575 S Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Your favorite band is back! Prepare your ears for full frontal auditory awesomeness.

Come have a pint with us before and after our set. We 100% guarantee you will have a #1 time.

Where:
Molly Malone’s Irish Bar

Date:
Friday, May 24th

Time:
9pm

Let your nearest band member know if you would like a ticket or better yet, tickets for you and everyone you know.

Our guitarist, Trevor, hand-made his pic guard two years ago with nothing but sharpies, some sealant, and a party attitude. We surprised to find that his nimble hands weren’t just good for plucking strings, but work just fine with a pen and pencil too. Now, as Josh and Trevor write a fresh new track for the band’s next album, Trevor’s guitar steers the direction in both function and concept, guiding the new song through its harmony layers, and rhythmic complexities.

So DIRECTLY after the UofA vs. USC football game (starts at 12:30pm), Brian’s Escape will be performing the most insane, bodacious, scrumptious show any single person on this world has ever seen at the Sigma Nu fraternity house.

There will be enough energy and drinking equipment to rally even the most blacked out tailgater. So there are literally no excuses why YOU would not want to come the second you leave the Colosseum. If you leave early (bad fan) come pre-game the concert with the band. We are going to be drinking at the house during the game, so come over right when you leave cause shit will be going down! AND When the band isn’t playing, there will be games and wonderful party music to get the fuck down. There are rumors of a top DJ and a television performing singer making guest appearances.

There will most definitely be some free giveaways for the super indulgent (Brian’s Escape shot glasses, pint glasses, stickers, CDs, maybe even a shirt!!)

MOST BODACIOUSLY, there will be a swimming pool right next to the stage. So if you are trying to party like a rock star, bring your bathing suit…or be a super rock star and dont bring your bathing suit and just go in.

It’s not often one finds indie rock bands treading in the steps of Richard Wagner, but then again, Brian’s Escape is not your average rock band. The Phoenix, Arizona metal sextet breaks new ground in their ambitious new project, The Journey, a concept album reinvisioning S. A. Andree’s ill-fated Arctic expedition. The album works in four acts: “Arctic Acquisition,” “Polar Front,” “The Taming of a Man,” and “Återessa,” which chronicle Andree’s auspicious beginnings and the mounting setbacks which would result in their eventual landfall at Kvitøya and his party’s subsequent demise.

Återessa
Återessa

Arctic Acquisition

Arctic Acquisition

The Journey

From the first track, Brian’s Escape’s raw and powerful style take over the listener. The band subtly weaves both melodic rock and heavier metal progressions due in large part to guitarist Josh Rosenbaum’s deft playing and the frontman Larry Gast III’s vocal dexterity. Instrumentals between each major track demonstrate the band’s musicianship, as somber and heavy guitar interplay between Rosenbaum and rhythm guitarist Trevor Swaine give provide a sobering backdrop for the furious and complex drumming of Dylan Kassenbrock. Like the pervasive and stinging winds of the North, Remy Collandreau’s screaming synth isn’t at all out of place, serving to stretch the soaring movements to bitter heights. This is sharply contrasted by bassist Travis Kassenbrock’s bass playing; both solemn and brisk, Kassenbrock’s soulful and demanding style provides a great rhythmic backbone. As the band describes it themselves, “The music is excellent, but to classify it is darn near impossible,” backing garage-punk shouted vocals and almost choral interludes against alternating death metal heaviness and sinister prog-rock interlays. Don’t be fooled; the mix of styles is seamless and perfectly documents Andree’s misplaced hope at the beginning of his trek, his struggle to reconcile his defeat and the dark epiphany of his own fate.

Josh Rosenbaum

So how do these shirtless, longhaired desert rockers compare to Wagner? Much like Gotterdammerung, the lyrics of The Journey capture the nuanced emotion of raging against a destructive destiny. Gast inhabits the consciousness of Andree, and watches as his personal Valhalla succumbs to the flames of fate around him, railing against the gods until his eventual acceptance. With this acceptance though comes a prideful choice of a “warrior’s death” (it is widely accepted that Andree and his men had the option of suicide via opium, but refused it, believing it a betrayal to his fellow explorers) and a descent into insanity that is his ultimate undoing. The score starts strong, slowly growing more bombastic and desperate until the twilight where melodic “death” metal overtakes the final track—death in that we are audience to Gast/Andree’s final thoughts and demise. The Journey, like Gotterdammerung, follows a story wrought under a bad sign.

The Journey Back Cover

The appeal of this album is endless. Each track’s complexity serves to demonstrate each member of Brian’s Escape virtuosity and creativity and being slave to no one genre, has mountains of appeal. The final gift to those who listen through the album brings menacing closure to loyal listeners, and is a suitable to this incredibly wrought album. As a whole, The Journey is as devastatingly beautiful and treacherous as the Arctic itself; howling chords and crashing vocals provide a setting of primordial frozen rage while introspective and powerful lyrics are the lone human element in this wasteland. Brian’s Escape rushes their listeners from Niflheim to Muspelheim, leaving one wondering where their mythic journey will go to next.

Billy Hagberg
Freelance Writer based in Los Angeles, CA

Now presenting the most bodacious thing to hit your ears since since Billie Mays’ sweet nectarous voice penetrated your ears. Brian’s Escape’s latest rerelease, entitled, “Breaking The Silence,” is a reworking of one of the band’s original songs. With the added dynamics of the band’s two newest members, the composition’s auditory powers have evolved into a sound similar to the best sound you’ve heard.  So take a seat and feast your ears on the evolution of the Brian’s Escape sound.

listen here:

Breaking The Silence (2011)

The Journey

The idea of a concept album had always sparked the interest of the members of Brian’s Escape. After the release of their debut album, Scrumptious, the band’s vision of a more meaningful project began to take shape in the form of jamming/writing. However, it wasn’t until frontman/vocalist Larry Gast III began researching the 1897 expedition of Swedish Explorer Salomon August Andree that the direction of this conceptual project became clear.

As the story took vision in Larry’s mind, the rest of band started solidifying the foundation of the instrumental half of the EP. Through the music, the band portrays the events of the arctic expedition from its launch to the point of death for the travelers. The lyrics take another direction, giving a more abstract insight into the growing insanity Andree experienced as he drew closer to his impending death.

Each song on The Journey stands alone beautifully, however, the lyrics and the music complement each other in a way that can only truly be appreciated by experiencing the album from beginning to end.

In 1897, Swedish balloonist Salomon August Andree and two fellow enthusiasts embarked on a voyage they hoped would forever change the world.

The crew set forth with minimal supplies, a hydrogen balloon that was untested, and a blinding drive to be the first to successfully navigate the North Pole.

Just days into The Journey, their balloon crashed onto the frozen ocean.

For several months, the men survived, attempting to return home by foot.

Their bodies were discovered more then 30 years later.

Scrumptious (August 2008):

Released in August 2008, the bands first full length album possesses a wide variety of styles; however, they all maintain the unique, commanding sound of Brian’s Escape. One can find madness in “D.U.I.,” melody in “Breaking the Silence,” and inexplicability in the introduction. Finally, one of the album’s boldest aspects are the two improvisational jamms which were recorded after the musicians refused to discontinue playing when the songs were supposed to end. These jamms clearly illustrate the band’s insatiable desire to create music.  They simply have too much raw musical energy to unleash upon the world.  And it must be realized.