How did you discover the Gaslight Anthem?

TheScottWillzAnthem wrote:

My parents bought The 59 Sound and played it in the car and I was hooked . I've now bought all their albums and even a few merchandise

wow that's great, even your parents are fans

I got "59" on a free sample CD with classic rock magazine. Was right when my mom got diagnosed with cancer and we were seriously planning out her funeral (she got better btw). All the stuff about which song you'd choose, that hit me so hard, been obsessed ever since...

that's a really touching story! Glad she got better!

Cheers man.

Hate to sound like the drunk girl at the bar "this song is about me!!!" but I've found something in just about all of their songs that speaks to me, same as all of you most likely have I'd guess. Like the song says "they was there when my summers was high, and there when she left me alone".

Had more than one dark lonely night after someone's walked out on me with a bottle and a record...

I was in sort of a musical drought. I'd been listening to the same 3 or 4 bands continuously for a few years and had gotten tired of the hearing the same stuff over and over again. I was looking for other stuff to get into, but wasn't having much luck. Not that I couldn't find great music, because I did--lots of it--but I wanted something that wasn't just great, but that hit me on a visceral level. A band I felt motivated to not just casually listen to, but invest in. There's no criteria for me in this regard. When it hits, I know it, and I can't explain it, and it is a rare occurrence.

After a while, I got pretty down about it and figured the problem was just me, that I'd taken my interest in music as far as it could go, and should just give up listening altogether. It felt like anxiety, that claustrophobic feeling, where if you can't solve the problem in a certain aspect of your life, you get to the point where you feel like all there is to do is cut that aspect out completely.

I was explaining this to a guy at a party, who I'd just met that night and who is now one of my closest friends, and he said, "You know, based on what you like, you should check out The Gaslight Anthem."

When a person recommends a band to me, my typical modus operandi is to go to YouTube, type in the band name, and click on the first song that pops up. A few days had gone by, and I'd forgotten all about it, until I was bored one afternoon clicking around the internet and started looking for something to listen to. So I searched Gaslight Anthem on YouTube and clicked on a song called Old White Lincoln. The car door shut, the engine turned over, the bass line started, and my drought was over. Just like that, before the vocals even started, I knew.

mwh wrote:

Cheers man.

Hate to sound like the drunk girl at the bar "this song is about me!!!" but I've found something in just about all of their songs that speaks to me, same as all of you most likely have I'd guess. Like the song says "they was there when my summers was high, and there when she left me alone".

Had more than one dark lonely night after someone's walked out on me with a bottle and a record...

Yeah I know exactly what you mean. I have found I can relate to The Gaslight Anthem more so than most other bands. Nice words there man, times like those you can always seek comfort in any one of their records

bringiton_ty wrote:

mwh wrote:

Cheers man.

Hate to sound like the drunk girl at the bar "this song is about me!!!" but I've found something in just about all of their songs that speaks to me, same as all of you most likely have I'd guess. Like the song says "they was there when my summers was high, and there when she left me alone".

Had more than one dark lonely night after someone's walked out on me with a bottle and a record...

Yeah I know exactly what you mean. I have found I can relate to The Gaslight Anthem more so than most other bands. Nice words there man, times like those you can always seek comfort in any one of their records

"Seek comfort in..." sums it up just about perfect. I grew up on the 90's punk explosion, first record I bought was Blink 182's "Dude Ranch" and I spent years trying to find something that spoke to me in the same way as "Dammit" or Lagwagon's "May 16" or especially Social Distortion's "Ball & Chain" or "King Of Fools". When I finally found Gaslight it was sorely needed...

The Against Me! forum the day Senor and the Queen came out.

My brother's friend gave him a copy of The '59 Sound, American Slang and Elsie in 2011. We started listening to them together and though he enjoyed them he didn't quite seem to see the magic I saw. He was moving onto some other new indie band while I was hooked, finding every song and finding out everything I possibly could about Gaslight.

I discovered The Gaslight Anthem through a friend from high school during our senior year back in 08 through 2009. He told me about the band but I never gave them a listen mostly because after he would tell me about them I forgot the band name. He mentioned them to me again in August 2009 2 months after we graduated from high school. then one morning my dad was online he showed me this band called The Gaslight Anthem and he asked me if I had heard of them and I said no, he clicked on the letterman clip of them playing the 59 sound, I was blown away, then before I went to the pool that morning he downloaded The 59 Sound album off of iTunes. I remember after hearing Great Expectations and then The 59 Sound, I ran over to my drum set to learn the beat of both songs, I listened to it all the way through when I was at the pool. I have been a fan ever since that time.

