The Gaslight Anthem Tickets

This was a great show, with a great line up which concluded with a spectacular, energy-filled set by TGA. Their chemistry, charisma, and talent made this a show worth seeing.

3 opening bands I never heard of, AWESOME! Brian Fallon handling fights, GENIUS! Gaslight Anthem, EPIC! Going into the concert I just wanted to hear Gaslight because I heard they put on a great show, and I was anxious to see if the word of mouth was true and it was that.....and MORE! But I didn't expect the 3 opening bands to sound as good as they did. Gaslight picked 3 awesome bands with 3 different sounds and deserve a round of applause for their performance. A fight broke out during the concert and Fallon handled it well by stopping the song and splitting up the drama and then starting the song from the top. The set list what everything I expected with a surprise cover of a Pearl Jam tune. Highly recommended band to see.

Gaslight Anthem was great! The other two were not that great...Murder By Death was dark and depressing. Loved ones were good but could have been better. I would have recommended this if not for Murder By Death.

The whole thing was awesome!! I really liked the venue that the concert was held at, and I really liked the bands. Gaslight Anthem is my favorite band and they did not disappoint. The Loved Ones and Murder by Death were way cool, and I have found some new music to listen to! Overall it was an awesome show!!

At Omaha's Sokol Underground this past Friday, The Gaslight Anthem played a show, backed by Murder By Death, The Loved Ones, and Ninja Gun. The night started out with Ninja Gun, a band with which I had little experience, but nonetheless enjoyed. A few sources previously described them to me as straightforward pop-punk (and with a name like Ninja Gun, that's to be expected), but I was pleasantly surprised to find out they were more than that. I only heard the second half of their set, but they covered "20th Century Boy" by T. Rex, which was enough for me. This was the last day for them on the tour. Then came The Loved Ones whom I was most excited for. Having already seen The Gaslight Anthem, The Loved Ones really sold my ticket (though at Sokol's incredibly reasonable prices, it didn't take much). They pounded through their set with the same ferocity as their albums, but still maintaining creativity, making sure the songs didn't sound so identical that they could have been played straight off a CD. The set list was crafted perfectly: almost half and half from "Keep Your Heart" and "Build and Burn," with only one song off "Distractions." I would have liked to see them play "Chicken" off their first EP, but I knew that was a long shot at best. They had an interesting way of dedicating songs (or providing other banter) in mid-song, usually after the last chorus, halting the song to do so, and then came roaring back in. Very interesting choice. They mentioned, on one occasion, our distinct pleasure of living in Omaha, a city that bore "one of the greatest songwriters of our generation," promptly launching into a cover of Conor Oberst's "I Don't Want to Die (In a Hospital)." Well played, The Loved Ones, well played. The only disappointment was David Walsh's guitar playing; it wasn't really that bad, but it just wasn't quite up to snuff. One of my favorite moments in their songs is the last verse of "Jane," with the line "I've got this guitar and I've learned how to play," followed cleverly by a cool little riff; although the line was changed live to "I've got this guitar; Dave can play," a nod to the adding of Walsh as a second guitar since "Jane" was written, no cool riff was there. Maybe it was just poor sound or a poorly chosen guitar effect, but there was just nothing. But, other than that little bump, a great show. Next up was Murder By Death, a band I had frantically been trying to reacquaint myself with upon buying my ticket weeks before. It had been years since I heard their first album "Like the Excorcist... But More Breakdancing." Unable to find that, I bought their two most recent albums "In Bocca al Lupo" and "Red of Tooth and Claw." They played a solid set, albeit one that focused heavily on "Red of Tooth and Claw." They did play a few earlier songs, most notably "Brother," the single off their last album. Surprisingly, they didn't play "Fuego!," which I thought was a single from "Red of Tooth and Claw" (at least they named the EP following that album by that title...), but it didn't bother me much. Their sound is definitely better live than recorded. Songs that would be otherwise forgettable on the album were now just as good as the others. Unfortunately, the vocals were not adjusted much and, since Adam Turla sings in a deep baritone, his voice was sometimes muffled and the lyrics therefore unintelligible. Sokol dropped the ball there. Additionally, a couple of my friends nitpicked at their stage presence, taking notes for the show they were playing at Sokol the following night. I might not have noticed otherwise, but they mentioned none of them, except occasionally the drummer, ever smiled, which can be offputting to the audience. Perhaps I had just been focusing more on Adam Turla's wicked muttonchops or how beautiful cellist Sarah Balliet is, but they were right. Murder By Death is kind of a somber band, so I thought it worked for their image, but admittedly, it was a tad awkward when bassist Matt Armstrong tried to incite audience clap-alongs with such a serious face. Nonetheless, the fun for Murder By Death is in the music, not in giddy performance, so no detail like that could stop it from being a great show. Finally, The Gaslight Anthem. I had seen them before, a month earlier at Lollapalooza in Chicago, but decided then that they'd be better in a small venue (and not in the pouring rain). Sure enough, when you don't have three hundred deary, unenthusiastic people in front of you simply enduring Gaslight to get to another band, the show gets that much better. In a venue as small as Sokol, with The Gaslight Anthem headlining, the whole place is pretty much "up front," where everyone's happy, jumping around, and singing along. Starting with "High Lonesome," ending on "The Backseat," They played all of "The '59 Sound," but also through in "We Came to Dance" off their previous album "Sink or Swim," as well as a Pearl Jam cover (one I didn't recognize). Perhaps the most memorable moment of the evening came during "Miles Davis and the Cool," when about halfway through, a fight broke out close to the stage. There was a pole and several people keeping from seeing what happened, but as security rushed over to deal with it, Brian Fallon stopped the band and addressed the issue. He silenced the crowd and proposed that the four people involved split up into groups of two and move to opposite sides of the stage; upon being called out by one of them, he retorted, "All right, buddy. I've got a gold tooth and nothing to lose." Upon reaching a resolution, the audience broke into applause. I was genuinely impressed by Brian's problem-solving skills; other musicians would have ignored it and kept playing, hoping to play their set and move on, but not this band. They honestly cared about what's going on at their shows and are willing to go the extra mile. I felt bad for them, thinking this would taint their opinion of the show, or even our city (they had only been here once before, as Brian later recalled), but they continued on, playing with the same energy as before, cracking jokes in between songs, telling stories of previous shows with Against Me! and Thrice, as well as the current show with Ninja Gun ("Great guys... Short, too. Fit in all kinds of places... Had 'em in a freezer last Tuesday"). At the show's end, I joined a contingent of people cheering for an encore not with the usual "One more song, one more song," but with the bridge from "We're Getting a Divorce, You Keep the Diner." The band came out, announcing that this tour was their last before their next album, set for June 2010 and that they were trying to play a few more older songs because of that. They launched into "Blue Jeans and White T-Shirts." Though enjoyable, I wanted something a little more energetic to end on, but trusted them to do so. Sure enough, they played "We're Getting a Divorce, You Keep the Diner," claiming not to have done so for about two years. Unbelievable. Three great bands and one I really should look into more... A show, without a doubt, filled to the brim with awesome.

Loved every single one of these bands. They rocked the night and it was worth my travel time of 5 hours no doubt!