The Gaslight Anthem at The Forum
The Gaslight Anthem – HMV Forum London – 04 June 2009
Support : Mando Diao and White Belt Yellow Tag
Words and photos by Marcus Maschwitz
Tonight had arrived after a really long wait as this show was definitely one of my most anticipated shows at least for this year. The Gaslight Anthem have been rocking our office since we got our hands on their first album and even more since we found out about this show but nothing could prepare me for my first live experience of the New Jersey blues / rock / awesomeness that is The Gaslight Anthem.
The evening started off with a disappointing and LONG journey to the venue thanks to the London Underground and the super service of the Northern Line. I am always told about the hassles that people experience on the tube but tonight was a first for me and I apologize to everyone I have fought with about how good the tube is. It was a once off for me so I guess that I shouldn’t be that hard on them but I was upset to arrive right near the end of White Belt Yellow Tag‘s set because I had heard good things about them and from what I got to see I feel they definitely live up to this. I WISH I could have seen more of them and I am definitely going to keep an eye on these guys. I can’t really pinpoint what style they are but that is never a bad thing because it means they are being original. I do get a Chris Martin vocal similarity from the front man and all in all a general good feel that has forced me to check out their Myspace and listen to them while writing this. Very cool and I look forward to seeing and hearing a lot more from these guys in the near future. From what I can see they are from Yorkshire …… never been to Yorkshire so not sure if that is a good or bad thing.
Next up was Mando Diao who I had also never heard before and from the word go the entire crowd was feeling it. Every direction that I looked I could see people singing along and that’s a good enough sign that these guys are going somewhere. I have just now purchased their most recent album (Give Me Fire!) and I only did this because I enjoyed their stage show which included the 5 band members and what seemed like another 5 people just to sing along and make sure that the sound was as big as it was. Like I said, everyone was having a good time already and singing along but then they played “Dance with Somebody” and it all got wilder. It felt like I was the only person not involved in the audio that was filling the venue so I settled to just tapping my foot along to the Swedish sounds and it felt all too familiar.
In the end though, I was there for The Gaslight Anthem as I had mentioned earlier and the time had come. Was I going to be disappointed or were they going to satisfy the anxiety that I had been experiencing for the last few weeks? The lights turned off, the sound tech walked on stage and flicked his torch and then the sounds of “Gaslight … Gaslight … Gaslight” began echoing through the old historic venue. Obviously everyone else was as excited as I was but I could see that most of the crowd were not virgins to this experience like myself. An intro song started and the boys made their way on to stage, picked up their instruments and it started. Was it good? Already? Unbelievably so!
The first thing I noticed was that they had a definite Cure influence in there somewhere and that besides having some good catchy lyric content, they actually were all good musicians. I normally judge how good a band is by comparing their live set to their recorded music and this was one of those really special moments where I couldn’t really compare them because although they were similar, they were very different. Each song live was slightly longer and included amazing instrumental additions with such a good blues / old rock influence similarly to the likes of Mark Knopfler, Chris Rea and John Mayer. This could either be boring or work and is normally lost because the band carries on for too long but these guys had really thought this out and it was easy to appreciate. The crowd ranged from young to old and I could see that even the old folk next to me were enjoying it by bumping and grinding each other while air guitar-ing. Thank God that they weren’t really equipped with instruments and even more that they weren’t connected to any sound equipment because from what I saw it would’ve sounded like absolute hell.
I couldn’t believe that after being together for about 2 and a half years that the band was still shocked that people had come to see them. Brian kept walking around and thanking everyone one for being there and for coming to see them. He even said sorry for carrying on but he was just overwhelmed by it all. I love that. I love that a band can be so humble when it so easily can be taken for granted. You could see that he was honestly experiencing this feeling because of the way that he played with as much passion and effort as you would put into your first big live show.
The set consisted mostly of songs from the new album including hits like High Lonesome, ’59 Sound, Great Expectations, Old white Lincoln, Even Cowgirls get the Blues and Casanova, Baby! but they did throw a few oldies into the mix like Angry Johnny and the Radio which had to be my favourite of the night. My best thing about a live show has to be when a band involves the audience and these guys kept on making the effort by getting everyone to sing along as if we were part of the band – “Young boys ….. Young girls”. Brian did say that they weren’t ready to do the Billy Joel hand wave yet but that he would be stealing this soon enough. I also can’t help but add that Brian’s voice has a few similarities to that of Dicky Barrett from The Mighty Mighty Bosstones in certain places.
This was one of the first shows where I stayed right until the end, right till everyone had left, just to take in the entire experience and all in all, The Gaslight Anthem and a good sound experience (Thanks to The Forum) ensured that this was one of my best live shows ever and I cannot be thankful enough. I do not want to believe that it is over and although I have a better greater love for what they do for the music industry (especially in these times when we are flooded with the Emo sound), I am sad that I have to wait until the next time I get to see them, hopefully in an intimate venue like this one. I would LOVE to get these guys to sit down for even 10 minutes and interview them because I feel like I have so many questions to ask them …… soon?!
To close, this is what music is all about. I left wishing that I knew how to play guitar and dying for more. If you don’t know these guys, get to know them and if you haven’t seen them live, make a plan. I’m glad it’s almost weekend because I feel I need to take a road trip even if it is to nowhere.
June 5th, 2009
[...] I did a review of the show for Clink Music Magazine so I am going to write more about shooting the show as apposed to what the show was like because if you want to read about that you can check out the review I did by CLICKING HERE. [...]
June 8th, 2009
Wow, amazing photographs. I was at this show and it saved my life.
June 25th, 2009
great write up!
exactly how i would imagine the experience.
sheesh! i guess i’ll have have to cross an ocean sometime and make a plan to see ‘em.
nice shots too Marcus!!!