Reliving somebody else’s youth is a funny experience. Inhabiting other people’s nostalgia can feel intrusive, strange yet moving. Watching people transport themselves back to their former selves through the music of their younger years is as healing as it is powerful. There are bands and artists that are meant to be discovered when you are younger. Bands that act as gateway drugs to whole genres and universes of music that was previously unavailable or unknown to you. These artists shape your musical identity and mould your musical brain, their influences send you on down slopes of which there is no going back. Imagine a life where Green Day didn’t lead to The Clash, where Oasis didn’t send you back to The Beatles or where My Chemical Romance didn’t deliver you to Rites of Spring. That’s not to say that these bands don’t exist on their own terms or in their own merit, they most certainly do. When you are young though, your love of music is so fertile and working backwards through these influences can feel like discovering entire new universes. These bands give more than just their own music, they give the gift of music itself, of discovery and the sharing of that precious joy that the music we love gives to us.
The Gaslight Anthem wasn’t a gateway band for me. I discovered them recently in reverse order through my love of Springsteen. However, they clearly held this place in the hearts of so many people in the crowd in Sheffield and being able to tap into the joy and adolescent energy in so many nameless strangers was a really unique and special experience. We tend to idolise the musicians we love. It’s almost impossible not to. Bands try so hard to strip themselves of their influences and to try to become as original as possible. This is valiant and certainly leads to some of the most challenging and progressive, forwards thinking music. Music isn’t always about progression though. It doesn’t have to be an intellectual sport. What makes The Gaslight Anthem so endearing and joyful to watch perform is their undying love and adoration for the music that made them. They are unabashedly in love with music. There was a particular moment during the night where Bryan Haring, the bands keyboard player, was playing a delicate, noodling piano line in-between songs that was straight out of Roy Bittan, of The E Street Band’s, playbook. How could anyone not enjoy the sight of Brian Fallon watching on in sheer glee as he was living out just a small snippet of what it must feel like to be one of his heroes on stage. Fallon seemed most comfortable when he was engaging with the audience about music and their band t-shirts. His frantic childlike energy was as infectious as it was endearing.
Regardless of his unashamed love of the likes of Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits and his penchant for 80’s hair metal riffs, Fallon is an incredibly talented songwriter in his own right. What is remarkable watching him play is just how many great songs he has managed to accumulate over the years whilst maintaining such a pure love of music. Whilst The Gaslight Anthem is a fairly reliable and well-oiled machine, Fallon’s songwriting is ever evolving. His solo material is fantastically tender and diverse and this has fed into the sound and writing on the brilliant new Gaslight Anthem record ‘History Books’. Songs like ‘Little Fires’, ‘Positive Charge’ and the title track really display a new depth to the bands sound and combines their love of big choruses and loud guitars with the slightly more dynamic arrangements of Fallon’s solo work. Trading off the tenderness with arena sized guitars really is what Fallon does best.
Seeing The Gaslight Anthem really felt like a small celebration of music in general. The rabbit holes. The power of perfect choruses. Feeling seen. Feeling belonging. Most importantly though, it felt joyous.
Sweet Uncertainty 
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