2 December 2024 – The Tivoli, Brisbane – words by Lucas Bell – pictures by Charlyn Cameron
It’s a Monday evening in December, and the smell is in the air. Good Things festival is ready to rock the country. And with Good Things, come side shows. And the sideshow for New Jersey rockers The Gaslight Anthem at The Tivoli was probably the best way to start the next two weeks of festivals and live music across the country.
Opening the show for The Gaslight Anthem though, was singer songwriter Emmy Hour. Emmy plays for a band call The Cutaways, and I’m not super familiar with either project, but Emmy was a fun way to open the show. There was a lot of crowd interaction, chats, and good music as it was just Emmy, a guitar, and 30 minutes of solid tunes. The chats between songs were just as engaging as the songs being played, and the crowd were into it.
Emmy Hour – The Tivoli – photos by Charlyn Cameron
The lights dimmed down, as ‘Never Tear Us Apart’ by INXS played over the speakers. The Gaslight Anthem walked onto stage to probably one of the loudest reactions I’ve seen at The Tivoli for quite some time. The set could not have opened any more solidly either, with ‘Great Expectations’, ‘American Slang’, ‘Biloxi Parish’, and the song I didn’t expect to have the biggest singalong of the night, ‘The Patient Ferris Wheel’.
Lead singer Brian Fallon spoke to the crowd for a minute, one of the only times he did, to talk about how overwhelming the reception was, and how thankful he is for the Australian crowds. He mentioned how he feels he could say anything here, and Australia would still love the band (note this arguably hilarious foreshadowing). He spoke a little longer, and then spoke about how recently it was American Thanksgiving, and how Australia should be proud of not having a holiday that celebrates the things Thanksgiving does. The crowd turned briefly on Brian, as someone gave him a quick history lesson about Australia and it’s First Nations people. He promptly apologised and quickly moved on, and the crowd appreciated the acknowledgement of his incorrect statement, which kind of proved his point in the first place.
The Gaslight Anthem – The Tivoli – photos by Charlyn Cameron
Brian introduced ‘Film Noir’, as they blasted through the rest of the set, which totalled in at over 20 songs and about two hours. We only got two songs from the new record, History Books. Over half the set was songs from either Handwritten, or The ’59 Sound, which made the crowd happy. I was so happy to hear ‘Keepsake’ live, and to have it followed up with ‘The Spirit of Jazz’ made me even more ecstatic. There was an obligatory cover, which I didn’t expect it to be ‘ocean eyes’ by Billie Ellish. I knew it was part of their rotation, but I didn’t expect it to be as incredible live as it was.
The Gaslight Anthem – The Tivoli – photos by Charlyn Cameron
‘Mulholland Drive’ was another song I had on the wishlist, and they played. It might be an unpopular pick, considering how stacked the bands discography is, but ‘Mulholland Drive’ is the song I always recommend first to people. The second is ‘Keepsake’. So if you’re reading this and want to know where to start, start with them. The set closed out brilliant with ’45’, ‘The ’59 Sound’, ‘The Backseat’. ‘The Backseat’ is a song I didn’t expect as the closer. But it was a cool comedown song, instead of what I would have expected, which is ‘The ’59 Sound’. Overall, the set was insane, the show was incredible, and it was an amazing way to start the run to Good Things.
