When it was announced that Brian Fallon would be making a quick stop at the Church on a brief acoustic run, it was almost too obvious that it would be the hottest ticket in town on that Sunday night. It was. Packed to the brim, Fallon and tourmate Dave Hause got down to basics with a Revival Tour-esque collaboration and their own sets.
I usually have mixed feelings on Dave Hause, but after the Loved Ones recent slot opening for Fallon’s band (the Gaslight Anthem for the ill-informed), I was starting to get swayed. Last night solidified it. Hause mixed up Loved Ones songs (“Pretty Good Year,” “Living Will (Get You Dead)”), solo tracks from his upcoming record (“Pray for Tucson”) and covers (Kathleen Edwards’ “The Cheapest Key”).
Hause took a break after a brief cheer from the crowd in support of the Dallas Cowboys, saying “If there’s anywhere there’d be a fight at an acoustic show, it’s in Philadelphia,” before quickly adding “not that I support that.” He started strumming a lonely D, fast and furious. There was no way that anyone could have known he was about to cover “God Bless The S.O.S.” by the late, great Explosion. Even on an acoustic guitar, it brought back memories of the last Explosion weekend in that very same room, bodies flying overhead and kids screaming their throats raw.
Fallon, the obvious main attraction, came to the stage quietly with a can of soda before picking up his guitar to cheers from an audience made up primarily of Gaslight Anthem fans. Starting with the title track from the band’s 2008 breakthrough, The ’59 Sound, the kids in the crowd sang along, sang backup vocals and seemed to be involved in a catharsis on par with an energetic rock show.
“High Lonesome,” “We Came to Dance,” and “The Navesink Banks” came next, in that respective order. While some in the crowd kept screaming random Springsteen songs (loud guys love the Boss, no matter if Fallon isn’t actually the man himself), Fallon played it cool and kept to his setlist of TGA songs.
Something clicked though, right after “1930” and “Blue Jeans and White T-Shirts.” Fallon isn’t Springsteen, obviously, but to a whole new generation, he embodies the best parts of Bruce’s…aura, I guess is the right word to use. It seemed like every kid in the room felt like “Jukebox Romeos,” the same way that a Springsteen audience feels like their hearts are hungry. The words, the music, the voice, they all come together in a perfect storm. Fallon, almost vulnerable, made me realize why I loved TGA so much in the first place.
Fallon left the stage after the lamenting “Here’s Looking At You, Kid” only to return moments later with Hause. The two men traded back and forth on lead vocal duties: Hause taking Tegan and Sara's "Call it Off", Fallon singing “Ring of Fire.” Hause, Patty Griffin’s “Long Ride Home,” Fallon keeping it in tune with Social Distortion’s self-titled record with “Ball and Chain.”
The show finished up with both men played The Loved Ones’ “Jane” and Gaslight’s “Great Expectations,” before closing in one of the oddest fashions imaginable, a Bouncing Souls cover. Brian and Dave both led the room in the chorus of the great “Gone,” like a mantra.
I left the Church much more satisfied than I’d expected to be. If Hause and Fallon decided to do this every weekend, it would be sold out time after time, with good reason.
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