The Gaslight Anthem - Wolverhampton Review

Coming from the South West of the UK, I generally have to travel to see my favourite bands live. Not many bands come down to Plymouth, with Bristol generally being the closest city which is regularly visited by bands. As such, I often travel to London, Birmingham, Bristol, and other places to see bands - and, as I have discussed on this blog recently, Wolverhampton has become a pretty regular destination of late. Given the travelling from the South West, it often makes sense for me to try and tie gigs together to keep costs down. Trains to and from the South West are often expensive, so staying in the Midlands or hopping between the Midlands and London for a few days usually makes money go further - and that is what I did this past weekend, when I stayed in Wolverhampton for a couple of nights to take in a couple of gigs. My previous post here deals with the hard rockers Mr. Big putting on a strong show at KK's Steel Mill - whilst this post will cover the follow-up show, when The Gaslight Anthem took to the stage at the relatively recently reopened Civic Hall. I have said on this blog before, though, that sometimes consecutive gigs can end up undermining each other. I have certainly had second shows affected by memories from the first - but I think this tends to happen when: a) the two shows are very similar genre-wise; or b) the first show is particularly great. For me, Mr. Big and The Gaslight Anthem are different enough to make comparisons somewhat meaningless - and, despite being great, Mr. Big's show was certainly not an all-timer. I had not seen The Gaslight Anthem live before, either, so that also made the second night one to look forward to. Whilst I have been a casual fan of The Gaslight Anthem for a while, I think that it is fair to say that I only became a proper fan last year with the release of their latest album History Books (which I reviewed here). I have listened to that album an awful lot since its release and I also included it in my Albums of the Year list for 2023. I have since completed my collection of the band's albums, all of which I listened to a lot in the lead-up to last night's show. I was also looking forward to going to a new venue for me - which is a pretty rare occurrence these days. Whilst I visited the smaller Wulfrun Hall in the same building quite a few times prior to the complex's lengthy renovation, I had never been to the main Civic Hall before. I was supposed to visit for the first time back in October to see Europe - but storms and the fragility of the railway put a stop to that on the day. The Civic Hall's lengthy closure from 2015 to 2023 helped to make Wolverhampton a bit of a gig dead zone for a while but, with both the Steel Mill and the Civic Hall now thriving, Wolverhampton is back to being a great place for live music - and I enjoyed my first visit to the Civic Hall. It was a bigger venue than I expected - and it looked bright and fresh following its redevelopment. It is certainly nicer than many of the similarly-sized Birmingham venues which I have been to quite regularly over the years - and the room was pretty full throughout the night.

An hour or so after the venue opened its doors, the evening's sole support act Emily Wolfe took to the stage. She is a musician and songwriter whom I had heard of, but I had not heard any of her work before last night. Whilst I think that it is fair to say that her music is not wholly my thing, I did not dislike Wolfe's set. I generally struggle a bit with what I think of as modern garage rock (i.e. buzzy, distorted guitars against a primal beat and the general lack of big hooks) and I think it is fair to say that Wolfe's songs very much fall into that sound. Despite this, though, I enjoyed Wolfe's approach to the guitar. Her songs were generally a bit riffier than I expected and her lead work and atmospheric playing also impressed. I also liked her drummer's approach to groove, too, and the way his kit was tuned really snapped out of the speakers. For me, though, the songs did not really stick. I am not generally a fan of the quite breathy vocal style which is quite popular with female singers of all genres these days, and Wolfe's voice did somewhat fall into that category in my opinion. I also felt that her songs were not all that hooky. The riffy and somewhat atmospheric approach worked, but I felt that there was generally a lack of strong choruses throughout. This is often the case with this type of music in my opinion, so I think it is just fair to say that it is not for me. Despite this, though, I did not feel that Wolfe's set dragged. Her songs were pretty snappy, so they came thick and fast, and her riffing and guitar playing came across live well. As such, Wolfe's set was certainly not an unpleasant one - even if I am not going to now go out and immediately buy all of her albums.

