The Gaslight Anthem @ The Kool Haus, Oct 13

A few weeks ago, I saw my number one favourite band, The Gaslight Anthem, play their 2nd headline show in Toronto at the Kool Haus. This was my fourth time seeing Gaslight since last October when I saw them open for Rise Against. In march they played what may have been one of the top shows of the year, at the Opera House which fits about 850 people. That show sold out very quickly and a lot of people didn't have a chance to see them. This time, they played at the Kool Haus, which is 3 times bigger than The Opera House, and although it's a nice venue, I really wished they had played two shows at a smaller venue instead of this big one. However, I'm happy for them that played and filled up such a big place.

I got to the show about 15 minutes before the doors opened so I could get a good spot. There were at least 50 people in line when I got there and another 50 people behind me by the time they started letting people in. As soon as I got in, I ran to the stage and got a spot right by the barriers centre stage. I'm usually too lazy to get that early to a show and wait 4 hours until the band goes on, but for Gaslight it was a must.


There were three openers. The first opener were a pop punk trio called Broadway Calls. If you visited their myspace in the summer, you would have noticed all the big time bands they were doing tours with. The list included Gaslight Anthem, Streetlight Manifesto, The Offspring and The Bouncing Souls, and not to mention they had a spot on the NME stage at the Reading and Leeds festival in England. I saw them when they opened for Streetlight Manifesto a few weeks before. This time they played 12 or so songs, and I found them rather enjoyable. The drummer seemed strong and on beat, and the bassist and guitarist had a good connection with the crowd.

The 2nd act was this singer Jesse Malin from New York who was backed up by a band. He was definitely the least interesting acts of the night. He seemed quite arrogant, which is ok if your music is good, but his music wasn't that good. It was just regular rock music you would hear on the radio.

The last act before Gaslight Anthem was an americana folk rock band from Indiana called Murder By Death. They had a normal lineup consisting of a lead singer/guitarist, a bassist, a drummer, with the exception of a cellist/keyboardist in the band. It was definitely the cello that made it the most interesting. All the songs were fairly dark but were quite catchy. There was a bunch of people in the front with me who were clearly there just for Murder By death, who were singing along with all the lyrics, and making comments on how they were way better than Gaslight Anthem, and saying they should play for the rest of the night. Although I disagreed with statements like that, I let it slide because they were so good.

Finally, after more than 4 months of waiting since this show has been announced, Gaslight Anthem got on the stage after tuning up their instruments with the help of who I'm guessing is their new roadie. They opened up with High Lonesome, the 4th track on their acclaimed record The 59 Sound, which has brought them huge success in such a short period of time. What was awesome was how so many people knew the lyrics to most of the songs, and you could hear the crowd really well, which always drives the energy level of a concert so much. They seemed stronger than the last time I saw them in March, this time having a banner, and their sound was stronger live. They played around 9 songs off The 59 Sound, 6 from their first LP Sink or Swim, and two songs off their ep, Senor and the Queen. The lead singer, Brian Fallon, gave the impression that he really likes Toronto, saying that even for a weeknight Toronto has the strong feel of a Saturday night. Gaslight Anthem will play their last show of the year in December in New Jersey, before they start to write and record a follow up to The 59 Sound.