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Epitaph Records -- Millencolin

So, one of the UK's most (over)hyped bands in living memory finally finish their six-month attempted gatecrash of the U.S. hardcore/punk scene and return home, bringing California's Set Your Goals and Canada's Fucked Up with them to launch their biggest UK tour to date.

SSS, a Liverpool-based straight-up hardcore punk band (that's where the Beatles came from, for those not too hot on UK geography) actually opened the night, but were really quite bad, so I shall ignore them.

Fucked Up came on, and hit the stage with me in high hopes. Their eighteen (approximately) stone frontman is well known for his crazy live antics, and indeed, the band roared up and little more than three or four seconds in, he launched his incredibly large frame towards the front row. Later in the set, he would strip to his boxers, pull off a breathtaking crowdsurf (for only five or so seconds, but the largest man I've ever seen held up by a bunch of teenagers) and smash a number of beer cans on his bald head until they exploded. Stunts and tricks perhaps, but massively entertaining. The band were relatively tight and interesting too, and me and my friend picked up their EP on the way out at the end of the night, where most of the tracks weigh in at a staggerinig six and seven minutes long.

Next, Set Your Goals came to the stage. Now, I will admit to not being much of a fan of their album Mutiny! and their appearance proved somewhat controversial. Half the kids lapped it up, throwing themselves left, right and centre in approvement, whilst the other half stood unflinchingly still, occasionally shooting dissaproving looks. At one point, a chorus of boos from the unhappy half caused the band to criticise the crowd's reaction, which frankly did not help endear them. Music-wise, they were adequate, but did not light up the stage. The dual vocalist approach is a hard one to pull off and they didn't do very well; in fact, Matt Wilson's harmony vocals quickly became weak and annoying, whilst his stage presence was also pretty poor. I can't help but feel this band does not need two vocalists and Jordan Brown is by far the more talented of the two. Furthermore, their set suffered from effectively being Mutiny! played with the best tracks at the start and the end, making a feeble fifteen minutes in the middle, where even the hardcore fans of the band quieted down. Set Your Goals aren't a bad band, but could be much much better.

Then came Frank Carter and Gallows, who launched straight into their set at full speed. Before long, Carter was climbing the balcony all the way around the arena (closed off for this gig) and even dangling from it upside down, like some kind of ginger monkey, a good 15 ft. from the swarms of people below. "Abandon Ship" almost brought the house down, preceding a huge circle pit for a Black Flag cover and Carter's continuously immature yet brilliant banter with the crowd. Highlights included him getting very angry upon someone in the crowd producing a glowstick ("This is not a ******* Enter Shikari concert; rave died in 1990 for a good reason"), responding to crowd insults ("Who the **** just called me ginger? If you're gonna insult me, at least point out the fact I've got a small ****") and him revealing the night before in Norwich that he jumped in the crowd and had his shoes nicked and therefore would be taking them off tonight as he was on his last pair. As soon as he launched himself into the crowd, the front row immediatly attempted to steal his socks.

Gallows were tight, energetic, and massively entertaining. Obviously with just one album behind them, the set list was very predictable, but with such a strong record, it avoided the sort of slump suffered by Set Your Goals. Whilst the band are not deserving of the hype spelling them out as the best / only punk/hardcore band out there, I will tell you this: They are certainly fantastic live. All in all, it was a brilliantly entertaining night of punk music and a lovely reminder for me, that for now, all is fine in punkland.



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    Posted by imprettystoked on 2008-02-25 01:39:55
    My Score:

    I saw Gallows with This Is Hell, Cancer Bats, and Vultures United in San Francisco. This show was incredible, though the security in the venue has a huge problem with hardcore bands and was outrageous.

    the show was awesome until i was jumping around dancing and singing to gallows..i slipped on a spilled beer and proceeded to crack my knee cap...so here i am wasting time typing bullshit on the internet since i am not able to bend my leg.
    ohwell it was a very fun night, especially since gallows singer had hurt his back the night before in LA falling off rafters and was not nearly as entertaining as this revue says.

