One of the biggest selling points of this year’s Governors Ball Music Festival was that The Gaslight Anthem was not only back at it touring but playing all of their breakout (and best) album The ’59 Sound. In the days leading up to the festival, they did their fans one better and announced an intimate warm-up performance days before the festival at Bowery Ballroom.
This was a much smaller chance to see the band play the sort of room that they may have fit in back in the day. As you can imagine, tickets sold out in a matter of seconds and it was one of the hottest tickets in the city all week. This is a band that usually plays rooms the size of Terminal 5 so to see them at Bowery was special, but to see them there and to hear them play their best album in full, now that was a dream.
They didn’t immediately jump to The ’59 Sound but warmed up a bit with some songs both new and old, including “Handwritten,” “The Diamond Church Street Choir,” and “Boomboxes and Dictionaries,” which saw them joined by Laurie Vincent of Slaves, who were also in town for the festival. By this point, the crowd was already building momentum and once the band finally switched gears and launched into the album with “Great Expectations,” the crowd became a full-out battleground of moshing, pushing and shoving, becoming one giant sweaty mess. To their credit, fans were belting every word along with Brian Fallon, who like the rest of the band, seemed glad to be back together and eager to play to fans in such a tiny space.
After playing side A they paused from playing the album for three songs, before flipping the record over and finishing Side B, which was anchored by an always touching performance of “Here’s Looking at You, Kid,” and the rather triumphant finale of “The Backseat.”
Fallon told fans they wouldn’t waste our time with the routine of the encore, staying on stage and ripping through a mix of more favorites from throughout their career, such as more recent single “45”,” the anthem that is “American Slang,” and a real throwback with set-closer “We’re Getting a Divorce, You Keep the Diner.”
Find a full set of photos (along with opener Matt Mays) and the setlist posted below.
Matt Mays:
The Gaslight Anthem:
The Gaslight Anthem Setlist:
1. Stay Vicious
2. Handwritten
3. The Diamond Church Street Choir
4. Boomboxes and Dictionaries (with Laurie Vincent from Slaves)
5. Great Expectations
6. The ’59 Sound
7. Old White Lincoln
8. High Lonesome
9. Film Noir
10. Miles Davis and the Cool
11. 1930
12. Wherefore Art Thou, Elvis?
13. Underneath the Ground
14. The Patient Ferris Wheel
15. Casanova, Baby!
16. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
17. Meet Me by the River’s Edge
18. Here’s Looking at You, Kid
19. The Backseat
20. 45
21. Howl
22. Wooderson
23. Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts
24. American Slang
25. We’re Getting a Divorce, You Keep the Diner
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