Frank Turner takes to the stage, surrounded by the many instruments to be utilized later by headliners The Gaslight Anthem. All Frank has is a spotlight, an acoustic guitar, and a microphone. He kicks off his set in style with ‘I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous’, a slow burning tale of watching other people succeed around you, whilst you and others stagnate. The audience is immediately captivated by Frank’s unique fire side punk melodic style. After a quick bit of banter with the audience regarding the snow he launches into another heartfelt lament concerning a lost relationship ‘Substitute’. Although he is just one man and an acoustic guitar he manages to fill the entire stage and fully engage the audience throughout his [all too short] set. Other highlights of the set include, ‘Long live the Queen’ and ‘Worse things happen at sea’.

Throughout Frank Turner's time on stage you are left in no doubt of the bitterness behind the tales of lost loves, betrayals, early mid life crises and general disappointment in the way that life has turned out for him. Anyone still wishing and hoping for a Million Dead reformation should take a listen to the album ‘Love Ire and Song’ or catch Frank Turner live and realize that the songs represent a man who has moved onto bigger and better things, good luck to him I say! Based on his performance tonight Frank Turner deserves to be heard by a much wider audience.

After a short delay The Gaslight Anthem take to the stage quietly. They launch into their set with ‘Great Expectations’ a track from their recent album ’The 59 Sound’. The Gaslight Anthems sound is thick in an old school blues kind of way which, at times, feels almost too thick as it detracts from the songs and is uncomfortable to listen to. Throughout the lengthy set the bass played by Alex Levine dominates the sound being produced by the band. Levine struts around the stage and also at times provides backing vocals.

There is no audience interaction until a good 40 minutes into the set when the lead singer Brian Fallon launches into a description of different types of girls found in different countries. We all learned that he thinks that Australian girls are amazing! Another highlight of the night was the track ‘Wooderson’ from their album ‘Sink or Swim', you really feel the raw feeling behind the song, Fallon’s voice cracks with emotion throughout. ‘The Navesink Banks’ reveals a more tender and melodic side to the band, a risky choice to play live due to its slow tempo, but they manage to pull it off in style. Other highlights of the night include ‘The ’59 Sound’ and ‘Old White Lincoln’ both excellent live renditions.

The Gaslight Anthem leave the stage only to return a few minutes later to resume playing, ‘Boomboxes and Dictionaries’ which sounded absolutely amazing, a real assault on the senses. The fairest way to describe the set would be workmanlike, if you were a big fan of the band you could have left the venue feeling slightly cheated. To be fair to the band, all the songs were played in an accomplished way but you may have felt that they were not really there completely in spirit. Perhaps The Gaslight Anthem should take some time off touring to re-discover their love of the live environment, then and only then [in my opinion] would they deserve to be one of the best bands on the planet.

A fairly disappointing overall performance from a band that is being heavily touted as the best around at this moment in time. Hopefully they heed my advice and come back bigger, better and harder next time. The Gaslight Anthem are definitely worth checking out though so go do it now!