The Gaslight Anthem at The Olympia Theatre, Dublin on June 8th 2015

“We had the greatest expectations” a lyric from the opening track of The Gaslight’s Anthem’s sophomore release in 2008 was one that summed up the atmosphere in The Olympia Theatre before the New Jersey boys took to the stage for what can only be described as more of a party than a gig.

Before The Gaslight Anthem greeted revellers with their presence, fellow New Jersey natives The Scandals warmed up the audience. The Scandals are an energetic punk band, fronted by a gravelly voiced singer, Jared Hart. Whilst far from the worst band we’ve had warm us up, everything started to sound the same after a while which was disappointing. On the upside, the band were lively and had good fun with the audience throughout the set. We’ll certainly be giving them another chance to prove us wrong.

The Gaslight Anthem emerged and with no introduction whatsoever; they just kicked straight into Handwritten and the party has begun. The audience spent the night out singing Brian Fallon, something that he kept smirking at. The duo of Stay Lucky and High Lonesome went down unsurprisingly well and Fallon began by having a hypothetical conversation with members of U2 before regaling the crowd with stories about other bands writing legendary songs. He was full of anecdotes, all of which were genuinely interesting.

There’s something immensely likeable about Brian Fallon and The Gaslight Anthem. From the second they emerged to a packed Olympia Theatre, the grin never left Fallon’s face. He epitomises the definition of “good front man”, – energetic, engaging and oozing charisma. Every lyric sung back to him by the eager crowd, at times it felt like watching a band comprised of your good personal friends on stage.

The set was varied, featuring songs from each of their five albums. Stray Paper, The Navesink Banks and Here’s Looking At You, Kid were particular stand outs of the main part of the set. As Fallon spent a good fifteen minutes talking, the last few songs of the set were sped through. This section comprised of what are amongst The Gaslight Anthem’s biggest sounding songs – The ’59 Sound, We Came to Dance and the ever explosive The Backseat. The set was closed off with We’re Getting A Divorce, You Keep The Diner a track from debut album, ‘Sink or Swim’. The refrain of “stay hungry, stay free and do the best you can” was carried from the venue to corridors of The Olympia immediately after the show.

The decline of ‘real’ rock ‘n’ roll has been a hot topic over the past few years but a band like The Gaslight Anthem are enough proof that hard hitting riffs and well penned tracks are still alive and well in the world. It’s hard to really put into words how good this show party was, but to their credit, The Gaslight Anthem showed their hard work in a tightly worked live show that will sit with those who were lucky enough to grab a ticket for a long time.