Don’t Miss Brian Fallon & The Painkillers 9/22 at Varsity
Brian Fallon & The Painkillers will be stopping by The Varsity Theater in Minneapolis on Tuesday, September 22nd.
The tour that this show is a part of is in celebration of Brian Fallon’s eagerly awaited first original solo LP in more than five years, Not Bad For New Jersey (Lesser Known Records). Backed by his solo band, The Painkillers, the acclaimed singer, songwriter, and frontman of The Gaslight Anthem will rock North America, Europe, and the United Kingdom with his Not Bad For New Jersey tour, with dates beginning September 10 at Brooklyn, NY’s Music Hall of Williamsburg and then traveling through mid-November.
Produced by longtime collaborator Butch Walker (Green Day, Jesse Malin, Taylor Swift) at Walker’s studio just outside Nashville, Not Bad For New Jersey sees Fallon summoning up a frenetic collision of power pop and heartland rock, the perfect sonic counterpart to the hot-blooded sincerity that has driven his songwriting for close to three decades. The veteran rocker is joined by a number of very special guests, including The Killers’ Brandon Flowers, Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen, avant-garde guitar legend Marc Ribot (Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Marianne Faithfull), and GRAMMY® Award-winning country luminary Lori McKenna. Tracked mostly live in a series of freewheeling sessions with Walker (who handled bass, piano, backing vocals, and more) and drummer Eric Slick (Dr. Dog, Robyn Hitchcock, Adrian Belew), songs like the quietly hypnotic “Love at the End of the World (feat. Brandon Flowers)” and the blistering punk of “Nobody Likes You in New York City” (a strangely tender serenade to Dee Dee Ramone, penned from the point of view of his ex-wife Vera Boldis) are fueled by the same rapturous abandon that has long animated Fallon’s songcraft, indelibly shaped by an underdog’s perspective and a lifelong devotion to following true feeling wherever it leads, even when the outcome is uncertain.
“From the beginning I knew I had to fully lean into the passion and lunacy of all these songs I felt inspired by – there wasn’t much room for subtlety,” says Fallon, citing Bryan Adams’ “Run to You” and The Police’s “Every Breath You Take” as key touchstones. “There was so much childlike joy in writing and recording all these songs. The whole album came together so naturally, with a level of creative fulfillment I hadn’t experienced in a very long time.”
The always incredible Ben Nichols of Lucero will be opening up this show. Trust me when I say that this is an opener you can’t miss so get there early!
Tickets are still available HERE!
