Packed in like sardines, the atmosphere was an electric hot-mess, as they gave their melodic hearts to anyone who could hear them. They stood close together on stage playing tightly wound power pop-punk songs like they came to conquer Ohio with their 6-strings. The crowd crammed as much energy as they could into every 3-minute gem, giving everything they had to the band – living and dying by the microphone.
The only problem? The aforementioned show I’m referencing was Tokyo Police Club at The Basement and I was across the musical concrete at the LC Pavilion watching The Gaslight Anthem do their best impersonation of Bruce Springsteen – that is if he were an uninspired, less subtle punk-rocker.
Hardcore Gaslight fans left the venue satisfied, while it was the casual CD101 (or CD102.5) patron that truly suffered. The band’s set seemed more like one really long song with no beginning, no end. However, they did give the fans what they wanted; playing their radio hits early on in their set. Jersey Shore fist pumps exploded like a sea of testosterone on “’59 Sound” and “Old White Lincoln.” The show was almost a cliché from start to finish, with everything from Gaslight’s giant oversized skull-and-crossbones backdrop banner to lead singer Brian Fallon’s narcissistic anecdotal stage banter.
With a bill comprised of three bands that essentially sounded like lesser-known versions of each other, the audience still managed to squeeze a few drops of enjoyment out of the show. This was due largely impart to the LC’s bar and the hard-not-to-like catchy guitar riffs that reside at the core of Gaslight’s music.
The Gaslight Anthem boys, also hailing from the Garden State, have made no qualms about their admiration and imitation-meets-flattery love for fellow New Jersey hero, Boss-man Bruce Springsteen. But where Bruce’s music and poetics soar, the Gaslight’s overall performance plummeted fast with each raspy dull scream that sounded exactly like the one before. Sorry, but I fear that The Gaslight Anthem may already be out of gas.
This review was written by Josh Fitzwater and brought you by the Franklin University Plaza at the LC Pavilion. For more information about shows that Josh and the Franklin crew will be attending and for chances to win tickets to concerts all summer long, visit www.franklin.edu/concerts or like us on Facebook.
