Monday night isn’t the usual night for a lively band to pull an equally lively crowd. But the first show of The Gaslight Anthem’s quick three night, three-city hop, quickly dispels the myth. Maybe a result of the supersize rain cells that lashed Brisbane across the weekend prior, people were amped to get out of the house and make Monday their Saturday.
Brisbane local, Emmy Hour, takes the stage and begins a winding set. Performing self-penned songs, and possibly a cover, the tone of the set is somewhat muddled. She kneels on the floor and talks to the audience without a microphone, quickly disconnecting the attention. It feels ill-thought through and comes off feeling like an open mic night. A minor guitar lead issue follows but Emmy pushes through the 3/4hr set. An emotional tribute in the final song turns heads, but unfortunately the damage is done. It’s undeniable that those who’ve paid for their ticket may have felt they deserved a little more cohesion.
An interesting, but reassuring, choice of music plays while the stage is set for The Gaslight Anthem. Final soundcheck is performed in tandem with Cheap Trick, Sweet and other classics. When the lights go down, it’s one of Australia’s own that prompts the crowd into a sing-along – ‘Never Tear Us Apart’ by INXS. This choice of song seems planned as a message from the band as a retrospect to an indefinite hiatus in 2015, rumours circulating that it was over. But when they walked on stage just before the famous Pengilly sax solo, it’s obvious they’re back with intent. Brian Fallon signalled in the famous INXS sax in as the band took their instruments and focused.
As the Farris Brothers and Co fade out, the band launches into ‘Great Expectations’, from their hit album ‘The ‘59 Sound’. It’s quickly followed by ’American Slang’ and the chunky ‘Biloxi Parish’. The classic heartland punk of The Gaslight Anthem is a warm embrace after all these years. After the fifth song, ‘We Came To Dance’ from their debut ‘Sink or Swim’, that Fallon finally engages in audience banter. With a wide grin, he’s almost beyond words about his joy of touring here again. It’s understandable because it’s been almost a decade since they last graced out shores. Long-term members – lead guitarist Alex Rosamilia, bassist Alex Levine and drummer Benny Horowitz – are plugged back in and are assisted on tour by Ian Perkins on rhythm guitar and Bryan Haring on keys.
It’s evident that everyone (audience included) has changed. Brian moves quickly to the subject of Australian spiders, asking his band mates if they’ve seen one. He does repeat how much he loves it here because we choose ‘to do it our way’. A short anecdote about an uninterested Uncle and his passion for cable TV noir movies is the segue to, of course, ‘Noir’. It’s lyric ‘I lit a fire that wouldn’t go out, until it consumed the walls and roof of this house’ is a gorgeous metaphor of the joy of falling in love and the inevitable heartbreak. Just one of many frayed heartstring passages to come.
A decade away hasn’t quietened the Australian fans and they feverishly rise to every song. In fact, the gap has most likely steeled them and enabled a conversion of new listeners. Fans of all ages impressively sing every word to each song, as if reading a secret karaoke screen. ‘Positive Charge’ and the low tempo ‘Michigan, 1975’, both tracks from the new album ‘History Books’, are treated with the same respect as their older brothers and sisters. Written by the same scarred soul, they exude a nuanced maturity carried by in the band on stage.
‘Spirit of Jazz’, ‘Bring It On’ and ‘Howl’ are dotted through the setlist, continuing the classic Gaslight Anthem pace. It’s what the people came for. Their cover of Billie Eilish ‘Ocean Eyes’, from the new album, demonstrates how the band can apply their ‘cool’ to a global mega-hit and still add a delicious layer to it. The beautiful ‘Blue Jeans and White T-Shirts’ follows, before the rafters are lifted off during ‘45’, ‘The ‘59 Sound’ and ‘The Backseat’ to close the show.
Fallon’s poetic superpower combines a deep human existential dilemma- the search for belonging through the shadows of an inevitable loss. His words are akin to the great lyricists such as Dylan, Cohen, Cave and (of course) Springsteen. Stories of love and life slipping through our fingers are interwoven through dreamscapes of simpler times. It’s the musical flipping through pages of a mid-1900s American magazine, hoping to be transported to a time of innocence. A place where the mythological ‘Cool’ exists in the form of grease rags hanging from back pockets, sleeves rolled up to wedge a pack of cigarettes, cola bottles and squeaky floorboards while climbing out a secret liaison’s window before dawn.
Fallon and his band transfer this hope from the stage, taking the audience on a sentimental ride with a modern tempo. It’s a peculiar ticket to the past that invites all hungry souls on the journey. Wherever they’re going from here, we’re sliding into the backseat and strapping in.
With many thanks to Dallas Does PR for the media access.
All image credit : Chris Searles
Gallery
Catch The Gaslight Anthem at this years Good Things Festival
