Gallows live!

Gallows
Metro, Chicago
Sunday, February 3, 2008

The Super Bowl and a snowstorm proved a lethal combo for Gallows, as the U.K. punks played to a nearly empty house Sunday night.

Following a surprise hits set from Chicago’s Rise Against — dubbed “86 Bears” on the marquee — Gallows frontman Frank Carter confined his disappointment to ‘tween-song stage banter and was his normal, scalded-throat self when it came time to play. Big stars in their native England (Carter’s sneer and tattoos are fixtures in NME), modest protest arrived solely in a yell of “Fuck the Super Bowl” and a hocker to the stage floor.

Visually, Gallows were the kind of brawl/dust-up you saw in cartoons: all arms, necks, tattoos, flailing guitars, and bursts of Carter’s closely cropped amber noggin. “Kill The Rhythm” was a party anthem with an M-80 up its ass, Carter attempting to scream the dust out of his cowering microphone (it eventually gave out) while brother Steph and Laurent Barnard tried corkscrewing through the stage floor.

Drummer Lee Barratt’s ridiculously oversized drum kit couldn’t keep him from laying an irritated beat under a cover of The Ruts’ “Staring At The Rude Bois,” yet it was controlled enough to keep from bouncing off the empty corners of the room. In a flash the 50-minute set was over and Gallows gushed their thanks to those who came out. It was a night they’ll probably never let their booking agent forget.

— Steve Forstneger

Category: Live Reviews, Weekly