewed.
The band played "Abrasive", "Move Too Slow", "Lint Fabrik", and "Getting Hit On At The Bank" In fast progression, Followed by "Destroy The USA." It was all fired off at machine-gun speed. Nobody was allowed to take a breather, and there was no talking between songs, they just kept the punk moving. Then with a simple "Thanks for giving us something to do on a Saturday night", they wrapped up the set with "Poor and Weird" and left the stage, while the crowd tried to catch their breath.
I caught up with both guitarist Steve E Nix and drummer Stevie Kicks for a moment after the show. The Briefs are a bunch of really nice guys who genuinely appreciate when a good crowd enjoys their show, which Nix said can be hit or miss, even in the UK, where the sound was invented, it's not uncommon to show up somewhere and find a scene that's not really into old-school punk anymore. This wasn't the case in Detroit that night; where the club felt like it was 1980 for an hour or so, and old school showed it never got old.
