Liveguide.com.au - Gig, Concert, Tour and Clubbing Discussion Forums.

Unanswered Active Topics

Forums Search

UserName:

Subject:

The Gaslight Anthem @ The Annandale Reviewed

Body:

<div class="NTForums_Quote">Posted By Brimstone on 01 Aug 2008 4:22 PM The Gaslight Anthem 
A Death In The Family 
Like...Alaska 
 
The Annandale Hotel 
July 30, 2008<o:p></o:p>
The Gaslight Anthem made me proud to be from New Jersey. They do that Bruce Springsteen trick of transforming the ugliest, smelliest state in America into a world of broken down glamour, endless highways, and last dances to pub jukeboxes. Every song starts with a girl named ‘Maria’ and ends with a roomful of punks singing along like their life depends on it. The trick is the joy – lead singer Brian Fallon grinned his way through the entire set, joking about his Andy Cap hat and high-fiving the front row.  The crowd sang along to every song and even if you didn’t know a chorus you could usually pick it up by the 3rd repetition. It was reminiscent of the Living End and you could imagine them playing the same sorts of festivals – warming up the crowd between Hot Water Music and The Bouncing Souls.
 
            The crowd at the Annandale was great and surprisingly large for a drizzly Wednesday. A punter confirmed that there hadn’t been many good punk gigs lately so everybody was starved for action and they got it – moshing, throwing arms around each other, and spilling beer everywhere.  An acoustic encore and a promise to return in a few months left everybody happy even if most of the songs sounded pretty similar, though when they all sound like The Ramones crossed with Bruce Springsteen it’s easy to forgive them.
 
<o:p></o:p>
            Preceding The Gaslight Anthem were Melbourne hardcore punks A Death In The Family who did the emotive heavy thing pretty well. Opener Like…Alaska were the real surprise of the night. They mixed Dashboard Confessional-era emo with Dappled Cities style baroque pop to great effect. The few heavier songs fell flat but the emotion was there and the potential was strong.
by Christian Brimo<o:p></o:p></div>