2007/01/22 - Gallows @ The Little Civic, Wolverhampton
So last night I went to see Gallows at the Little Civic in Wolverhampton.
The Little Civic is a fairly small venue, something like a pub with a small stage upstairs, according to the website the official capacity is 140 people but on this occasion the place was only about half full. The two support bands were nice enough but not particularly memorable. Gallows took to the stage just before 10pm, the crowd still mostly quite apathetic with just one row of us at the front by the stage. After singer Frank's request for more people to come forward fell on deaf ears he took matters into his own hands - grabbing the microphone stand and leaping over the barrier and into the middle of room, where he stayed for pretty much the entire duration of their set. Of course this meant that the other band members were virtually ignored for a lot of the set, but I get the impression the band are used to Frank being the centre of attention.
The gig was punk in it's truest sense - chaotic, raw and at times on the verge of collapse. They fought through the adversity of the situation and pulled off a really good show. At some point trouble kicked off, there were this one rather surly couple near to the front and I didn't see exactly what happened but I think maybe someone bumped into the guy, in any case, Frank stopped to ask him if he was alright, the guy totally ignored him, didn't even turn around, a minute later this guy started swinging at people, not like moshing or anything, I mean like attacking people, so two big security guys jumped on him and forcibly ejected him from the venue. While they were gone, the girl went off on one too, started trying to hit this one kid and screaming at him, he looking rather dazed was like what the hell?! trying to just fend her off, obviously not wanting to hit a girl. The security guys came back and dragged her out too much to everyone's delight.
That little bit of excitement over the show continued, singer Frank running around in the crowd jumping around and head banging like a madman while belting out the lyrics, some of the rest of the crowd finally beginning to respond. At one point the two guitarists also came over the barrier but couldn't get that far out into the crowd because the leads wouldn’t reach XD. They played about half of their debut album Orchestra Of Wolves, finishing off with a crushing rendition of the soon to be classic 'In The Belly Of A Shark' and my personal favourite 'Orchestra Of Wolves' - one of the crudest and downright furious love songs you will ever hear. They also aired a new song which I don't remember the name of but it sounded really good so that’s a good omen for the future.
They all gave it 110%, the singer probably more like 120 XD. By the end of the gig he was shirtless, sweating profusely and hardly able to stay upright, just from sheer exhaustion. The fans stepped in to prop him up and sing along to virtually every word. It's rare in this day and age for a band to have such a connection with their audience, no rock star arrogance here, just a rock solid work ethic and an obvious dedication to their fans and to making the music they love.
Punk as fuck. I loved it.
Also, as usual, unable to resist the lure of the merch table, I bought two t-shirts though they were pretty reasonably priced compared to most band shirts. They were giving away free In At The Deep End Records samplers with each purchase so that was a nice bonus too.
The Little Civic is a fairly small venue, something like a pub with a small stage upstairs, according to the website the official capacity is 140 people but on this occasion the place was only about half full. The two support bands were nice enough but not particularly memorable. Gallows took to the stage just before 10pm, the crowd still mostly quite apathetic with just one row of us at the front by the stage. After singer Frank's request for more people to come forward fell on deaf ears he took matters into his own hands - grabbing the microphone stand and leaping over the barrier and into the middle of room, where he stayed for pretty much the entire duration of their set. Of course this meant that the other band members were virtually ignored for a lot of the set, but I get the impression the band are used to Frank being the centre of attention.
The gig was punk in it's truest sense - chaotic, raw and at times on the verge of collapse. They fought through the adversity of the situation and pulled off a really good show. At some point trouble kicked off, there were this one rather surly couple near to the front and I didn't see exactly what happened but I think maybe someone bumped into the guy, in any case, Frank stopped to ask him if he was alright, the guy totally ignored him, didn't even turn around, a minute later this guy started swinging at people, not like moshing or anything, I mean like attacking people, so two big security guys jumped on him and forcibly ejected him from the venue. While they were gone, the girl went off on one too, started trying to hit this one kid and screaming at him, he looking rather dazed was like what the hell?! trying to just fend her off, obviously not wanting to hit a girl. The security guys came back and dragged her out too much to everyone's delight.
That little bit of excitement over the show continued, singer Frank running around in the crowd jumping around and head banging like a madman while belting out the lyrics, some of the rest of the crowd finally beginning to respond. At one point the two guitarists also came over the barrier but couldn't get that far out into the crowd because the leads wouldn’t reach XD. They played about half of their debut album Orchestra Of Wolves, finishing off with a crushing rendition of the soon to be classic 'In The Belly Of A Shark' and my personal favourite 'Orchestra Of Wolves' - one of the crudest and downright furious love songs you will ever hear. They also aired a new song which I don't remember the name of but it sounded really good so that’s a good omen for the future.
They all gave it 110%, the singer probably more like 120 XD. By the end of the gig he was shirtless, sweating profusely and hardly able to stay upright, just from sheer exhaustion. The fans stepped in to prop him up and sing along to virtually every word. It's rare in this day and age for a band to have such a connection with their audience, no rock star arrogance here, just a rock solid work ethic and an obvious dedication to their fans and to making the music they love.
Punk as fuck. I loved it.
Also, as usual, unable to resist the lure of the merch table, I bought two t-shirts though they were pretty reasonably priced compared to most band shirts. They were giving away free In At The Deep End Records samplers with each purchase so that was a nice bonus too.