Ian Gittins 

The Gaslight Anthem – review

The Gaslight Anthem are an immensely thrilling live experience, overwhelming any cynicism with a breathless set, writes Ian Gittins
  
  

The Gaslight Anthem Perform At Koko In London
Thrilling ... Gaslight Anthem perform at Koko. Photograph: Marc Broussely/Redferns/Getty Photograph: Marc Broussely/Redferns via Getty Images

There is a certain thrill to seeing a band in an intimate club who are clearly destined to headline the world's arenas and stadiums. The Gaslight Anthem's accelerated commercial trajectory is so inexorable that they may as well go ahead and book a 2014 date at the O2 now.

The propulsive American four-piece have spent their career to date being compared to their fellow New Jersey native Bruce Springsteen, and are impressively defiant about this fact. They have little choice in the matter. So marked are the musical similarities that a small pocket of fans at this rammed gig aim affectionately mocking cries of "Brooce!" at them between songs.

The Boss has lent them his seal of approval and their imminent fourth album, Handwritten, has longtime Springsteen producer Brendan O'Brien at the helm, yet the Gaslight Anthem are anything but copyists. Instead they are an immensely thrilling live experience, overwhelming any cynicism with a breathless set of effervescent, life-affirming rock'n'roll songs that deal only in heartbreak or giddy delight.

Their diminutive frontman, Brian Fallon, is a compelling figure, pouring himself into pulsing song explosions such as Great Expectations and the current single, 45, with seemingly insatiable fervour. His sincerity is palpable, and he endears himself to the band's besotted following even further tonight when he sprints to a first-floor balcony and hurls himself off it into the throng on the dancefloor below.

Taking only two songs from Handwritten, they still play for almost two hours, and it passes in a flash. It's another trick the Gaslight Anthem have picked up from Springsteen: how to give an audience everything and still leave them wanting more.

 

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