Brian Fallon & the Crowes, with Austin Plaine and Jared Hart at Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (19 March 2016)

Tour Dates

Opening up the show Jared Hart, who normally front a band called The Scandals (who opened up for Gaslight Anthem last year). Hart also double as an additional guitarist for Fallon.

Hart’s 25-min set featured a Bob Dylan song, “Forever Young”. The story he told was he found the song as a bookmark in a Dylan book just by accident. He was really afraid to cover it… but built up the confidence to start covering the song a few days ago.

Hart also mentioned that he almost missed the plane because he spent the whole night with the Crowes’ drummer at a casino in Wisconsin. The story was later brought up again by Fallon on his set, giving Hart a hard time… but really just poking fun at the whole thing. Clearly the band was having a great time on the road.

Austin Plaine got a massive fanbase in Minneapolis, thanks to the fact that he’s actually from here. The fans were loud and often chanting something like “AP” (or “Eddy”?), clearly indicating that they were only here to show support for Plaine. Plaine, at first was grateful, but eventually got a little annoyed by the chanting and said, “Shut up, I’m trying to talk here.” The fans immediately quieted down, letting the singer introduce the band: Spencer on drums and James on guitars.

Plaine’s 35-min set showcased a lot of songs from his debut album, but throwing in a Tom Petty cover (“Listen to Her Heart”) and also a newly written song called “Rise Above It.” He ended the set with his lead single, “Houston”. While the recorded version is a little sad and somber, when Plaine played it live, it sounded more upbeat and optimistic (thanks to the speedier drumming and additional guitars).

Based on Plaine’s growing fanbase, I would say keep an eye on this one. He’s going places (let’s hope it’s not to Houston…)

Like Plaine, Brian Fallon is incredibly popular, thanks to his various projects like The Gaslight Anthem, The Horrible Crowes, and Molly and The Zombies. Fans would often follow him from town to town, at least there were ten or more fans who were also at Fallon’s Wisconsin show the night before. About half Fallon’s set were The Horrible Crowes, but two Molly and The Zombies songs (“Red Lights” and “Smoke”) were thrown in, and making up the rest of the set were songs from Fallon’s solo album Painkillers (Island Records).

Fallon heavily interacted with his fans, even having a one-way conversation with a fan, at the beginning of his set. At the end of the conversation, he summarized the story for the audience: the fan’s brother made a custom T-Shirt with Fallon’s face on it. That’s dedication.

Not listed on the set list is an impromptu singalong to The Jeffersons’ Theme Song, “Movin’ On Up”. Surprisingly, Fallon knew most the lyrics.

A NOFX cover “Linoleum” was also played, but instead of trying to out-punk the Orange County punk band, Fallon’s version is a little more acoustic.

Overall, the show was really meant for fans of Brian Fallon or The Horrible Crowes. If you were going to the show hoping to hear some Gaslight Anthem songs, you’re out of luck… but as we previously mentioned, no one really minded because they’re all having a good time.

Fallon’s debut solo album Painkillers is out now on Island Records.