Saturday 20/11/10 The Gaslight Anthem @ O2 Apollo, Manchester

On their last night in England, The Gaslight Anthem brought humility, a stable of hits, and some American humor to go with their ‘American Slang’. The Art Deco theater had little stage decoration, save for a backdrop with the band’s skull and crossbones logo and a Hall & Oates record and the F.C. St. Pauli flag on guitarist Alex Rosamilia’s red Dr. Z amplifier. With simple lighting, little banter, and few solos, The Gaslight Anthem’s sold out Manchester gig was all about bringing their New Jersey-themed, punk-tinged rock and roll to the people.

The Gaslight Anthem stormed the stage to the tune of ‘America, F*ck Yeah!’ from the 2004 film, Team America: World Police. The irony of the intro may have been lost on some audience members, who ranged in age from under 14s to middle-aged couples. After the parody’s barrage of indulgences including McDonalds, Wal-Mart, The Gap, baseball, etc., the quartet launched into an energetic version of ‘The Spirit of Jazz’ from recent album ‘American Slang’.

Dressed in a button-down shirt and his signature cabbie hat, singer Brian Fallon thanked Manchester effusively during the band’s nearly two-hour set. He and the boys played a nice balance of material from their latest hit albums, ‘The 59 Sound’ and ‘American Slang’; tunes like ‘The Diamond Church Street Choir’ and ‘Old White Lincoln’ got people jumping. Fallon even joked during ‘Queen of Lower Chelsea’ that the song was, in fact, about New York, not the English football team.

The band also played quite a few older cuts including ‘I Coul’da Been a Contender’ from their 2007 debut ‘Sink or Swim’, ‘Wherefore Art Thou, Elvis’ from the ‘Señor and the Queen EP’, and a cover of ‘Once Upon A Time’ by Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise. The crowd responded appropriately to the band’s anthems, erupting into mosh pits during “The ’59 Sound” and singing back to the band during an emotional “Here’s Looking At You, Kid.”

To kick off the surprisingly long encore, opener Chuck Ragan and violinist Jon Gaunt joined Fallon for a version of ‘Goodnight Irene’. Ragan and Fallon mentioned that they’re currently writing songs for a new EP and will be touring the UK and Europe in Fall 2011 as part of The Revival Tour.

Though riddled with slight sound and tempo problems, The Gaslight Anthem persevered to deliver a night of music that truly resonated with the Manchester crowd. As a lounge-style reprise of ‘America, F*ck Yeah!’ wavered in the air and fans left the Apollo, the overall sentiment of the gig was clear. In the immortal words of Trey Parker: ”Rock and roll, f*ck yeah!”