Back to Basics: Rock and Roll 101 with Brian Fallon

Brian Fallon, the leader of beloved rockers the Gaslight Anthem, jokes that the solo tour that brings him to Wilmington's World Cafe Live at the Queen on Sunday is "a punishment thing." He'll front a six-piece band, the Crowes, that includes guitarist Ian Perkins, Fallon's partner in the side project the Horrible Crowes, and Gaslight guitarist Alex Rosamilia. They'll debut songs from Painkillers, Fallon's first solo album, due in March.

"The worst nightmare of every musician is to play new songs live, because people can't sing along, and they just stand there staring at you. So, we just figured, why not do a whole tour of that? It's awkward for everyone," Fallon said with a laugh from his home in New Jersey, "so let's just do it."

The curious and the faithful will be there: The show was nearly sold out earlier this week. But Fallon will be back in the area in March at Philadelphia's much larger Electric Factory.

The Gaslight Anthem moved away from their scrappy, punk-rock roots on their last album, 2014's grungy Get Hurt, and after the tour ended in the summer, the members decided to go on an amicable hiatus. Fallon wasn't sure what he wanted to do next.

"I was really confused about what my position in the world was," he said. So he looked to the past for guidance, appropriate for a guy whose songs romanticize old records, old movies, and old loves. "I went completely back to the beginning of how I learned how to write songs. I listened to the records I started with, and I really looked at those songwriters and said, 'What do they do and what do I do, and why did I get into this in the beginning?' "

He took inspiration from Full Moon Fever, the 1989 solo album Tom Petty did in the middle of his career as a break from the Heartbreakers, and from Bruce Springsteen, who also had a penchant for debuting songs live.

"When I was 18 or 19, there was a book I got that Springsteen put out called Lyrics, and it had stories between the lyrics. I remember that in one of them, he said, 'I always do the who, what, where, when, and why.' That's like the basics of high school English: You always learn who, what, where, when, why. You have to establish that immediately," Fallon said. "That was a great tip."

Painkillers is a return to the rock-and-roll storytelling of early Gaslight albums such as 2008's breakthrough The '59 Sound. He recorded it in Nashville with producer Butch Walker, and there's a bit of country twang to songs such as "Long Drive," with its pedal steel and banjo.

Springsteen's The River is also a touchstone. Even on a first listen, Painkillers songs like "Red Light" and "A Wonderful Life" can draw you in with their vivid storytelling and catchy choruses.

"The songs are kind of instantly recognizable when you hear them," Fallon said. "There's not a lot of experimentation going in. This is kind of rock-and-roll 101. The good part about that is that when you go to the show, and if you're familiar with anything that I've done in the past or any of these people I'm talking about, these influences, you'll know what's going on."

Brian Fallon & the Crowes, with Cory Branan, performs Sunday at 8 p.m. at World Cafe Live at the Queen, 500 N. Market St, Wilmington. $22.50. 302-994-1400, queen.worldcafelive.com.