Brian's tumblr post discussion

I agree with rkirkpatrick25 that my attitude toward Brian and the band has completely changed in the past 12 months.  He's so freaking annoying it's not even funny and I'm almost embarrassed for him.  I hope he watches that video and sees how lame he is.  I almost couldn't watch it, but it was like a bad accident that you couldn't tear your eyes from.

Something weird has happened since about last May.  I always kind of thought Gaslight Anthem had the makeup of a band with a short shelf life but now I am seeing why.  They come off like a bunch of amateurs lately.

Everyone's entitled to their opinion but, oh for the love of God can we just let this man be a human being FOR ONCE???

He may be your hero but he's not a superhero.

He may be a nice guy overall but he's not obligated to be all smiles when he's annoyed.

He doesn't NEED to do anything beyond try to be the best version of himself WHEN HE CAN. That's all we can expect of any person and if you don't like what you get, too bad.

His job is not my job, your job, or 99% of the populations job, ergo there are different stressors, challenges, problems, etc. Let's not pretend we totally understand his life and would just do it so much better ourselves.

At this point, I honestly don't care if Brian was right, wrong, or this was just a big misunderstanding. No matter the situation, we do not get to decide how he's supposed to react. If you're upset because you think he took the situation the wrong way, or because you weren't one of the fans causing the problem and you wish you weren't lumped in with them, that's completely fair and everyone is entitled to their opinion (even the ludicrous ones), but just as you have a right to be upset, he has a right to be upset. Unreasonable or not.  

And finally, I gotta say, I'd rather the man express his frustrations than put of a fake smile and build up resentment until one day he explodes. There is WAY too much of that bullshit in the world as it is. Sorry he didn't sugarcoat the hell out of the tumblr post to spare everyone's feelings. Personally, I thought it was a very mature and well articulated passage that he probably needed to get out even if this incident never happened.

EDIT: So I finally watched the video. I'm sorry for those who were there who weren't part of that, because it's a bummer people had to get like that. But I'm kinda embarrassed for those who couldn't let the Bruce thing go. Man, people made is sound like Brian just got pissed off right off the bat, went f*ck you, and stopped talking. He played it off with a smile, multiple times, but people couldn't let it go and let him do his thing.

Well that escalated quickly. To be fair Brian opened the door there to what became a big misunderstanding. Maybe he should of waited before writing that tumbler post as his emotions were running high. He is probably kicking himself over it now. Maybe he could do with a long break but I am getting a bit tired of his resentment towards Bruce as that man helped elevate his band to a much higher level. Maybe higher than they were ready for. Any TGA fan loves the band for what they are and their songs. There may of been a few people he "thought" were being difficult but he should of been there for the other thousands there to see him and not thrown his toys out of the pram

I would love to see TGA cover bad romance

I don't know how everyone knows 'the turmoil' he is experiencing in his personal life. I have not seen anything that explicitly states what problems he is having. How come everyone seemingly knows what is happening in his life?

Christophe wrote:

I don't know how everyone knows 'the turmoil' he is experiencing in his personal life. I have not seen anything that explicitly states what problems he is having. How come everyone seemingly knows what is happening in his life?

I was thinking the same thing.

However, he seems to be the one with the pressure of writing the material as well as being the focus of a pretty relentless touring machine.

All of that must take its toll the longer it goes on.

Yeah I guess it must take it's toll eventually. I think after they finish this tour a rest and a break from the limelight will be exactly what Brian needs. A few months so write and recharge and hopefully he will be back better than ever in 2014.

Christophe wrote:

I don't know how everyone knows 'the turmoil' he is experiencing in his personal life. I have not seen anything that explicitly states what problems he is having. How come everyone seemingly knows what is happening in his life?

Yeah, this. Been rumours about this for ages, I just wonder how this is 'common knowledge'? To be honest I try and stay out of band members personal lives, it's not our business as fans to know certain things, and sometimes it comes out in their music anyway.

