Long time Kings Of Leon fans, I have a question regarding Gaslight...

I have a question for long time fans of Kings Of Leon. I'm talking pre-Only By The Night and even pre-Because Of The Times.

Are you noticing similarities between The Gaslight Anthem's rising popularity and what happened with Kings Of Leon before they hit the radio? I won't lie - I only started listening to Kings Of Leon after Only By The Night but Because Of The Times is one of my favorite records of all time now. After reading a lot about KOL's career, I realized that they had a smaller following in the US (similar to what TGA is right now; Not meant to be an insult but it seems that TGA is seeing bigger crowds in Europe) but saw much more popularity in countries like the UK, Australia and Europe. Because of that, they paid a lot more attention to these countries, in regards to touring.

With the announcement that "45" will be premiered on BBC 1, I can't help but think that TGA is seeing more popularity in Europe than the US. Not that it's a bad thing. I'm just curious if there are similarities between the rising popularity of TGA and how KOL developed in the states.

Edit: I want to make it clear that I'm not comparing the music of both bands or implying that TGA would ever put out something like Use Somebody. I'm simply comparing the rising popularity of both bands. The Killers also went through a similar pattern of seeing more success in the UK. Both KOL and The Killers have written songs about seeing more success in the UK than the states. I'm wondering if TGA is going through a similar situation.

Well I've certainly seen the comparison brought up quite a few times. But I've never really followed KoL so I can't really say.

They are aware that they are more popular in Europe, remember this is a business for them, they need to go where the money is.

I don't think the success TGA has in Europe is anything compared to the success KoL had in Europe. TGA probably can draw in bigger crowds, and have more people who recognise the name if you brought it up in a conversation with a person who listens to a lot of rock music in Europe than they can in the States, but KoL were a household name over there almost right from the start, if TGA were ever going to end up being that big I think they already would have had much more commercial success.

I won't be surprise that Handwritten turns out to be 2012's "Only By The Night"

I say that knowing how big KOL was in US and the kinda tours they went on...

It seems to be the tradition any more with good music to have a bigger following internationally before hitting the states. I mean...Mumford and Sons for example...it took a long time till they got noticed in the states (yes I am aware they are from England). The GOOD music has to explode in the UK,Ireland,AUS,etc, before people notice it in teh states, yet Trash gets so much instant attention....I guess it sorts out the lovers of music, from the "fans".

JimmyB wrote:

It seems to be the tradition any more with good music to have a bigger following internationally before hitting the states. I mean...Mumford and Sons for example...it took a long time till they got noticed in the states (yes I am aware they are from England). The GOOD music has to explode in the UK,Ireland,AUS,etc, before people notice it in teh states, yet Trash gets so much instant attention....I guess it sorts out the lovers of music, from the "fans".

I've seen that trend with a lot of "good" bands. I think The Black Keys were one of the few bands to see more of a response in the US than the UK, though.

AmSlang59 wrote:

JimmyB wrote:

It seems to be the tradition any more with good music to have a bigger following internationally before hitting the states. I mean...Mumford and Sons for example...it took a long time till they got noticed in the states (yes I am aware they are from England). The GOOD music has to explode in the UK,Ireland,AUS,etc, before people notice it in teh states, yet Trash gets so much instant attention....I guess it sorts out the lovers of music, from the "fans".

I've seen that trend with a lot of "good" bands. I think The Black Keys were one of the few bands to see more of a response in the US than the UK, though.

Around the Thickfreakness/Rubber Factory era I think Black keys were really big in UK, and I think this was before they had much success in the US.

i just hope people don't start hating on gaslight now that they're getting bigger. it's probably inevitable but i remember back in 08/09 where every single thing said about them was positive, like the honeymoon phase. oh well

Then again, I think it has always been like this. I don't know if Elvis was popular overseas at first, or if it took a movie to do it. But my point still stands from what I said earlier....The UK has always seemingly showed who, and what, is worth listening to. We need to create buttons saying "I was a Gaslight fan BEFORE Handwritten" or "I was a Gaslight Anthem fan since (SOS,59,SENOR,AMERICAN SLANG-ETC)"

