The Moon Tower

Brian Fallon

O2 Institute, Birmingham 20/02/2018

After The Gaslight Anthem went on an indefinite hiatus in August 2015, frontman Brian Fallon hasn't exactly taken it easy. His first solo album, Painkillers, was released after barely six months of Gaslight inactivity, and his second solo album, Sleepwalkers, less than two years after that. Tonight he returns to the O2 Institute in Birmingham, where we last saw him in April 2016 on the Painkillers tour.

The first thing that strikes you about seeing a Brian Fallon show is how content and happy the man looks. He's clearly very comfortable with his solo band, and compared to the latter days of The Gaslight Anthem seems to have rediscovered the joys of playing music.

As he casually walks onto the stage with his bandmates, which include frequent collaborator and Gaslight touring member, guitarist Ian Perkins, it's a case of beaming smiles all round. The show opens with A Wonderful Life, the lead single from Painkillers, a song very much in keeping with his apparent outlook on things these days.

As was the case when we saw him on his first solo tour, each batch of songs is punctuated with Fallon sharing random thoughts, anecdotes, and a decent amount of two way conversation with the audience. Tonight someone calls him out for his pronunciation of "Adidas" when discussing how many pairs of trainers it's acceptable to own. This is the catalyst for an entertaining tale of how, whilst not ashamed to be American, he'd much rather be British. "You guys can beat us at everything. Yes, we've got Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, but you have The Beatles and The Stones." He quips. The guy is clearly an Anglophile, going as far as to do a spot on impersonation of Noel Fielding's character Richmond from The IT Crowd at one point in the evening.

Such long gaps between songs might seem awkward, or leave you feeling short changed, with other artists, but tonight they seem to be an essential part of the show, adding to it rather than having any detrimental effect on the experience. Over the course of the one hour 45 minute set we still manage to get through 20 songs anyway, so you'd be hard pushed to complain.

But back to the music. Along with a good portion of songs from both Painkillers and Sleepwalkers, Fallon also airs tracks from his other projects The Horrible Crowes and Molly And The Zombies. Songs like Ladykiller and Red Lights sit well alongside the likes of Rosemary and Forget Me Not, having an unmistakable storytelling quality to them. Gaslight Anthem material is avoided completely, save for a solo piano rendition of The '59 Sound in the encore, perhaps as a warmup for the summer run of anniversary shows with the reactivated band. The set closes out with a barnstorming cover of Travelin' Band by Creedence Clearwater Revival. As Fallon puts it "One of the few things America got right".

Setlist: A Wonderful Life / Rosemary / Ladykiller / If Your Prayers Don't Get To Heaven / Come Wander With Me / Red Lights / Forget Me Not / Among Other Foolish Things / Painkillers / Little Nightmares / Sleepwalkers / Sugar / My Name Is The Night (Color Me Black) / Etta James / Crush / Smoke / Behold the Hurricane