Brian Fallon & The Painkillers Bring New Jersey to Minneapolis
Was I really able to recover from Riot Fest weekend after just one night off? Absolutely not, but, like how work doesn’t stop just because you’re on vacation, shows don’t stop just because you are tired and need some recovery time. My favorite vocalist of all time was opening up a show at The Varsity Theater in Minneapolis on Tuesday night, and I was not about to miss him. Add the fact that an act I saw briefly at Riot Fest but, due to the insanity of the festival, I wasn’t able to spend a lot of time with was headlining, and I was left with a Tuesday night show that I just could not resist.
If you know me, you know Lucero is my number one. They’re a band that isn’t quite my typical cup of tea but hit me at that perfect moment in life and have stuck with me from the start. Although I love the band as a whole, it’s vocalist Ben Nichols that really sells it for me. His perfectly raspy, gritty voice gets me every time and, when matched with the brilliant lyricism he brings to songs, well, I melt every time I hear it. Ben was the opening act on Tuesday night and, although granted, just thirty minutes on stage before the headliner took over, those thirty minutes were complete bliss.
I love Ben’s solo stuff but, really, it’s the Lucero classics that get me all lost in my own feelings. I got the best of both worlds as Ben started and ended his set with those tried-and-true classics while filling the middle with some of his solo material. Truthfully, he could have gotten up there and sang nothing but Celine Dion covers, and I would have been happy, so yeah, you could say I’m a little biased, but truly, it was a stunning set. Ben didn’t seem to want to control the audience in any way, shape, or form; it just happened that way, and although there was definitely a small roar of conversations happening towards the back of the venue, I don’t think there was a soul in the room that was able to completely ignore the charm and talent that was radiating from the stage.
I have this running “joke” of sorts where, although I have had ample opportunity to meet Ben and chat with him, I’ve never done it. You know that whole “never meet your idols” mentality? I have it bad. I know, I know, Ben’s a great guy. I know plenty of people who are friendly with him, and I’ve never heard a bad thing about him, but I’ve always put him on this unattainable pedestal for some reason. Even when I’m standing next to him at a bar before or after one of his sets, I’m notorious for ordering my drink and then b-lining it to the opposite side of the venue for fear he’ll turn to me and say hi. I couldn’t get out of it on Tuesday night. I was in the right spot at the right time and surrounded by people who have spent some time with Ben. A sweet, sweet friend of mine introduced me to Ben, and I had no choice but to shake his hand. It wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be, and after just a few minutes of conversation, I knew everything I had heard about this man was true. He was sweet, charming, down-to-earth, and just normal. Although I was dying a little bit on the inside, I finally ripped that band-aid off, and it wasn’t too bad. Maybe next time Ben is in town, I’ll muster the confidence to buy him a drink and tell him who I actually am (in hopes that this blog has caught his eye one of the many times I’ve written about him and Lucero).
Although I was definitely at this show because of Ben Nichols being the opening act, I was super excited to see Brian Fallon & The Painkillers headline the night. Sure, I just saw them the other day at Riot Fest, but when I’m in Riot Fest mode, I never stay at one stage for long, so I really only got to see a few seconds of their set out there. I was ready to take in the full thing. To get lost in the energized calm that is this group and to swim in the oceans of emotions that Brian Fallon creates with every song he writes.
A singer-songwriter best known as the vocalist of the Gaslight Anthem and a member of the duo The Horrible Crowes, Brian Fallon is absolutely a legend in certain circles. New Jersey through and through, Brian has a sound that is very much a no-frills kind of rock n’ roll vibe, but with this more acoustic sensibility that makes every single song he has out there feel like a deep dive into the mind of a tortured soul. Okay, it’s not always the mind of a tortured soul. Some of his songs are straight-up fun, but with the emotion he packs into every word, there’s no way to listen to him and not get lost in it all.
Tuesday night’s show was in support of Brian Fallon’s new album, ‘Not Bad for New Jersey.’ I’ll be honest: I haven’t spent much time with Brian’s solo albums, even though this was number five for him. I am definitely more of a Gaslight Anthem fan and would know those songs a mile away, so I can’t tell you every song Brian and his band played on Tuesday night, but I can tell you that I loved each one as if it was a song that I had been listening to my whole life. I definitely recognized a couple of The Horrible Crowes songs that instantly took me back, and I adored it when he brought Ben back on stage to do a cover of Lucero’s “Old Sad Songs,” but this was the kind of show where I didn’t care what song was played. Sure, I would have loved to hear a Gaslight Anthem song (which, if I recall correctly, didn’t happen), but this was one of those shows where I was just happy to be where I was. The music of the night was singing softly to my restless soul and giving me a sense of calm even though it felt like, upon coming back from Riot Fest, everything was a mess, and everything was insane.
Who has time for breaks? I know it’s just a matter of time before my body makes me take a break after Riot Fest, and I will surely be sick in no time, but until then I plan on taking in all of the live music I possibly can because, at the end of the day, life is too short to skip the show.
