Frontman Brian Fallon explained “Here’s Looking at You, Kid” as about the girls you meet but don’t ever end up with. The Asbury Park-inspired “Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts” received an extra warm applause from the local crowd, and “Meet Me by the River’s Edge” was a welcome surprise to the setlist. “We Came to Dance” was not only one of the band’s best songs of the evening but also a fine tribute to fellow Jersey-punks Lifetime (hey, wasn’t that vocalist Ari Katz in the pit for Vision just a half hour earlier?) with the lyrics “we learned from the very best dancers around” paying homage to the band’s seminal Jersey’s Best Dancers.įollowing Alex Rosamilia’s eerie opening riff, the crowd exploded on “Great Expectations”, only to be tamed by the mild “Miles Davis and The Cool”. Following an excellent performance of “Wherefore Art Though, Elvis?”, “High Lonesome” was revealed to be about some sort of illegal situation (who could have guessed - “the powder on the bar was just this one night, only to get by”). “Wooderson”, the first of six songs from the band’s 2007 debut, Sink or Swim, followed and offered a peak into the band’s more punk-influenced catalog. The crowd found themselves along to The ’59 Sound‘s hit single: “You and your high top sneakers and your sailor tattoos / Your old ’55 that you drove through the roof / Of the sky, up above these indifferent stars / Where you just kept coming apart, straight in my arms”. With a huge chorus and Alex Levine’s throbbing bass line, “Old White Lincoln” kicked off The Gaslight Anthem‘s set. The band’s lengthy set concluded with Watching the World Burn‘s fairly recent “Close Minded” and 1989’s “Falling Apart” from In the Blink of an Eye. Veteran frontman Dave Franklin–who has been in and out of various punk bands in the last decade including a stint with New York hardcore pioneers Killing Time–is clearly aging, but his voice remains solid. The hardcore-punk five-piece sounded great, engaging much of the older crowd who likely grew up listening to the band in the early 1990s. Cafe, the Theatre packed the house for The Gaslight Anthem on a frigid Friday night.Īrriving late, I caught part of direct-support act Vision. Located a block from the legendary punk club Bloomfield Ave. As a special end-of-year hometown (well, home state) show, The Gaslight Anthem grabbed their friends in Vision, Communication Redlight, and The Hold Outs and booked Montclair’s recently renovated Wellmont Theatre.
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