Aregular_89 wrote:

The Against Me! forum the day Senor and the Queen came out.

Me too was through the forum and Against Me! - The Gaslight toured with AM! in 2007 along with two Gallants - and from then on hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooked!

Remember how busy the Gaslight thread was on the AM! forum?!

I went to see the Loved Ones at the Middle East in Cambridge, MA in early '08 and came away really impressed with the guys who opened up for them. Bought their album and new EP from the merch table. The rest is history.

I discovered the Gaslight Anthem in a round-a-bout way, I was listening to The White Buffalo on Pandora, and a cover of Atlantic City by The Band came on, later when I got home, I went up to look up on that version on YouTube, and I came across Brian's cover. I did a little more digging, and read about the Gaslight Anthem, and the first song I heard by them was "Here Comes Your Man" and after that I was hooked!

I've sort of posted it in my intro thread. But hearing their music coincided with life changes. And the songs speak to me, how I feel now, and how I want the future to go.

I guess thats how.

But the TL:DR is 'Springsteen' - the link between the two led me here.

Sitting Hiding behind the track highjump mat in gym class with my friend. He played me some stuff. By the end of the semester there were a good number of us   

At my friend's house, we were decorating aprons that we smuggled out of work to wear for our store's Cashier Appreciation month. She had '59 Sound playing on repeat, and I think by the second time through, I had to interrupt her during "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" to ask who this band was. As soon as I left her house, I drove to HMV and bought my own copy of '59 Sound and Sink or Swim. The rest is history

I was working at a pizza shop, and a coworker/friend was like, "pay attention to this album, I think you'll love it", (with so many different tastes in the shop, it was easy to tune out whatever was on) and put on "Senor and the Queen". "Is there more than just this one EP?" I asked excitedly, and was presented with "Sink or Swim", which had me 'hook, line, and sinker' as they say. He informed me that they had a new album coming out shortly ('59 Sound), which he had reserved a copy of at the local record store, and I was excited to have 2 and a half records to discover over the coming weeks.
I have had ebbs and flows of listening to Gaslight excessively ever since, occasionally sort of forgetting about them, only to put it on and fall in love all over again.

There were a big fan favourite at a forum i used to post at and i caught wind of them two years ago just after Handwritten came out. Loved it and checked outthe previous albums. There is just something about the way BF sings that makes them endearing to me. He's not your conventional singer, he doesn't hit "clean" notes but it's raw and it's emotional and it's not someone going through the motions, it someone WITH emotions. I just connected with it straight away and they're up there in my top 3 bands.

Even though I'm from Jersey, somehow I never heard of em until Handwritten. I was in the beginning stages of my divorce and heard 45 on the radio. Soon as I heard "let her go, let somebody else lay at her feet" I was instantly hooked. 10 concerts later.... haha

Got 'Sink Or Swim' shortly after the release from a friend and I was hooked by their raw sound, catchy choruses and the singers gritty voice. Been a favorite band to me ever since.

Stumbled upon them in December 2011 at the Asbury Park Convention Center and the following day, I downloaded all their albums and have been a huge fan ever since.

There was a short article on them in, I think it was at least, Rolling Stone. Just prior to the release of American Slang. Really liked what it had to say about them. Went home and looked into some of their stuff and fell in love with the whole 59S album. Found the video of them performing The '59 Sound live with Bruce and lost it. Showed it to my dad, a huge Bruce fan, and he loved it. They are now his favorite band as well as mine.

I stumbled across 'Drive' on YT as a recommendation when I was listening to some stuff by The Hold Steady, figured 'Looks interesting enough' and kinda got hooked on that song in an instant, then after a short while I got into 'I'da Called You Woodie, Joe' and the rest of Sink or Swim, and then I just expanded from there to '59, Handwritten and American Slang and then Horrible Crowes and the other side projects/precursors of the band I guess.

Seeing them on TV at Glastonbury and the whole Springsteen connection.

Had surgery for a kidney stone a while back just before I started high school. I was laying in the hospital bed while my dad was hanging by my side reading some stuff online, we had 93.3 WMMR streaming (for all you Philly/PA/South Jersey people) when the host said "Here's one called the '59 sound, check these Jersey boys out! The Gaslight Anthem! Crank it uppppp!" And the rest was history.