However, it looks from the outside as though Brian's ego has simply exploded and he is now a full on rockstar diva. You know those Frank Turner lyrics, "some of them are just like us, and some of them are..." I kind of want to know now what this 'turmoil' is, if anything just to gain some understanding of what has turned such a modest frontman of a fun band into this whingy annoying egotistical bore. One of the main joys of Gaslight to me, was seeing the band clearly loving what they are doing onstage, and they just arn't that anymore.

Ghost wrote:

Gaslight to me, was seeing the band clearly loving what they are doing onstage, and they just arn't that anymore.

I saw them live about a month ago and they were as great as ever. Brian was joking around, having fun on stage as per usual.

On the European tour they were in top spirits

I cannot imagine what he is going through to be honest. I just hope he gets this solved soon, I am worried more about Brian than the band at this point. Something is very much wrong with Brian it seems, and as said above, SOMEONE from his friends needs to talk to him, ask him what's wrong, get help for him if he really needs it,etc. I am not pretending to have any inside knowledge, but it's what I would do.

It's not been talked about in specifics here but I'm sure we all have our assumptions.  So sad though.  Like I said, what a fast spiral downward.

Insider wrote:

I don't frequent this forum very often so I don't know if you guys have discussed the problems surrounding Brian or if you're even aware of them?

There haven't been any specific threads / posts about it as we agreed on discussing private stuff only when there has been an official statement to respect the band members and their families privacy. But I'm sure everyone on here has heard one rumour or the other.

Personally I still believe that private matters should never be discussed on a public forum.

I have a similar opinion. Unless it is said by the person involved to the public and not to a person in privacy and confidence, I don't discuss personal issues. It is like families of celebrities,they are off limits.

I'm glad we're all in agreement here...

By heavy shit you mean bad right?

If all these comments are true it doesn't seem like we will be getting a 5th album. 

TheEmptyBones wrote:

If all these comments are true it doesn't seem like we will be getting a 5th album. 

I'm sure we will get what they need to do to fulfill their record contract.

There are tons of albums that have been released over the years only to fulfill obligation.

I'm hoping this 2014 album is atrong but it also seems likely they could be dumped from the label if it isn't.

Insider wrote:

Late last year plans were in place for Brian to work on a solo record with Ryan Adams in a producer role - basically Gaslight's record company said "no way - you owe us another record after the disapointment of Handwritten".

Wait, what? That might have been my dream record. Bummer.

Whilst I agree that certain private matters for band members are off limits on a public forum, it is getting increasingly difficult to defend his behavour and attitude to the hordes of people out there currently slagging him off. Having been a fan since the early days, and knowing how strange this whole thing is, that is sad.

Wait is Brian the one with problems or is the whole band having problems? I get handwritten didnt do as well as expected but there seems to be more going on here.

cmigs wrote:

Insider wrote:

Late last year plans were in place for Brian to work on a solo record with Ryan Adams in a producer role - basically Gaslight's record company said "no way - you owe us another record after the disapointment of Handwritten".

Wait, what? That might have been my dream record. Bummer.

Yeah no kidding, Ryan's first stab ever at producing was Jesse Malin's Fine Art and I consider that a masterpiece.

Maybe if/when Gaslight gets dropped from Mercury Brian will sign on with Paxam and well get that record.

The way things are going now I kinda wish they'd get dropped.

Maybe I'm too optimistic or naive, but I'm not convinced that Brian or the band is spiraling (my word not anyone elses but this is what your descriptions sound like). Even Brian mentioned that they had a rough patch (I forget his exact words). He said they were through it, but who knows. All I know is, people hit tough times in their lives, times that change them (yes all human beings change and it doesn't always go smoothly). But I'm not gonna look at this like they're headed for disaster until or unless I see something that clearly indicates it. If anything I see a happier man on stage than I saw last summer/fall.

And I don't believe for a second that he's not still grateful for everything Bruce has done for them. But excuse the man for wanting to create his own identity.

prettyontheinsidex wrote:

The way things are going now I kinda wish they'd get dropped.

I'm with you, if a band has a legitimate chance to be the next big rock band then I think go for it and sign with a major label. I just don't think TGA has a shot to be as big as bands like The Killers or the Kings of Leon and TGA just sort of suffers in the corporate music industry as a result.