New Jersey boys the Gaslight Anthem look and sound like the product of a lot of heavy labour. Having grafted away for years in the garden state without much success, they broke through in early 2009 with their superb second album The ’59 Sound. A summer of big gigs and festivals followed, which include a stint supporting New Jersey hero Bruce Springsteen. After some time away, they have reappeared with a new album, American Slang, and embarked on a sold-out UK tour.

Musically, the band are like a finely crafted piece of metalwork: each song is expertly welded, clearly a combination of much toil and unpleasant sacrifices. In this way, the band are much like Mr Springsteen, for their sound is pure blue collar. Onstage, they also resemble the men who are the real versions of that last metaphor in factories across America. Brawny in their builds with hair cropped short and skin covered in tattoos, they look hard and they play even harder, for a full two hours at the O2 Academy, breaking the venue’s curfew in the process.

Not that anyone has the courage or the inclination to move the band on though, as they produce a brilliant set. Muscular and knuckle tight, they have all the songs a great rock ’n’roll band should have. They’ve got thrashy anthems like The ’59 Sound and High Lonesome, slow-burning serenades with epic choruses such as Even Cowgirls Get The Blues and We Did It When We Were Young and fist- pumping smashes like American Slang and Boxer. Each song tells a story, some of regret in the friends and lovers they’ve lost, others of defiant support for a way of life they love. A few just recount hazy memories. Finely drilled, taut and on top form, the Gaslight Anthem are a band no-one will stop getting to the very top.