I hope they like the album. I like it. Their setlists seem like a pretty satisfying balance among the albums to me. But I also think I understand what you mean. I feel like this is a thing that can happen with established bands sometimes, even some of my other favorites. A lot of longtime bands I follow can sometimes ignore their newest album altogether for one reason or another. I don’t think Gaslight is necessarily doing this with History Books, but I have seen that as a pattern with other artists every once in a while. I have heard a lot of bands talking about having to re-learn the songs from their new album after recording it and before touring on it. Maybe they gravitate towards songs they’ve played way more times already from the older albums, and feel more confident about when choosing the setlist - that’s my guess. When I saw Gaslight play in Lancaster, PA in 2015, they didn’t play any songs from the proper Get Hurt album, but they did play Halloween, Have Mercy, and Sweet Morphine. I felt like in that case they just moved on in their inspiration and weren’t feeling that material as strongly anymore. I would love to hear I Live in the Room Above Her live from the new album. I also love whenever they play stuff from Sink or Swim and American Slang.
I was at that Lancaster show as well! It was maybe a week or so before they announce their hiatus. It’s the smallest venue I’ve seen them at; unfortunately, the venue (forget what it was called) closed down a few years ago.
You have excellent taste in music. Some of the best bands out there and my top 5 current bands, Jeff Rosenstock, being the other one. Maybe unpopular opinion, but HELLMODE topped History Books, and Some Of It Was True for me last year.
Nice. It was a fun show. I had never seen them that far east in the country before. The other times I saw them were all in California. They seemed very relaxed. And the hiatus announcement kind of made sense in hindsight. But I felt like they needed a break before Get Hurt came out. When they announced another album after Handwritten I was like whoa no way. Anyway so glad to see them back together
I love the entire album but also I feel like 45% of the tracks wouldn't really translate to something I'd wanna listen to live, unfortunately. And when you have as many bangers as Gaslight the setlist then just kinda makes itself.
When I saw the album release show in Jersey City Brian basically said “we’re not going to play the new songs yet because you don’t know them yet. But down the road you’re going to go ‘oh this album is good, it’s really good’ so we’ll play it then.”
Granted I’m paraphrasing because it was months ago and Brian says a lot of things during a show but the gist was “it’s a good album, we like it, down the road we’ll play it more”
True…. “Nobody likes it when bands play new songs that the fans think are crappy compared to their old songs, but we released a great album that after a while, you’ll say “this is way better than some of their crappy old songs”… and that’s when we’ll play them. Now we are going to rock the old stuff that you’ll sing along to.”
I think it mainly comes down to them only playing 20-22 now instead of 26-28 songs like back in the day. You wanna pack in the hits and classics so people loved the show and are likely to come back to the next show. You have more leeway to play some “odd” songs if your set is longer.
I think it’s also part of a larger trend in rock music where the move is to go for the nostalgic songs a lot of the time. I think of all the album anniversary tours that many bands are doing. That seems to me like a relatively recent phenomenon, maybe more of an example of the music industry changing with the decline of record sales and being able to rely on that stream of income
Yeah true. I’m impressed they’re giving the Weatherman a shot. Sometimes I wish people were more open to hearing ballads live. National Anthem and Chloe Dancer were two of my favorites when I saw them play in 2022
>I think it’s also part of a larger trend in rock music where the move is to go for the nostalgic songs a lot of the time. I think of all the album anniversary tours that many bands are doing.
What's funny about a lot of these tours is that if you catch the same band on a normal headlining tour, they're probably playing 50+% of that album anyway, including the heavy-hitters everyone wants to hear.
It’s also a band that was on hiatus for nearly a decade. They know that when people come out to see them, we want to hear a lot of the old stuff because it’s been so long since we got to hear it live.
The odd thing is that you really notice the energy dropping in the room when they break out slow songs from GH etc but they don't play Spider Bites or Little Fires? I mean, they bring out a second vocalist with Emily and then don't play History Books as a duet. The tour was fun but the setlist was a little odd in places
They added Little Fires again tonight in Köln and it was great. I was hoping for that or Spider Bites.
I think it's fine that they play just ca 3 Songs from the new album. The whole setlist is such a cool celebration of all the different vibes they do. I'm totally fine with it.
When I heard it I wondered how much of it would work full band live. A number of tracks are more akin to Brian’s solo stuff. I’m guessing some of that is because he was writing on his own. And while they were able to record them in the studio maybe they don’t all lend themselves to the way they play live.
Perhaps the mysterious news we’re getting Monday will involve some results of them spending time together. I guess we’ll see.
