photo credit: weworemasks

Anytime The Gaslight Anthem tours, it’s an event for us. They’ve maintained the status as one of our favorite bands – putting out some of our favorite records since 2007. A core group of our friends always find a way to set aside an entire night to buddy up, throw our arms around each other’s shoulders, enjoy libations and sing along to some hearty and soulful punk rock songs.

And Thursday night’s stop of the Handwritten Tour at the House of Blues was no different.

Hit the jump for the review.

-grizzly

photo credit: weworemasks

The last time we saw The Gaslight fellas was a mid-afternoon slot at Dallas’ Riot Fest – and we left hot, miserable and disappointed. The fest was a disaster as far as organization goes, and the bands on the bill were anything but enthused to perform, with The Gaslight Anthem churning out a half-hearted 8 song set in the dead of the 4:00 p.m. sun. We had seen them before, and knew that this wasn’t a new development, but a one-off based purely on circumstance. When the band hit the stage to back to back songs from The 59 Sound, (“High Lonesome,” “The 59 Sound”) we knew that Riot Fest was a fluke and we were en route to replace a soured memory.

The night found TGA performing a set honoring their new album Handwritten, performing 11 of the album’s 15 tracks in a hearty hour and 45 minute set. “45” had plenty of singalong value, as did the ‘sha-la-las’ of “Here Comes My Man.” The crowd took plenty of interest in the new songs, but as expected with most acts with dedicated fanbases, found an outburst of energy when they indulged their older fans and treated them to 8 tracks from their perennial 2008 record, The 59 Sound, which was a stark contrast to the amount of American Slang, of which only “The Queen of Lower Chelsea” saw stage time.

photo credit: weworemasks

The band brought along another guitarist for the tour, which added plenty of depth in an already guitar-driven rock outfit, and beefed up “Mulholland Drive” and “We Came to Dance” to stadium levels of intensity. Fallon was all business, and was surely at unease with the crowd at the House of Blues that night. Normally, we’d like to think Houston has respectable crowds, but this particular one found many chatting during slow songs, drowning out the band and ultimately, cheapening the experience for both the fans and the band. Gaslight pushed through and managed to rock through the awkwardness, and kept their personal on-stage banter to a minimum.

While Handwritten isn’t their most beloved album as far as fanbases go, but the success of the album has taken The Gaslight Anthem to new heights. With only Matt Mays on the act as the only opener, The Gaslight Anthem were the sole draw to the House of Blues, and that house was packed despite having other great shows in town on the same evening (see: Paramore, Foals), which balances out the whole chatty Cathy thing. But hey, 22 singalongs for those who “came to dance” is a treat in and of itself, and the reason why we’re always going back to catch these Jersey boys perform.

SETLIST:
High Lonesome
The ’59 Sound
Handwritten
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
Biloxi Parish
Blue Dahlia
The Patient Ferris Wheel
The Queen of Lower Chelsea
“45”
Too Much Blood
Film Noir
Here Comes My Man
We Came to Dance
Señor and the Queen
Mae
Great Expectations
Keepsake
–
National Anthem (Brian Fallon Acoustic, with Matt Mays)
Mulholland Drive
Desire
Here’s Looking at You, Kid
The Backseat