I haven't seen Gallows since Frank Carter's departure from the band as for me he was the reason that Gallows were one of the most essential live bands this side of the millennium as he was possibly the best front man of his generation fronting a band capable of blowing just about anyone off the stage and the fact the first time I saw them opening for MC5/DTK they pretty much did that was reason enough for me to see them a whole lot more.
After Frank and then his brother Stephen's departure I couldn't see much point in going to see them, but having been asked to review this show that is part of the promotion for the bands second post Frank album Desolation Sounds I thought it might be time to see if Frank's replacement Wade MacNeil ex of Alexisonfire was up to the job or not.
On getting to the Garage we had about 10 minutes of fun and games getting into this sold out show as although my name hadn't made it to the guest list as it should have I had enough information for them to let us in. While all this was going on we could hear Baby Godzilla tearing up the place, once inside a large part of the audience were clinging to the sides to keep out of the massive pit they had going on.
In between my ordering our drinks and the barman serving them I suddenly had Baby Godzilla's guitarist plant himself right in front of me on the bar! As he waited for the song to be counted off he was striking poses and hitting some power chords then the mayhem let loose again as he ran along the bar and then jumped back into the crowd and through the garage back to the stage as this incredible kinetic and messy hardcore noise assaulted us wow they had grabbed us and the rest of the garage by the balls and were not about to let go.
We moved closer and could see the rest of the band climbing the amps as they played stage diving and generally going for it as the bass player screamed some yo ho ho's into his microphone while the other guitarist/singer just went mental and well the crowd did too.
They closed with a song about Everybody Knows you during which the guitarist ran past us to climb onto the mixing desk for a solo played while he had one knee propped up on the sound man's back and the drummer grabbed one of his drums and moved to the front of the stage it was total chaotic mayhem and brilliant.
I really wish we'd seen all of Baby Godzilla's set as they had laid down the gauntlet for Gallows in the sort of style that Gallows used to lay down the gauntlet for any band they supported, the big question was how Gallows would respond to that kind of incendiary performance.
We soon found out of course as they came on to a good welcome and opened with Mystic Death and it was immediately apparent that Wade MacNeil was no Frank Carter he has the proper Hard core voice and tattoo's on his face but he lacked the essential combination of madness and charisma Frank exuded and as a four piece Gallows lacked a little of the added dynamic provided by Stephen's guitar.
Still they are still a damn tight hardcore band and Everybody Loves You (When You're Dead) got the pit going nicely. Last June and Mondo Chaos flew by in an urgent rush as Wade tried to stamp his authority on matters but without taunting us or climbing the walls and going nuts like Frank always did.
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Leviathan Rot from the latest album sounded good and abrasive and had some good lyrics that keep some of the bands older themes of oppression going nicely. 93/93 with its shouts of Love is the Law got plenty of the audience singing along to it even if the place still felt a little bit flat for a Gallows show.
Laurent's Guitar really let rip on Outsider Art as Wade tried to really get the pit going but to be honest by this point it was only about two thirds as big as the pit for Baby Godzilla.
They went back to the Frank era for a good go at Misery but this only showed up how Wade is at best a pale imitation of Frank's voice and of course he lacked the antics and attitude of a first class wee gobshite no matter how much everyone sang along to it.
Bonfire Season seems out of place in May rather than November but was certainly the best of the new songs they played it came close to the bands earlier magic and had a real force to it. Austere is certainly a good song for our times and as much as Wade was mixing it with the front rows his performance seemed austere in comparison to Baby Godzilla's earlier in the evening.
Chains was the cue for them to bring out a woman to sing with Wade I didn't catch her name but for a quieter number it worked ok but was sort of obliterated by a decent go at Belly Of A Shark one of the bands live classics that had the biggest pit of Gallows set.
Wade then sort of admitted that Baby Godzilla had played a mind blower before they did Cross Of Lorraine it was ok and saw his best attempt at a stage dive before they closed with a good go at the classic Orchestra Of Wolves oh how I missed Frank on this one and as Laurent launched himself into the audience towards the end it almost felt like the old days only then as the band left the stage with the amps still screaming no one would have rushed for the exit as about a third of the audience did before they came back for a super brief encore of True Colours that Wade told us would be 45 seconds of mayhem and I'm not certain it was even that long and they were done.
We left feeling a little deflated as although this was a pretty good hard core show Gallows seemed like a far lesser band than they used to be. If you never saw them with Frank and Stephen Carter then you'll probably still think they are great but whatever you do don't miss a chance to see Baby Godzilla as they are monstrously good.
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