“Give me the fevers that just won’t break… Tell me ’bout the cool he sings you in those songs…”

For my birthday in June, I bought tickets to see The Gaslight Anthem at The Stone Pony on August 5, 2010 & tickets to see them play with Weezer at the Allentown State Fair (PA) on September 1.   With all of the Ticketmaster fees, this nearly bankrupted me but seeing concerts is always more fun than having good credit & paying student loans, right? 

So, the August show… was full of the Gaslight fans who really like to mosh & crowd surf.  This makes taking pictures & having a good time difficult.  Plus, during my favorite new song, “Bring It On,” the lady behind me decided to start a fight with the girls behind me – pushing, punching & homophobic words were all pleasantly shared.   As with the Terminal 5 show, I had some moments of wanting to never see them again live, through no fault of their own.  We started walking to the car during the first encore & realized that the sound was actually way better from there (it was an outdoor stage & the car was about 40 feet to the side of the stage) & I loved them again. 

Cut to:
September 1 – Allentown

I thought for sure the crowd would be full of people to see both Weezer & The Gaslight Anthem.  I like  love them both, so why shouldn’t everyone?  Oh, that’s right because people today need to be told who to like.   The only thing that could have made this show better would be if some version of Big Star/The Posies were playing too.  (Weezer pics will be in a separate post)…

The Gaslight Anthem played a whirlwind set comprised of almost 20 of my favorite songs.  Since my last attempt at rocking out to “Bring It On” was a failure, this was the exact opposite.  When they started it, I let out a whooping scream that made those around me laugh.  Sorry for being excited.  What a crime!  It was SOOOO nice to be able to dance to these songs.  SOOOOO nice.   I even had the freedom to cry during “American Slang.”  I didn’t cry a lot but sometimes when I really get into it, my emotions get the best of me when he sings “We called for our fathers but our fathers had died…”  I love The Gaslight Anthem. 

Compared to other shows of theirs I have seen, I would rank this pretty high up there just based on being able to really rock out & sing along.  It was a bummer that more people around me didn’t seem very into it.  How can you hear these songs & not at least tap your foot?!   Not to mention that this incredible show was to be followed by Weezer!

The State Fair setting made it even cooler when they played “The Backseat” – “Come July, we’ll ride the ferris wheel, go round & round & round & if you never let me go, well I will never let you down…”

Technically speaking, my close proximity to the stage & the lack of flying feet into my head & camera (except for the last song) would have made this show pretty easy to shoot if I wasn’t so busy enjoying it.  Brian, Alex, Alex & Benny are all enjoyable to watch & highly photographable.   I did have some trouble making adjustments as the sun was setting, until they turned the big lights on.  See how technical I am with terms like “big lights…?”