Half an hour following Wolfe's set finishing, the lights went down again and The Gaslight Anthem took to stage stage to very little fanfare - and crashed into the excellent Positive Touch from the new album. The band are one who tend to change up their setlist night-to-night, so you are never sure exactly what songs you are going to hear. For the next 90 minutes, the band played 21 songs - and featured half of the new album along with a lot of cuts from their back catalogue, including many of my favourites. As such, the setlist suited me nicely, particularly as I had not seen the band live before. It was a good representation of their catalogue as a whole - and the live sound mix captured the band's power and subtlety nicely. The only strange thing about the set for me was the real lack of any interaction with the crowd - which surprised me. I had assumed that frontman Brian Fallon would be one with something to say and the want to make a connection - but he barely said anything to the crowd during the set, which I found quite strange. The band on the whole seemed a bit detached from the crowd, then, but this did not really seem to affect the overall atmosphere - as everyone was very much into the music. The lack of interaction was particularly highlighted, though, during a few lengthy pauses between songs whilst guitars were changed, tuned, and members of the band had chats between themselves. It was a shame that the band seemed quite distant, but their performance musically was spot on - and the hits came thick and fast early on with a huge rendition of Handwritten getting everyone singing along before the riffy American Slang saw plenty of bouncing. There was a good mix of more rocking material and slower songs throughout, but I felt that generally the balance favoured the more rocking songs - which suited me. This kept up the energy early on, with We Came to Dance from the band's first album being pulled out - whilst the more classic strut of High Lonesome also kept the rock flowing. Quieter moments were interspersed, though, with Underneath the Ground providing a change of pace - alongside a strange cover of Billie Eilish's Ocean Eyes, which was included for reasons unknown. I do not need random covers from The Gaslight Anthem given their strong catalogue, and I would have preferred to hear another song in its place. The middle part of the set saw a bit of a lull, too, with Wolfe coming back out to duet with Fallon on a couple of numbers. The delicate The Weatherman from the new album was boosted nicely by Wolfe's harmonies, whilst she also added some guitar leads to Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts before departing. Speaking of guitar leads, I was impressed throughout by Alex Rosamilia (guitar/vocals) - even if he was wearing his raincoat on stage for some reason. His guitar playing is a big part of the band's sound, and his subtle melodies throughout many of the tracks helped bring them to life. He can also riff with the best of them, too, as The Patient Ferris Wheel later showed - and much of the later portion of the set was generally hard rocking, with the exception of a rare outing this tour for Here's Looking at You, Kid and the excellent Michigan, 1975 from the new album. Speaking of the new album, Spider Bites also impressed during this closing section, but it was generally the big hits which kept the energy levels high. The last two songs of the night, "45" and The '59 Sound, really got everyone going one last time - and both were sung back loudly by the crowd as the show came a low key end, again, without any fanfare. The setlist was:

Positive Charge

Handwritten

American Slang

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

We Came to Dance

Helter Skeleton

Ocean Eyes [Billie Eilish cover]

Underneath the Ground

High Lonesome

1,000 Years

The Weatherman [w/ Emily Wolfe]

Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts [w/ Emily Wolfe]

Mulholland Drive

Autumn

The Patient Ferris Wheel

Here's Looking at You, Kid

Spider Bites

Michigan, 1975

We're Getting a Divorce, You Keep the Diner

"45"

The '59 Sound

Despite a bit of a strange vibe at times due to the band's lack of interaction with the crowd, I enjoyed my first experience of The Gaslight Anthem live. They played a lot of my favourite songs and the mix was very clear - which allowed the delicate guitar moments and subtle keyboards to shine. Fallon was also in fine voice throughout and the songs came alive really well on stage. I would definitely see the band live again if the opportunity arises - and it was great to tick them off the list.