    Posted by chrisafi on 2008-02-24 13:51:26

    sweetsugarpezz - the fact it says in the first paragraph - "Biggest UK tour to date" means thats your blindness making you think this was in Birmingham Alabama

    Posted by HumanUnkind on 2008-02-24 13:43:48
    My Score:

    I was at the Gallows show last night, SYG were awesome and then SYG played a second set in the barfly afterwards, which was EVEN better since they played ALL their songs!

    Posted by damo on 2008-02-24 09:47:02

    chrisafi - never apologise for coming from here, even in jest!

    Posted by sweetsugarpezz on 2008-02-23 22:38:32
    My Score:

    and this score is for the lack of an edit button.

    Posted by sweetsugarpezz on 2008-02-23 22:37:59
    My Score:

    it took me to read the whole review before i realized this was in the UK not Alabama. score's for that.

    Posted by givemeamuseumandillfillit on 2008-02-23 07:28:56

    Last time i saw them there were also a bunch of glowsticks up, to which he repsonded the exact same thing which caused someone to promptly yell "AND HARDCORE DIED IN 1986 FOR AN EVER BIGGER REASON SO STOP MILKING IT" which was met by chuckles by the whole venue. BURN!

    Sometimes his persona works great, but a lot of times he just comes off as a spoiled brat, and his band is not called The Yuppie Pricks.

    Posted by KurtTGS on 2008-02-23 02:50:01

    The next thing you know, someone's going to say "programme" instead of "program"! xBBCx!

    Posted by feeeding5000 on 2008-02-23 01:38:03

    Look! He spelled "apologise" with an "s" instead of a "z"! Ha!

    Posted by HumanUnkind on 2008-02-22 21:40:49

    I'm going to the Glasgow gig tonight. So looking forward to SYG. Gallows are really ace live too, and I've heard good stuff about Fucked Up. Looks like an ace gig.

    Posted by Capnhawk on 2008-02-22 20:48:52

    I saw SYG live twice last month and they fucking ruled.

    Matt's vocals are pretty weak, they always have been (especially on the reset ep). Jordan is amazing live and on recording.

    My only gripe with seeing them live was that they played an Op Ivy cover instead of a Jawbreaker one.

    Posted by chrisafi on 2008-02-22 20:13:17
    My Score:

    I also apologise for my Britishness should it offend anyone

    Posted by chrisafi on 2008-02-22 20:08:14
    My Score:

    If SSS aren't a straight-up hardcore band, then they didn't prove to the otherwise live. I actually liked the band and the lead singer, but the crowd was thin at 6:30pm on a Saturday night and didn't fill up till later and they definately didn't put their hearts into it.

    Frank Carter is a deliberate shithead, not an actual one, its important to distinguish the difference. It's a persona, you shouldn't judge him on his behaviour at shows/interviews. Although, if you don't like personas then feel free to hate.

    Posted by feeeding5000 on 2008-02-22 17:00:48

    This review is one of my favorites of all time, simply because of the Britishisms used. "Whilst," "ginger," etc. Tee hee!

    Posted by tenwestchaser on 2008-02-22 16:43:29

    So, I'm not going to "shit talk gallows just to shit talk them" but I will admit that I was very dissapointed with their cd. Hearing all the hype I picked it up and was sorely dissapointed. Maybe it will grow on me but the whole thing just seems bland.

    Posted by Spalmer on 2008-02-22 15:09:19

    I had no opinion about Gallows when I saw them with BR in Minneapolis, and wanted to like them, but their singer was such a fucking enormous douche. Seriously the biggest baby ever.

    Posted by theyounginfluential on 2008-02-22 11:28:43

    fucked up>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>gallows>set your goals

    Posted by insinceredave on 2008-02-22 07:48:57
    My Score:

    I was at this show and Set Your Goals got so much shit off the crowd, from start to finish they were bottled and booed.

    They weren't helped by the sound either, I could'nt hear the skinny singer what so ever.

    Posted by nathanisacynic on 2008-02-22 06:53:11

    SSS are not a 'straight-up hardcore punk band' by any stretch of the imagination.
    They are also really quite good.

    Fucked Up > SSS > Set Your Goals > Gallows

    Posted by F_Ward on 2008-02-22 03:25:19

    Set Your Goals > Gallows. With that said, people need to stop shit talking Gallows just to shit talk.

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