DeathoftheCool wrote:

i just hope people don't start hating on gaslight now that they're getting bigger. it's probably inevitable but i remember back in 08/09 where every single thing said about them was positive, like the honeymoon phase. oh well

there's always going to be Haters.

oldgospelchoir wrote:

DeathoftheCool wrote:

i just hope people don't start hating on gaslight now that they're getting bigger. it's probably inevitable but i remember back in 08/09 where every single thing said about them was positive, like the honeymoon phase. oh well

there's always going to be Haters.

but there didn't used to be! *sigh*

JimmyB wrote:

Then again, I think it has always been like this. I don't know if Elvis was popular overseas at first, or if it took a movie to do it. But my point still stands from what I said earlier....The UK has always seemingly showed who, and what, is worth listening to. We need to create buttons saying "I was a Gaslight fan BEFORE Handwritten" or "I was a Gaslight Anthem fan since (SOS,59,SENOR,AMERICAN SLANG-ETC)"

I think badges on here would be appropriate. Stuff like "Member since American Slang". Or "Member since 59". I absolutely hate seeing the comments on youtube videos that are, "I listened to them before this song was in a commercial!!!" Who gives a fuck? People are supporting a good band. What's the problem?

AmSlang59 wrote:

JimmyB wrote:

Then again, I think it has always been like this. I don't know if Elvis was popular overseas at first, or if it took a movie to do it. But my point still stands from what I said earlier....The UK has always seemingly showed who, and what, is worth listening to. We need to create buttons saying "I was a Gaslight fan BEFORE Handwritten" or "I was a Gaslight Anthem fan since (SOS,59,SENOR,AMERICAN SLANG-ETC)"

I think badges on here would be appropriate. Stuff like "Member since American Slang". Or "Member since 59". I absolutely hate seeing the comments on youtube videos that are, "I listened to them before this song was in a commercial!!!" Who gives a fuck? People are supporting a good band. What's the problem?

agreed. Trying to be "hipsters" by going against what is popular? Who cares when you started listening, but I can understand for sites like these, just to know how long a person has been following Gaslight, to see at what point they joined watching the band evolve from NJ band, to possibly an international sensation on the same level as KOL, Mumford, and the other popular good bands.

JimmyB wrote:

AmSlang59 wrote:

JimmyB wrote:

Then again, I think it has always been like this. I don't know if Elvis was popular overseas at first, or if it took a movie to do it. But my point still stands from what I said earlier....The UK has always seemingly showed who, and what, is worth listening to. We need to create buttons saying "I was a Gaslight fan BEFORE Handwritten" or "I was a Gaslight Anthem fan since (SOS,59,SENOR,AMERICAN SLANG-ETC)"

I think badges on here would be appropriate. Stuff like "Member since American Slang". Or "Member since 59". I absolutely hate seeing the comments on youtube videos that are, "I listened to them before this song was in a commercial!!!" Who gives a fuck? People are supporting a good band. What's the problem?

agreed. Trying to be "hipsters" by going against what is popular? Who cares when you started listening, but I can understand for sites like these, just to know how long a person has been following Gaslight, to see at what point they joined watching the band evolve from NJ band, to possibly an international sensation on the same level as KOL, Mumford, and the other popular good bands.

Yep! As the Gaslight community is a great community and very supportive, opening and generally awesome, I really hope we don't see those type of fans. I can't imagine somebody from the SOS or 59 days saying shit like, "I've been listening to them since 2008!" As much as I hope to see TGA grow to being a household name, it will be bittersweet for everybody that saw them in clubs that couldn't hold more than 400 people.

I've been saying this to my friends for awhile now. I'm not a big KOL fan; like some of you, I jumped on the bandwagon with Only By The Night.
The OP is correct, very similar in popularity pattern here. Three great rock albums that only reached a limited crowd, and then they go mainstream with Only By The Night. A fantastic rock record, but many people, and I'll admit even I, didn't know they existed UNTIL that album came out. I
feel like the same will happen here with Gaslight. The pieces are in place, three fantastic rock records, SOS, 59S and AS, and of course, they signed with a major label. It's a freakishly similar pattern here.

