Rock-and-Roll Transcendence

THE CLUB WAS full by the time New Jersey’s The Gaslight Anthem took the stage. Lead singer and songwriter Brian Fallon stepped to the mike in denim jacket and jeans, and the band lit into their song “Howl” (yes, a Ginsberg reference). That’s when I heard a strange doubling sound on Fallon’s vocal. The Gaslight Anthem is very much straight-ahead, meat-and-potatoes, guitars-and-drums. Why would they use that weird effect on the vocal?

Then it hit me. That sound wasn’t coming from the sound board or the speakers, but from us. The audience, en masse, was singing along with every word, on time and in tune. It was what happens when rock and roll is working right: The performers and the audience become one and are swept up into something much larger than themselves.

I’ve also experienced this in churches and sometimes even in collective political action. But some of my most dramatic moments of transcendence have come like this: in a dark room, packed with sweaty people, screaming back at some guy onstage with a guitar. The experience is even more interesting when you know that the guy with the guitar, Fallon, is also a Christian, who knows the true name of the Spirit that has overtaken us.

I only caught this show because my 15-year-old son, Joseph, took advantage of his spring break to insist that he be driven an hour each way, on a Monday night, to see one of his favorite bands. But it didn’t take much arm-twisting either. One of the last of the great guitar-rock bands, Gaslight is firmly rooted in the punk-rock ethos, but its sound has broadened to include elements of R&B and mainstream arena rock. And Fallon’s lyrical references range across the rock-and-roll tradition, from Hank Williams to Sam Cooke and Otis Redding to Elvis Costello and The Counting Crows.

The first time I sat down and listened to Gaslight’s breakthrough album, The ’59 Sound, all the way through, I kept mumbling to myself, “This guy has swallowed the entire tradition, whole.” And it’s not just the rock tradition. Fallon’s lyrics can also come spiked with literary references to, say, Charles Dickens or those other Jersey bards, Walt Whitman and the aforementioned Ginsberg. But, of course, the greatest Jersey influence is Springsteen. The Boss has returned the favor by joining the band onstage and bringing Fallon on with the E Street Band.

In the music, Fallon’s Christianity is actually less apparent than his Bruce devotion. He thanks Jesus in the liner notes of Gaslight albums, and he speaks freely about his faith when asked (most extensively in an interview on Beliefnet.com). But he also says he isn’t called to write “Christian” songs. On Fallon’s side-project album, Elise by The Horrible Crowes, one song, “Crush,” ends with two verses that are mash-ups of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” and “Wade in the Water.” That same album ends with a track called “I Believe Jesus Brought Us Together,” in which the title sentence never occurs in the lyrics.

In fact, Fallon’s Christianity is probably most evident in his humility. He told Beliefnet, “I don’t understand what makes my songs better than anyone else’s and I don’t know why people like them, and I don’t even know why they come to me. It’s that whole verse ‘seek ye first the kingdom of God and [God’s] righteousness and all these things will be added unto you,’ I just really took that to heart and that’s what I believe.”

Thank you, Jesus, and you too, Brian.