Live Review: The Gaslight Anthem, O2 Apollo, Manchester 19/08/22
Recently reformed New Jersey alt-rockers The Gaslight Anthem descend on Manchester’s O2 Apollo on a tour fans have waited years for. Will it live it upto expectations however?
Back in 2008, I can remember being stood in the kitchen of my parents’ house and being blown away by, what I learned three minutes later, was ‘The ’59 Sound’, the eponymous breakthrough single from The Gaslight Anthem’s second album. It was a record I downloaded immediately, falling in love with its faux ‘50s aesthetic and punk energy almost as quickly.
Since that time, Brian Fallon and co have been a permanent fixture in my life, even after he called an indefinite hiatus on the band back in 2015. As such, the announcement back in March of a sixth record in the making, coupled with a tour was enough to get at least one writer (and a venue full of fans) very excited. As a result, as we enter Manchester’s iconic Apollo, a venue the band are also no strangers to, the anticipation and expectation is palpable.
It's a shame then, that tonight’s show seems to fall somewhat flat.
This doesn’t mean to say it’s a bad show per se; seeing Fallon et al on stage together is a joyous sight, and one that certainly wasn’t ever certain we’d see again. But tonight just feels as if there’s something lacking, both in the band, but in the capacity crowd as well.
Of course, with a setlist such as tonight’s, that is, given over almost entirely to the band’s latter two records, Handwritten and Get Hurt respectively, it was never going to be the rowdiest of shows. Yet in omitting many of the songs that made their fans fall in love with them in the first place, in favour those later offerings, the atmosphere suffers, as does the pace of the set itself.
That said, there are moments in which the band shine. An early outing of ‘Boomboxes and Dictionaries’ is a welcome inclusion, as is an unexpected ‘1,000 Years’. Elsewhere, an excellent ‘The Diamond Church Street Choir’ and ‘The Spirit of Jazz’ are other notable highlights.
It isn’t until an emotional ‘Blue Jeans and White T-Shirts’ that things real feel like they pick up. With fan-favourites such as ‘Howl’, ‘Stay Vicious’ and ‘45’ all coming in the final third of the set with band showcasing the trademark energy, reminding us just exactly why it was we fell in love with them to begin with. That this energy should come so far into the band’s set however should at least raise some eyebrows.
“We never want to be a nostalgia band”, Fallon was quoted in Kerrang! last week. It’s a fair point to make, and one especially important to a newly ‘reformed’ band. After all, unless you’re The Rolling Stones, no one wants to see a band rest on their laurels. However, such compromises seem to have come to the band’s detriment, at least this evening. Whilst a first tour back after seven years should feel like a celebration, tonight’s atmosphere fell somewhat flat. Of course, the obligatory closer of ‘The ’59 Sound’ managed to crack even this cynical writer, ending things on an expected, but nevertheless welcome highlight.
Heading back out into the cool Manchester air, we can’t help but feel at least a little disappointed by the evening’s proceedings. That said, we also know we’ll give The Gaslight Anthem the benefit of the doubt. We always do. Let’s just hope the new material can breathe a new lease of life into the reunion.
Photos by Maryleen Guevara
Words by Dave Beech
