Friday’s show was the band’s final gig of the year, before they head back into the studio to record their highly anticipated third album. Lead singer and guitarist Brian Fallon told the sold-out crowd that they just had to finish the tour in their home state. “I mean, Chicago is great,” he said at the start of their set, “but it’s not here.”
The Gaslight Anthem first hit our radar here at New Jersey Monthly back in March when we featured them in New Faces New Jersey. They’ve taken no break since then and increased their fan base well outside the Jersey border.
But back home on Friday, you could tell the entire night seemed to have a different vibe than other shows. The Wellmont Theatre’s main floor was transformed into a crowd-surfing mosh pit (and a very safe one thanks to the theatre’s security staff). Fallon’s eyes seemed to light up when the crowd’s vocals overpowered his own, singing back flawless lyrics with nearly perfect pitch the entire night.
Gaslight played a shuffled The ’59 Sound, a few fan favorites from earlier records Sink or Swim and Señor and the Queen EP, and an eight-song encore including a great cover of Tom Petty’s “Refugee.” Though Fallon and the rest of the band said they were worried about new songs leaking (thanks to “that Steve Jobs guy and all that Apple technology”), they managed to throw in a new (and awesome) song called “Bring It On” in the mix.
With that little tease of something new, I am excited to hear what is next from the Central Jersey rockers. And to steal a line from their song “Miles Davis & The Cool,” when you’re all finished with that next album, “don’t wait too long to come home.”