By By Samantha Chichester, Special to The Chronicle
Brian Fallon is crouching next to a bass amp waiting for the song to break back in, leaving the audience hung in silent suspense. The singer of folk-punk band, The Gaslight Anthem, plays with the crowd but fails, as shouts of the next lyrics come rushing out of fans' mouths.
The nearly sold-out show at the iconic Radio City Music Hall on September 30 was designed to be memorable despite daylong warnings of heavy rain and wind. There is something about The Gaslight Anthem that just keeps evoking nostalgia in the minds of the listener. Maybe it's the lyrics referencing the 1950's, Cadillacs or Converses. It could be the simple outfits of blue jeans and white T-shirts the crowd and band wear alike, or maybe it's sharing a foundation of humble beginnings. Either way, it puts you in a different time and place.
For The Gaslight Anthem, it's a story of New Jersey basements to the front cover of music magazines. To celebrate the rapid rise to fame in almost five years, the band played 24 songs including an impressive seven song encore. The pure sounds of electric guitars echoed off the walls and velvet curtains, all theway from the opening of "High Lonesome" to the end of "The Backseat."
In between these was filled with new material off the Billboard charting album, "American Slang," including a passionate performance of "The Diamond Street Church Choir." The setlist also packed in crowd favorites off of "The '59 Sound," that had everybody singing from their soul. With hearing that kind of presence in the songs, it's easy to see why music reviewers refer to Gaslight as our generation's Bruce Springsteen. Even a few songs off the debut album, "Sink Or Swim," were played, giving an intriguing new spin on old material, so it's easy to tell the band has grown. Perhaps the biggest highlight of the night was a performance of "Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts," a rare but beautiful song that reminds you of love and loss in the good ol' days, but prevailing anyway. In the end, the whole concert was classic and timeless.
At the close of the concert fans get back to that nostalgic feeling when Fallon says at the end of the last song, "Thank you from the bottom of our hearts." It was genuine, not the average "thanks/goodnight" every band throws out. That's when you realize the band stands for what it reminds us of: to know where your values are and not to change as people.