Gaslight Anthem/The Hold Steady, Pier 26, New York, July 28, 2013

By Kara Tucker

A matter of minutes.
That's all it took for what had been the best concert of the many I'd been to in almost 10 months of living in New York City to take an unfortunate turn.
These were two of my favorite new bands of the current millennium and it was my first chance to see each of them live.
There was The Hold Steady, ripping off a terrific opening set with songs ranging from their first album to songs off the record they're recording now.
Then came the Gaslight Anthem, similarly crossing the material from their four-album career, doing their last batch of shows in support of 2012's  "Handwritten."
Gaslight Anthem was in good form throughout the main set. The crowd, at least in our vicinity, was as joyous as I've seen a crowd be at a show here, even though they got soaked by rain.
That all changed when it came time for an encore.
Brian Fallon, the charismatic front man for the band, started if off with a little bit of banter and sing-along action. It worked well at the start, as a good number of folks kicked in with, yes, "Ice Ice Baby" off the cue.
The audience had also sung along when Fallon started the show with a bit of "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" as the crowd was getting soaked by a line of showers and storms moving through.
With the Vanilla Ice success, Fallon started with another sing-along attempt, "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga. Unlike the previous night at Irving Plaza, it didn't really take off.
Fallon's response, "Dude, that sucked. You want to try something else?"
Now, at this point, one could hear the odd voice yelling for "Bruce!.
He responded, "Please, dude. Yo, I tell you what. Those days have passed. If you're with me,  you're with me. If you don't like it, go see him (pointing across the Hudson to New Jersey). No disrespect, but seriously, get over it. That was MY awesome thing. Not yours."
A lone voice can be heard on a YouTube clip yelling for "Born to Run."
Fallon sarcastically responded, "Yeah, why don't we pull that out after what I just said. You gotta pay attention to what I'm saying. I'm not just talking up here to be an idiot."
The singer said, "We also did Bon Jovi's 'Livin on a Prayer.' You wanna do that?" which drew a mixed reaction from the crowd.
Fallon raised his left hand, extended his pointer finger out and said, "Or"
With that one word, opened the door for some in the audience, with a distinct dudebro accent, to start yelling, "Bruuuuuuuuce!"
Still, it was not a majority of the crowd yelling "Bruuuuuuuce!" Indeed, voices on the clip can be heard yelling things like "Johnny Cash!" and "American Idol!"
He ended the sing-along attempt (which had been a lead-in to a sing-along in the first encore song at Irving Plaza). He said, "You know what? Maybe we won't play anymore songs. Maybe I'll pull an Axl Rose. You wanna hear that? I'll go. You wanna hear that or you wanna listen to what I'm saying?"
His last words, with the first song starting -- "We're not going to do it. You ruined it."
That were the last words Fallon spoke to the band's audience. He had enough and was going to make sure the crowd felt it. It was that same once-joyous crowd, the majority of whom had not invoked the offensive-to-Fallon name of Bruce Springsteen at all Sunday night.
With that, the Gaslight Anthem became the Gaslight Perfunctory.  The happier crowd vibe was gone. Fallon clearly had an air of wanting to get it over with.
The band did its four encore songs, closing with, ironically enough, a cover (of The Who's "Baba O'Riley").
When that final song finished, Fallon, still clearly displeased, walked off the stage without the slightest acknowledgement to the crowd, not a word or a wave. Gone.
Now, for those not familiar, this was not like some idiot yelling "Freebird" (although I heard that and avoided temptation to go over and nudge said individual into the Hudson).
Springsteen's one of the band's biggest influences, quite obviously so on some of the songs on the band's breakout second album, "The '59 Sound" (down to a bit of lyric quoting).
To his credit, Fallon never denied that Springsteen was an influence. The band and The Boss would go on to have occasion to cross paths as well.
That said, four albums in with work on a fifth not too far away, it's understandable that the Gaslight Anthem would want to not be so tied to an image being "Springsteen acolytes" (or acolytes of any of its influences). Of course, being a Jersey band with THAT Jersey artist as an influence, it's not going to be 100 percent shakeable. You are going to get fans who, no natter what, are going to want some of that connection to be made more obvious.
In other words -- Gaslight Anthem, "Bruuuuuuuce!" is your "Freebird!"
This is not to say the band should placate such behavior. They're under no obligation to ever perform a Springsteen cover ever again for as long as they exist. That's not an issue.
The disappointment, however, is that Fallon let the behavior of a vocal minority of the audience affect the rest of his performance towards ALL of the audience. Perhaps he reached a breaking point, but the fact is that, on this night, he let the dudebros get to him.
The net result was a lingering bitter, acrid aftertaste that colored the perception of what had been a sweet experience up until then.
Fallon responded through social media, first posting a picture on Instagram with the words in type-written font.
"Tonight...
you have broken my heart.
7.28.13
nyc"
A post to the band's Tumblr page followed a few hours later.
Fallon's post is thoughtful and it becomes clear that tonight's dudebro-heavy chanters represented a breaking point for him. It's easy to see where he's coming from and agree with him on a lot of what he said.
That said, a couple of points.
First off, it's unfortunate that some people in the crowd didn't listen when Fallon told them a Bruce singalong wasn't happening. But it was certainly not everyone in the audience, Not even close. The majority of the crowd at that point had come to see what the Gaslight Anthem was doing that night. It was not there to see  Bruce or to hear covers.
Even if Fallon didn't intend it, it comes off as painting the entire crowd with the same brush.
While Fallon is correct that no fan "owns" their favorite bands or artists, the fact is that fans do have some degree of ownership. If they don't particularly care for what that band/artist is doing, they'll decide not to buy their music and/or attend their shows.
This is not to say an artist should continue to grow and improve, but the fact is that not every fan will stay along.
Almost anyone with a long career is going to have misfires -- Dylan had some doozies, Neil Young had most of the '80s, David Bowie had Tin Machine, REM had "Around the Sun."
Heck, Fallon's beloved Uma Thurman appeared in "Movie 43."
There's a difference between ownership and entitlement. Just because I cringed every time Rod Stewart put out ANOTHER "American Songbook" flogging didn't mean I was entitled to go to his shows and yell, "Play 'Miss Judy's Farm'!"
But on the other hand, there's a chance that if you're fortunate enough to have a long, successful career, you're probably going to hear requests from the crowd. It might be songs already on the setlist or songs you have no interest in playing. Some artists even put in requests into the set. Grace Potter's been known to accept submissions for upcoming shows to add to the setlist.
A reminder -- the guy asked questions like "Wanna do something else?"
The bottom line is that the artist is obligated to put out the best show possible and the fan at said show is obligated to not be rude to other concertgoers or the band. Ideally, said artist won't take it out on all fans in attendance because of the actions of one or a minority.
Barring some sort of horrific tours into the world of Autotune or dubstep, it's hard to envision the next Gaslight record being some overwhelming departure. The band has already been growing past the overt influences on display five years ago.
I hope to be in attendance when the band plays in support of its next album, but now, as Fallon said, it's a gamble.
Now, I don't know if I'll get the very good-to-borderline transcendent band I saw during the main set or if I'll get a band whose frontman gets pissed off because somebody yells "Bruuuuuce!" earlier in the set and the show takes a nosedive in quality as a result.
It was always going to be a gamble, but it now feels like a little less of a sure bet than it should be. And that's a shame. Because it shouldn't have been that way.