Gaslight Anthem: The '59 Sound tour in New York a nostalgic delight for longtime fans

Mike Davis | Asbury Park Press

Show Caption Hide Caption The Gaslight Anthem celebrate 10 years of 'The '59 Sound' The Gaslight Anthem is on tour to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of "The '59 Sound."

NEW YORK — "Did you hear your favorite song one last time?"

That line from the title track of the Gaslight Anthem's seminal 2008 record "The '59 Sound" echoed around the walls of the sold-out, jam-packed Bowery Ballroom on Thursday, the band's first tri-state area show in nearly three years.

It was sung along, with fever and passion, from a few hundred of their biggest fans. And it was asked openly, wondering what's next for a band whose future is glaringly unclear.

It was the third show on a tour celebrating the 10th anniversary of the New Brunswick, New Jersey band's 2008 record "The '59 Sound," sandwiched between other sold out gigs at the legendary 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. and an appearance at the Governor's Ball Music Festival on Saturday at Randall's Island Park in New York City.

After opening with a hodge-podge of songs from other albums, the lights went down and guitarist Alex Rosamilia began playing the familiar, turntable-mimicking guitar lick at the start of "Great Expectations," the first track from "The '59 Sound."

And when the rest of the band came in? The crowd exploded, singing "Mary, this station is playing every sad song" and "everybody leaves and why, why wouldn't you?" so loud that even singer Brian Fallon, a Red Bank native, was drowned out.

In one particularly cool moment, Fallon and drummer Benny Horowitz tried to hold out a dramatic pause before the final chorus of "Old White Lincoln." The crowd, sweaty and eager, didn't wait.

They started singing "you and your high-top sneakers and your sailor tattoos" while the band stayed silent but laughing, eventually jumping in midway through the chorus.

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The 25-song setlist left room for the band to pick through selections of their catalog, wisely focusing on selections from the earliest days of the Gaslight Anthem. Among the highlights were songs from "Sink or Swim," the Gaslight Anthem's 2006 debut LP, including "Wooderson" and closing the set with "We're Getting a Divorce. You Keep the Diner," and its rocking outro of "stay hungry, stay free and do the best you can."

And during "Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts," a softer ballad from the 2008 EP "Señor and the Queen," the crowd cheered when Fallon sang that "someday I'll buy you that house on Cookman," referring to Cookman Avenue in Asbury Park.

Check out the entire The Gaslight Anthem setlist at the bottom of the page!

There were also two songs from the band's last album, 2014's "Get Hurt," though they were oddly placed in the set list: For example, the band chose to open with "Stay Vicious," the album's first track, on a tour marketed around a 10-year-old record.

While some fans sang along, it was largely a three-minute letdown— though it was immediately forgotten after ripping through "Handwritten," "Diamond Church Street Choir" and "Boomboxes & Dictionaries" in the aftermath.

There was some rust, as expected with a band that hasn't played in three years. A few of the oldest songs, for example, were performed noticeably slower, especially "Boomboxes and Dictionaries."

But for the most part? It was a nostalgic return to the days when the Gaslight Anthem were the darlings of New Jersey and New York rock clubs and the beard-and-flannel, full-sleeve tattoo punks who fell in love with "Sink or Swim" and the band's regular sets at the Court Tavern in New Brunswick and the old Asbury Lanes.

"The '59 Sound" turned them into superstars, peaking at no. 70 on the Billboard 200 and appearing on numerous 2008 "best of" lists. Over the next two years, the Gaslight Anthem would go on to headline Radio City Music Hall and play huge slots on the European festival circuit, which featured the first of many drop-ins from Bruce Springsteen.

"(The '59 Sound) is where everything started from, and it's something we feel collectively passionate about," Fallon said on a recent episode of the Fan Theory podcast.

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The atmosphere at the Bowery Ballroom — its 575-person capacity makes it likely the smallest show the band has played in years — contributed to the throwback atmosphere, barring one major change: The price of admission.

Tickets for the Bowery Ballroom show were among the hottest in town, with scalpers charging upwards of $250 for a ticket with a $50 face value.

"How'd you all get in here," Fallon asked the crowd. "We know you didn't just get these tickets that easily."

But while there was an "insider" feel to the show, that didn't hang over the crowd. It was largely made up of seemingly longtime fans, just as excited for a song from the 2008 EP "Señor and the Queen" as they were for a track from "Handwritten."

There were pockets of newbies and casual fans who had likely first heard the band on a festival stage or "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" and weren't prepared for the wild, rollicking atmosphere of what was still undeniably a punk rock show.

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And there were certainly a few guest-listed industry executives, tapping away on their cell phones up on the balcony while the hundreds of people below threw their arms around strangers for "Here's Looking at You, Kid" singalongs or jumping up and down during "The Backseat."

The Gaslight Anthem has not announced what's next after "The '59 Sound" 10-year anniversary tour. In July, they will head to Europe for six shows before heading back to North America, with tour stops in Toronto and Chicago.

Conspicuously, the band is yet to announce a New Jersey show. And it's unlikely that new music will come anytime soon.

"When a band does a whole catalog of music ... who kind of, at a point, go, 'Alright, well that's pretty good, let's maybe leave it there,'" Fallon said. "But there's kind of, I don't know, like a ceremonial kind of beauty in that, like you can look at it and go, 'Oh, remember this? This is cool."

Setlist

Stay Vicious

Handwritten

The Diamond Church Street Choir

Boomboxes & Dictionaries

Great Expectations

The '59 Sound

Old White Lincoln

High Lonesome

Film Noir

Miles Davis and the Cool

1930

Wherefore Art Thou, Elvis?

Underneath the Ground

The Patient Ferris Wheel

Casanova, Baby!

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Meet Me by the River's Edge

Here's Looking at You, Kid

The Backseat

45

Howl

Wooderson

Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts

American Slang

We're Getting a Divorce. You Keep the Diner

Mike Davis; @byMikeDavis: 732-643-4223; mdavis@gannettnj.com