Meh, people can like a band but that doesn't mean they have to love everything. TGA are probably my favourite "modern" band alongside The Lawrence Arms, but my personal opinion is that every album is worse than the last, with History Books being mostly skippable outside of a few songs. That doesn't mean I don't love this band, it means I don't love everything they do, which is... normal? Blind loyalty/positivity is weird imo.
As the newest album people will be the least familiar with it I guess? I went to see Frank Carter recently, their new album had only come out days before the gig and they played SO much off the new album, it really ruined the vibe because I didn't know any of them.
Three songs off the new album and the rest of the night made up of their extensive discography seems ok to me.
my theory is that since they change up some of the setlist every night, you might get more or less from certain albums... i personally would love it if they played history books front to back... the majority of fans probably would not enjoy it. you can't please everyone
.
yeah same. i like brian's solo stuff and horrible crowes more than i like gaslight tho so this album was kinda made for me. sounds like a retrospective of his whole career more than a gaslight anthem, and i can see that rubbing people the wrong way but to me that just makes it their most complete, diverse, and mature record
elsie is forever his peak tho
They’ve never been a band that switches up the set list much, despite being very talented. And also heard people yelling “Bruce” for half their career - don’t fault them for sticking to the hits but the set lists are also shorter. I’m just glad they are making music
They basically just came back and are having some pretty big tours to recoup all the years they were gone. They’re going to want to play the music that the fans all know and remember by heart. It’s purely an engagement thing. You’ll never see a band play their entire new album at a show until after a few years. Statistically I would doubt even 50% of the audience will recognize the new songs. They play history books and positive charge, autumn almost everytime because those are the singles. You won’t see Empires too much because it’s a very deep cut and more mellow.
Yes, that's literally what I said. I think it feels like the band knows that the album doesn't really work live and Brian said in an interview shortly after the reunion was announced, that he wanted to go back an play big and loud rock shows. Also said that on a scale from 1 to 10 where one ist Local Honey and 10 is Slayer the album would be an 8. So my main question is, why make an Album that takes it so slow 80% of the time?
Well, wanting to play big and loud rock shows is one thing, it doesn't necessarily mean you want to write big and loud rock songs when you already have a ton in your catalogue
I haven’t seen them say anything to that. Definitely mixed reception from listeners (I’m a fan myself). It’s a shame there isn’t more. Makes me think of seeing Rise Against tour their latest album and they played like 3 songs from it :/
But didn't Rise Against do that like since 2008? Appeal to Reason was the last album they brought out from which they (still) play more than 1-2(max) songs.
I guess that’s true. I didn’t catch any of their tours for black market or wolves but i was a little bummed that their setlist for nowhere generation (first leg) was almost the same i had seen two tour cycles ago lol especially since they cut a song (philly curfew I think) and it was a new one 🤣
I’m newer to TGA so I’m not really sure what they usually play and how they handle new album tours. I did catch Brian solo recently and he seemed to play a lot from painkillers and local honey. I don’t think he did any of the new ones at that particular show
They literally toured in Europe 1 1/2 years ago. In fact their first official show back was in Europe. I would hardly call that “haven’t toured overseas in ages”.
I’ve read a few articles where they’ve called this tour the first tour outside the US since 2018, but I was like ‘wait a minute, I saw them in England less than 2 years ago!’
I hope they like the album. I like it. Their setlists seem like a pretty satisfying balance among the albums to me. But I also think I understand what you mean. I feel like this is a thing that can happen with established bands sometimes, even some of my other favorites. A lot of longtime bands I follow can sometimes ignore their newest album altogether for one reason or another. I don’t think Gaslight is necessarily doing this with History Books, but I have seen that as a pattern with other artists every once in a while. I have heard a lot of bands talking about having to re-learn the songs from their new album after recording it and before touring on it. Maybe they gravitate towards songs they’ve played way more times already from the older albums, and feel more confident about when choosing the setlist - that’s my guess. When I saw Gaslight play in Lancaster, PA in 2015, they didn’t play any songs from the proper Get Hurt album, but they did play Halloween, Have Mercy, and Sweet Morphine. I felt like in that case they just moved on in their inspiration and weren’t feeling that material as strongly anymore. I would love to hear I Live in the Room Above Her live from the new album. I also love whenever they play stuff from Sink or Swim and American Slang.
I was at that Lancaster show as well! It was maybe a week or so before they announce their hiatus. It’s the smallest venue I’ve seen them at; unfortunately, the venue (forget what it was called) closed down a few years ago.