Hey, good for the boys, they deserve the attention KOL received and then some!

By the time Kings 4th album was about to debut, they were absolutely enormous in Europe. While Gaslight's popularity might be growing, it's still nowhere near he level KOL's was.

That's not a slight to TGA, it's just reality. I wouldn't compare the bands or situations. The Killers popularity is still probably twice what even KOL's is in Europe, yet KOL is a bigger band in the US. To me, all this means nothing.

As SouthJerseyTGA said, KOL were bigger then TGA at the point of Only by The Night. If you look at it in terms of festivals, KOL were already sub-headlining major festivals in the UK (Reading/Leeds), whereas Gaslight are nowhere near that status yet. They also wrote a commercial hit single with the word 'sex' in it that was instantly accessable to every casual radio listener out there.

I think Handwritten will certainly get them bigger, possibly to the point of a sub-headliner size band, but think it'll take 2 more albums to be KOL size. No reason why they can't do it though.

well the strokes premiered their new single on bbc1 too, I think it's mainly because the us have not something like zane lowe's show, hmmm

DeathoftheCool wrote:

i just hope people don't start hating on gaslight now that they're getting bigger. it's probably inevitable but i remember back in 08/09 where every single thing said about them was positive, like the honeymoon phase. oh well

Well, to be fair, they were essentially perfect at that point. I remember around The '59 Sound era that everyone who was into Gaslight was INTO Gaslight. I went to three shows in '09 and they were all different and so, so special. It was this incredible euphoria, seeing them in those small capacity venues and every single person knowing the words.

And to clarify, I still absolutely love the band now. But the rush of seeing them at the Convention Hall was different from the rush of seeing them at, say, The Stone Pony. Not worse necessarily, but the dynamic has completely shifted.

plugga wrote:

well the strokes premiered their new single on bbc1 too, I think it's mainly because the us have not something like zane lowe's show, hmmm

I think KROQ LA is the closest the US has to Zane Lowe, in terms of target audience. They premiered new Blink 182, Black Keys, Kings Of Leon.

SouthJerseyTGA wrote:

By the time Kings 4th album was about to debut, they were absolutely enormous in Europe. While Gaslight's popularity might be growing, it's still nowhere near he level KOL's was.

That's not a slight to TGA, it's just reality. I wouldn't compare the bands or situations. The Killers popularity is still probably twice what even KOL's is in Europe, yet KOL is a bigger band in the US. To me, all this means nothing.

I don't know if I was necessarily talking about comparing the size of each band but more of the pattern of paying attention to the fan base in Europe more than their homeland. It seems that TGA is trying to make a mainstream breakthrough in Europe before the US. I could definitely see them playing arenas in the UK before arenas in the US (Excluding NJ/NYC area)

am i the only one who thinks all this arena talk is kind of crazy? i mean don't get me wrong, i'd love for them to succeed but it just seems kind of weird... i don't see it happening with this album, maybe in the future but right now it just seems odd somehow...

AmSlang59 wrote:

plugga wrote:

well the strokes premiered their new single on bbc1 too, I think it's mainly because the us have not something like zane lowe's show, hmmm

I think KROQ LA is the closest the US has to Zane Lowe, in terms of target audience. They premiered new Blink 182, Black Keys, Kings Of Leon.

yeah but zane lowe has a different audience and "effect" imho, lots of bands choose his show to premiere new singles!
I also read people complaining that the premiere is on bbc and not some american radio, seriously?

Bea wrote:

am i the only one who thinks all this arena talk is kind of crazy? i mean don't get me wrong, i'd love for them to succeed but it just seems kind of weird... i don't see it happening with this album, maybe in the future but right now it just seems odd somehow...

I agree. when you think of the bands who do arena tours, I don't see Gaslight to be as big as them at the moment, possibly in the future. For example, the Black Keys did a tour over here in the UK in november and didn't play arenas and they are sub headliners at reading festival this year, whereas Gaslight aren't even half way up the bill. I think maybe in the next few years they will play arenas, that is if this album is successful. Also when I spoke to Ian last October about the future of Gaslight, he said they won't be playing arenas yet.