Although many of the young audience probably doesn’t remember Poison the Well, they are still received well, playing a ‘best of’ set, containing tracks from all five albums in their back catalogue. Older songs ‘Nerdy’ and ‘Slice Paper Wrists’, show they’ve passed the test of time, by clearly still being the bands most powerful songs, standing out from the more forced sound from latest offering ‘Versions’. Ending on a safe choice, with the anthem,‘Botchla’, the band get their loudest response all night, the haunting intro still works beautifully, calming the crowd down, giving them a minute to catch their breath, before bursting into the heavy, loud, dual guitar chorus that old fans still remember every word of. They’ve still got something in them, that much is visible. They’re not on the form they’ve been remembered for all this time though. Perhaps more touring is needed to tune out the squeaks. Unfortunately for Poison the Well, it seems they took their break during a critical time in hardcore music. From leading the charge of American hardcore bands in 2003, they pulled back just as they were leading the pack. The genre’s gone on to become hugely popular, as the Gallows crowd have proven, and they’ve missed the key time, inevitably meaning they have to support bands they’re far ahead of musically.
The world is your playground. Literally speaking for Gallows front man Frank Carter, who makes good use of the scaffolding supporting the lighting, by using it as a climbing frame and thus spending as little time as possible on the traditional setting of the stage.
At every Gallows show you can be sure of some excitement, and we get ours immediately during the first song when a barrage of plastic bottles get hurled from the crowd after being told to by Carter. It’s quite a spectacle, which the band takes in their stride, barely acknowledging what’s happening, whilst running frantically around each other. On ‘In a Belly of a Shark’ Carter announces he’s, ‘not too celebrity to hang with the kids’. Lucky for him then that the Gallows roadies had catered for such an occasion and packed long microphone leads into their equipment cases. Carter, of course, makes full use of it, and jumps feet first over the barrier into the sweaty pit of ecstatic fans. This is the band’s biggest headline gig to date, and in a venue where The Smiths, The Stone Roses and Blur have all played, to name a few, you really don’t expect this level of interaction.
Hardcore and rap collide during ‘Staring at the Rude Boys’, which sees the other of the night’s supporting acts, successful UK rapper, Lethal Bizzle return to the stage. It can only be compared to the Run DMC/Aerosmith collaboration on ‘Walk This Way’, with another unlikely partnership of rap and rock. It’s actually a well worked cover of The Ruts 1980 single given a unique urban, angst twist. There’s also a Black Flag cover in the hour long set to reward the audience’s older fans. Gallows tackle ‘Nervous Breakdown’, the English accent reworks the song well and you’d be forgiven for presuming it was their own. Relatives join the band on stage during ‘Orchestra of Wolves’, and after some persuading from Carter and the crowd, drummer Lee Barrett’s own father, who sticks out like a sore thumb, dressed head to toe in tweed, even gets caught up in the excitement and stage dives from the front monitors.
Although the band’s music is not as tight as it could be, it’s the way hardcore punk should be played, raw and rough, fast and fierce, with more energy than a Duracell bunny. From calling his mum live at download festival to getting tattooed between songs on stage at Reading, Gallows front man Frank Carter always seems to have something up his sleeve to ensure you leave with a grin on your face. Although the stage is Gallows’ playground, their performance, professionalism and ability are anything but childlike.
Further Listening:
www.myspace.com/gallows
'Orchestra of Wolves' out now on Black Envelope Records (2006).
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