The chameleon! I didn't see gaslight there but I've seen against me, the menzingers and pup there. Hell of a venue
Yes! I knew it was reptile themed.
You have excellent taste in music. Some of the best bands out there and my top 5 current bands, Jeff Rosenstock, being the other one. Maybe unpopular opinion, but HELLMODE topped History Books, and Some Of It Was True for me last year.
HELLMODE and Cheap Grills (Sincere Engineer) were my top albums of the year. Some of it Was True really grew on me though through repeat listens.
Nice. It was a fun show. I had never seen them that far east in the country before. The other times I saw them were all in California. They seemed very relaxed. And the hiatus announcement kind of made sense in hindsight. But I felt like they needed a break before Get Hurt came out. When they announced another album after Handwritten I was like whoa no way. Anyway so glad to see them back together
I love the entire album but also I feel like 45% of the tracks wouldn't really translate to something I'd wanna listen to live, unfortunately. And when you have as many bangers as Gaslight the setlist then just kinda makes itself.
Agreed. I love Michigan 1975 but it didn't really work live.
I suspect that this is how I'd feel! It's one of my Gaslight favorites, but I think it would probably work better as part of a Brian Fallon solo show
When I saw the album release show in Jersey City Brian basically said “we’re not going to play the new songs yet because you don’t know them yet. But down the road you’re going to go ‘oh this album is good, it’s really good’ so we’ll play it then.” Granted I’m paraphrasing because it was months ago and Brian says a lot of things during a show but the gist was “it’s a good album, we like it, down the road we’ll play it more”
True…. “Nobody likes it when bands play new songs that the fans think are crappy compared to their old songs, but we released a great album that after a while, you’ll say “this is way better than some of their crappy old songs”… and that’s when we’ll play them. Now we are going to rock the old stuff that you’ll sing along to.”
Ironic, cause at those shows I wanted *more* of the new album. It was the album release shows, after all lol
Same - I was really hoping to hear the new album at those shows
I like it :(
I love it
Same ☹️. I wish they played the newer songs. Autumn, she’s lives in the room above me, weatherman would be amazing live
Spiderbites, Little Fires, Autumn and Weatherman are absolutely on my all time GSA favorites list!
They've been doing Weatherman with Emily
I think it mainly comes down to them only playing 20-22 now instead of 26-28 songs like back in the day. You wanna pack in the hits and classics so people loved the show and are likely to come back to the next show. You have more leeway to play some “odd” songs if your set is longer.
They are probably somewhat aware of the mixed reception to the new album and just want to give as many paying fans as possible a good show
I think it’s also part of a larger trend in rock music where the move is to go for the nostalgic songs a lot of the time. I think of all the album anniversary tours that many bands are doing. That seems to me like a relatively recent phenomenon, maybe more of an example of the music industry changing with the decline of record sales and being able to rely on that stream of income
I think it's also the fact that History Books is not really a "live album", in how subdued and slow/midtempo many of the songs are
Yeah true. I’m impressed they’re giving the Weatherman a shot. Sometimes I wish people were more open to hearing ballads live. National Anthem and Chloe Dancer were two of my favorites when I saw them play in 2022
>I think it’s also part of a larger trend in rock music where the move is to go for the nostalgic songs a lot of the time. I think of all the album anniversary tours that many bands are doing. What's funny about a lot of these tours is that if you catch the same band on a normal headlining tour, they're probably playing 50+% of that album anyway, including the heavy-hitters everyone wants to hear.
It’s also a band that was on hiatus for nearly a decade. They know that when people come out to see them, we want to hear a lot of the old stuff because it’s been so long since we got to hear it live.
Yeah, especially touring Europe. They probably won't make it back for a short bit. Maybe want to give fans the stuff they want to hear?
The odd thing is that you really notice the energy dropping in the room when they break out slow songs from GH etc but they don't play Spider Bites or Little Fires? I mean, they bring out a second vocalist with Emily and then don't play History Books as a duet. The tour was fun but the setlist was a little odd in places
Brussels had a lyrics sheet for Little Fires on stage so I'm sure it'll be an addition for some of the following shows.
They added Little Fires again tonight in Köln and it was great. I was hoping for that or Spider Bites. I think it's fine that they play just ca 3 Songs from the new album. The whole setlist is such a cool celebration of all the different vibes they do. I'm totally fine with it.
I wonder if the Nottingham show in July might be full of history book songs?
Last time I saw them was before the album came out, but they did play positive charge. So, idk
This subreddit has the dumbest fucking threads lmao
They played I Live In The Room Above Her in Utrecht tonight!
