The Gaslight Anthem – live at Reading/Leeds Festival 2015 – August 30, 2015 – BBC 6 Music –
Ending up the week with The Gaslight Anthem, during their farewell concert at the 2015 Reading/Leeds Festival on August 30, 2015, recorded and faithfully preserved by BBC 6 Music.
This was their final concert before taking an extended hiatus – one which would go until just recently, much to the relief of fans.
But if you’ve missed out of them when they first got started (in 2006), and are a big perplexed over this farewell concert – it was 2015 after all – here’s a little background on them to get you caught up:
The Gaslight Anthem is an American rock band from New Brunswick, New Jersey, formed in 2006. The band consists of Brian Fallon (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Alex Rosamilia (lead guitar, backing vocals), Alex Levine (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Benny Horowitz (drums, percussion).
The Gaslight Anthem released their debut album, Sink or Swim, on XOXO Records in May 2007, and their second album, The ’59 Sound, on SideOneDummy Records in August 2008. The band’s third album, American Slang, was released in June 2010, and their fourth, Handwritten, was released in July 2012 through Mercury Records. The lead single from Handwritten, “45”, became their most successful single on the charts, and possibly their most well-known to date. The band’s fifth full-length studio album, Get Hurt, was released on August 12, 2014, through Island Records. On July 29, 2015, the band announced an indefinite hiatus following their European summer tour, which concluded at Reading Festival on Sunday 30 August.
The band announced on July 4, 2013, via their Tumblr site, that they were “Working on new songs for a new Gaslight Anthem album in 2014.” Fallon cites Pearl Jam’s No Code album as an influence and inspiration for the upcoming album.
On July 29, 2013, rumors about the band’s hiatus peaked from a Tumblr post by Brian Fallon. After playing a show in New York City, he explained his frustration about audiences continually requesting Bruce Springsteen covers. “My name isn’t Bruce,” he added.
The band released a limited edition box set titled Singles Collection: 2008-2011 in June 2013. The set compiled nine of the band’s 7″ singles in a wooden box. In December 2013 the band released their first DVD, titled Live in London, and one month later in January 2014 they released The B-Sides, a collection of acoustic songs, live songs, and outtakes from their various singles.
On March 10, 2014, the band entered Blackbird Studios in Nashville to record their fifth album. The band stated on April 14 that they had arrived at the “last week in the studio” of recording the album.
In an interview with Rolling Stone published May 23, 2014, Fallon described the new record as “completely different than anything we had ever done before. Instead of going that extra step of just adding some organ or some background vocals, this time we actually really changed up a lot of the sounds.”
On June 16, 2014, the title of the album was announced as Get Hurt. It was released on August 12, 2014. On July 24, 2014, the music video for the title track debuted.
On July 29, 2015, the band announced an indefinite hiatus following their European summer tour, which concluded at Reading Festival on Sunday 30 August.
So to complete the historic look back, here is that farewell concert from Reading, as it was recorded by the BBC on August 30, 2015.
Crank it up.
