Written by: Geoff Tischman
Brian Fallon’s second solo album Sleepwalkers is one of my favorites of 2018, so I was really excited to see him play the songs live.
Fallon and his band The Howling Weather played The Brooklyn Steel for the last date of their Sleepwalkers Tour and they played a brilliant blend of scorching rock and roll and muscular roots music. Fallon played new songs, old songs from his former bands The Gaslight Anthem and The Horrible Crows and two killer covers–Tom Waits’ “Downtown Train” and Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.”
Fallon was an energetic and engaging presence and his performance was as commanding as they come. Falling somewhere between Strummer and Springsteen, Fallon has proven at this point in his career, that he’s one of our greatest American songwriters. Every song he writes is brimming with truth about our nation’s grace and disasters and whether it was the plaintive “Rosemary” or the soaring anthemic firepower of “The ’59 Sound,” Fallon demonstrated his songbook is as rich as it is deep.
His duet on the Dylan track with opener Caitlin Rose was stunning; “Forget Me Not” tore the cover off the ball and “A Wonderful Life” was as rousing as ever.
- Forget Me Not
- Red Lights
- Come Wander With Me
- Ladykiller
- I Witnessed a Crime
- Painkillers
- Little Nightmares
- Sugar
- Bell Bottom Blues
- Neptune
- My Name Is the Night (Color Me Black)
- Watson
- Rosemary
- A Wonderful Life
- Smoke
- Downtown Train
- Etta James
- The ’59 Sound
- Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
- See You On The Other Side
- If Your Prayers Don’t Get To Heaven
