Hello from the rainy north

...of Germany. A part of Europe which level of precipitation is only exceeded by the UK's. Yes, living here can be miserable due to the high amount of grey colours in the sky, so you need some good music to cheer you up - what would be better fitting than some optimistic tunes from the New Jersey shorelines? Exactly.
In the Summer of 2008, I saw a printed lyrics sheet at a friend's. I thought the words, which were about high top sneakers, sailor tattoos and a '55 Lincoln, were terrific, and I asked him who wrote that.
'Brian Fallon of The Gaslight Anthem', he said, 'a band you definitely should give a listen. They're gonna be huge in a few years, just wait. This one's from their latest album, which came out a few days ago.'

So I did give them a listen (got the '59 Sound on vinyl), and I was hooked. Completely. The album didn't leave my record player for several weeks, until I got the Senor EP and, finally, Sink Or Swim.
And, luckily, I was even able to catch them playing live in Berlin in early 2009. What a great show. I was standing in the first row, so i could glance at the setlist - which they didn't quite follow, no, they spontaneously filled it up with more songs, so in the end they had played 4 or 5 songs more than intended.

Favourite song so far still is Old White Lincoln, closely followed by Brian's solo stuff (The Blues, Mary and Tin Pan Alley are mind-blowing) and most of the new songs are really starting to grow on me as well. Right now it's Old Haunts and The Spirit of Jazz fighting for a prime position in my head.

Besides TGA, the musical part of my heart belongs to Bad Religion, Social Distortion, Bob Dylan, Chuck Ragan, I Walk The Line, The Bouncing Souls, Tom Petty, Rancid, Placebo, Against Me!, the lot.

So, since I was following the forum for quite a while without participating, I thought I might as well join. I won't be writing often, but consistently - I'm quite lazy when it comes to writing, somehow it's hard for me to find the words.
Anyway, I hope I can provide one or two valuable contributions.

You rock. Welcome!

Great intro, hope your following posts can keep up the high standard.

FYI, Old White Lincoln is still one of my top 3 TGA songs. Love it.

Welcome to the forum! I wish you had gotten into TGA earlier, I was living in Germany (down in Bavaria) from oct 2006 through jan 2009

welcome man, glad your here

Thanks guys!

e7c wrote:

Welcome to the forum! I wish you had gotten into TGA
earlier, I was living in Germany (down in Bavaria) from oct 2006 through
jan 2009

Oh, nice. So did you catch the boys playing live back then? A few months after I got into their music, I came to know they played my city in 2007... a really small and nice venue (~100 people capacity) - man, was I being angry at myself.

2007, I saw them a bunch of times! What city?

Oi, Lucky man.
I'm still glad that they played those relatively small venues the last time they were here in early 2009. Could've filled much bigger ones with ease.
The city I was talking about is Kiel, way up north at the Baltic Sea. Every once in a while, we get to see a good band here, but not that often. Luckily, Hamburg's only a stone's throw away - that's where all the action is.

nope, I did not make it there. In 2007 I saw them in: Weimar, Nurenberg, Munich and maybe Wurzburg.