LIVE REVIEW: Gallows, Sailor Jerry’s Hotel Street, 22/06/12

Tonight Gallows plan on getting up close and personal with 120 friends and fans in a one-off, intimate show at Sailor Jerry’s Hotel Street.

As the familiar faces fill into the tiny downstairs bar, which is charmingly plastered with Sailor Jerry memorabilia from wall to wall, Woking’s Palm Reader are on hand to kick off the evening’s hardcore proceedings. Pummeling into the floor, the five-piece are fast and furious, setting the night’s relentless pace. Frontman Josh Mckeown works the steel barrier like a pro, before his axe-wielding wingmen end the set in the pit. It’s an impressive show from the quintet with concise and rhythmic ferocity that echoes tonight’s headliners. With the circle pit pre-assembled, Gallows take to the stage and promptly power into ‘Misery’ and ‘London is the Reason’.

Wearing masks of the royal family’s faces, Lags emerges as an almost convincing Prince Harry while it looks like Kate Middleton is shredding Stu’s bass. It’s pretty weird, but definitely British. Tonight’s privileged crowd are expecting to hear new material from the band’s as-yet-untitled third studio album, but not before the Watford-based punks up the mayhem with a string of belters including ‘Leeches’, ‘Death Voices’ and ‘Abandon Ship’.

With frontman Wade MacNeil knee-deep within the crowd, newer tracks ‘True Colours’ and ‘Death is Birth’ slip seamlessly into the set, before the band debut a brand new song ‘Last June’ – it’s got chanting, it’s got riffs and it’s a sure sign of a triumphant new record. True to form, ‘In the Belly of a Shark’ and ‘Orchestra of Wolves’ wrap up what is undoubtedly another epic Gallows show.