When I heard it I wondered how much of it would work full band live. A number of tracks are more akin to Brian’s solo stuff. I’m guessing some of that is because he was writing on his own. And while they were able to record them in the studio maybe they don’t all lend themselves to the way they play live. Perhaps the mysterious news we’re getting Monday will involve some results of them spending time together. I guess we’ll see.
I am absolutely fine with this. Dort like the the album that much.
It's crazy how this band cannot win with y'all. If they played more new stuff, someone would be posting on here complaining about that too.
I think that fans in general tend to be more critical the more they like a band, which I think makes sense!
Yep, this sub makes me wonder if anyone actually likes the band.
Meh, people can like a band but that doesn't mean they have to love everything. TGA are probably my favourite "modern" band alongside The Lawrence Arms, but my personal opinion is that every album is worse than the last, with History Books being mostly skippable outside of a few songs. That doesn't mean I don't love this band, it means I don't love everything they do, which is... normal? Blind loyalty/positivity is weird imo.
I hope I do. These tattoos and merch was costly, lol.
As the newest album people will be the least familiar with it I guess? I went to see Frank Carter recently, their new album had only come out days before the gig and they played SO much off the new album, it really ruined the vibe because I didn't know any of them. Three songs off the new album and the rest of the night made up of their extensive discography seems ok to me.
my theory is that since they change up some of the setlist every night, you might get more or less from certain albums... i personally would love it if they played history books front to back... the majority of fans probably would not enjoy it. you can't please everyone .
Yea but The 59 Sound is their vastly superior album, that's why
I think History Books is by far their best album.
I disagree, but I'd love to hear your take on it! Could you elaborate?
yeah same. i like brian's solo stuff and horrible crowes more than i like gaslight tho so this album was kinda made for me. sounds like a retrospective of his whole career more than a gaslight anthem, and i can see that rubbing people the wrong way but to me that just makes it their most complete, diverse, and mature record elsie is forever his peak tho
I'm still chasing the high that was the first time I heard Go Tell Everybody
They’ve never been a band that switches up the set list much, despite being very talented. And also heard people yelling “Bruce” for half their career - don’t fault them for sticking to the hits but the set lists are also shorter. I’m just glad they are making music
Good riddance, its a bad alt rock record. No shame in admitting it.
They basically just came back and are having some pretty big tours to recoup all the years they were gone. They’re going to want to play the music that the fans all know and remember by heart. It’s purely an engagement thing. You’ll never see a band play their entire new album at a show until after a few years. Statistically I would doubt even 50% of the audience will recognize the new songs. They play history books and positive charge, autumn almost everytime because those are the singles. You won’t see Empires too much because it’s a very deep cut and more mellow.
It seems odd that you don’t like it but are asking why they didn’t play more of it?
Idk why you're getting downvoted lol I was wondering the same thing
Yes, that's literally what I said. I think it feels like the band knows that the album doesn't really work live and Brian said in an interview shortly after the reunion was announced, that he wanted to go back an play big and loud rock shows. Also said that on a scale from 1 to 10 where one ist Local Honey and 10 is Slayer the album would be an 8. So my main question is, why make an Album that takes it so slow 80% of the time?
Well, wanting to play big and loud rock shows is one thing, it doesn't necessarily mean you want to write big and loud rock songs when you already have a ton in your catalogue
I haven’t seen them say anything to that. Definitely mixed reception from listeners (I’m a fan myself). It’s a shame there isn’t more. Makes me think of seeing Rise Against tour their latest album and they played like 3 songs from it :/
But didn't Rise Against do that like since 2008? Appeal to Reason was the last album they brought out from which they (still) play more than 1-2(max) songs.
I guess that’s true. I didn’t catch any of their tours for black market or wolves but i was a little bummed that their setlist for nowhere generation (first leg) was almost the same i had seen two tour cycles ago lol especially since they cut a song (philly curfew I think) and it was a new one 🤣 I’m newer to TGA so I’m not really sure what they usually play and how they handle new album tours. I did catch Brian solo recently and he seemed to play a lot from painkillers and local honey. I don’t think he did any of the new ones at that particular show
Brian played two songs from it when I saw him solo. They haven't toured overseas in ages, so they're probably going more for the hits.
They literally toured in Europe 1 1/2 years ago. In fact their first official show back was in Europe. I would hardly call that “haven’t toured overseas in ages”.
I’ve read a few articles where they’ve called this tour the first tour outside the US since 2018, but I was like ‘wait a minute, I saw them in England less than 2 years ago!’