Send The Kidz To The Gallows

The exciting sequel to SPF 666!

Warped Tour
Shoreline Amphitheare, Mountain View, CA
August 20, 2009



For the 4th time this year I found myself in a parking lot watching bands, but thankfully this time it wasn't under blast furnace Summertime heat conditions. As it has in recent years, the Warped Tour visited The Bay Area twice: In June it blazed inside S.F. city limits and here in its final days it returned to the gravelly confines of Shoreline. There were a whopping 82 (eighty-two!) bands spread across 8 stages and 9 hours on the bill today.. Yes, it's Warped Tour, but that's ridiculous, man! Not to slam my friends at Vans (Hey Kurt!) but there's truth to the saying "Quality over Quantity".. I'm just saying... but more on that in a bit.

Fishbone: I hadn't seen Fishbone since 1993... and they seemed ageless onstage here in the 21st Century. I've never really liked anything Ska related, but watching Fishbone on a gorgeous Summer afternoon was the shit... especially as Angelo dove into the crowd several times.

D.O.A.: Joey Shithead & Co. were great, but when they started playing there weren't many people watching them.. which bummed me out. However, after a couple of songs the area filled up nicely to the point where security took notice and brought in reinforcements... and as the band launched into 'Police Brutality' a pair of ginormous security guys sandwiched me against the soundboard rail... "Police, police, police brutality.. that's reality!"

However, the best part of D.O.A.'s set were 2 older bald punkers who gave off a total old school hooligan vibe.. One of the dudes was wearing a Manchester soccer jersey and the other a white tee with a vintage pic of a young punk flipping off the camera. For awhile, the oldsters watched The Kidz try to get a pit going... Then, as if on cue, the shorter of the pair (the one in the Manchester jersey) suddenly launched himself into The Pit and commenced slamming old school style and mowed through the kids, sending a couple of them flying.. It was actually pretty funny and reminded me of that Seinfeld episode where Kramer takes karate lessons with children and beats the shit out of them.

Meanwhile, his buddy expertly directed The Pit old school style and pushed the passing slam dancing kids to keep them moving... Watching the pair of oldsters take command like that only magnified the feeling I had all day that kids today don't even know.. Then, as suddenly as it began, Manchester Jersey returned to standing next to his buddy as if nothing had happened. As he did this, his buddy took out his Blackberry to check a message... Meanwhile, The Kidz in The Pit were still recovering from their old school slamming and seemed to be saying "Gee, Mister.. why'd you have to be so rough?" The oldsters repeated this a couple of more times, and by the last time one of The Kidz had given up and stood at the rim of The Pit flipping his elders off. Hilarious.

The Adicts: They hit the stage in full Adicts regalia and if it had been any other band it might have looked silly, but the band's songs and presence made it great! The Adicts also had the most youngsters sporting Liberty Spikes watching their set, which included some of the best songs of the day. After they left the stage, the line at their merch tent was massive. "I don't wanna die for England!"

UK Subs: During their set Photo Ray and I were standing at the edge of The Pit and a little Punker Kid slam danced past us and shoved Ray.. His "aggression" was so cute that Ray and I looked at each other and laughed. As with the other Old School bands, UK Subs may have looked older onstage but they sounded great. Their songs served as a massive reality check about how a good song is timeless and how attitude can make age irrelevant. However, the most entertaining part of UK Subs' set was watching the crap new band on the stage next to them (The Architects) waiting for the old Punks to finish their allotted set, which ran over by several minutes. The look of impatience on their young faces was priceless. As the UK Subs finished and they started playing, I flipped the young band off with both hands before heading off to wander the merchandise tents. Respect has to be earned, kidz.

Unlike past Warped Tours, where the Old School Stage has left me feeling sad because the bands performed like old men, all of the "old" bands who I watched this year were GREAT! Also, the dichotomy of the Old School bands having good SONGS versus the awful crap of the new bands was stunning. When I wandered past The Main Stage, The Kidz broke my heart with the crap bands they were worshiping. I tried to watch All Time Low and was completely stunned by how awful they were (Jonas Bros. style Pop songs marketed as "Punk") and the screaming adulation they received from the huge crowd of mostly little girls was soul sucking.

The massive crowd of young sheep watching All Time Low..

Then, while Photo Ray and I took a break for a cold beer next to one of the concourse stages, we witnessed Medina Lake take the stage in front of maybe 80 kids and the singer spent several minutes giving directions to the crowd BEFORE they started to play and then said "Let's have a Punk Rock show!" which cued one of the most godawful crap songs I heard all day. I literally slapped my forehead with the palm of my hand and said "What... The... Fuck...".

Thank Dog for Gallows!!

Gallows: If you follow Gallows you know that the band has been very outspoken in their public disdain for most of the bands on this year's Warped Tour. It's beyond refreshing to hear a band being outspoken and stating their opinion, even if they are biting the hand that feeds them. As they took the stage the look of road weary bile on Frank's face was searing; he wore his anger and fatigue on his sleeve... so when the band detonated into the first song it was first authentic outburst of Punk outrage I saw all fucking day. When Frank spit out the the line "We hate you!! We hate this city!" during 'London Is The Reason' his bile was like a gob in the face of Mountain View. As they did at the Warped show in S.F., members of the band performed most of the set from The Pit (!) and Frank again got a pit going around the soundboard during 'Gold Dust':

(Vid by Umlaut)

Note the kid ON CRUTCHES who jumps in at the 0:18 second mark and then again at the 0:33 mark!! FUCKING AWESOME! Right after this moment, Frank stopped the song because he was annoyed by all of the photographers standing around the edge of The Pit. I thought he was going to tell them to fuck off or something, but instead he announced that when they started the song back up it would be a photographers only pit... and then he said "Get ready to run!!".. the song kicked back in... and around a dozen people (including Photo Ray), all carrying expensive camera gear, kicked up some dust. HILARIOUS!

Warped Tour at Shoreline was where Umlaut was first punched in the face by the Gallows live assault back in 2007... This was my 5th time seeing the lads and they are one of the greatest live bands I've ever seen.. seriously. It's extremely rare to witness a band who seizes a moment like the Gallows and who can turn a short 30 minute set into an epic experience. They're the type of band that makes me fanatical about Music again. "Bring me famine, bring me death! Bring me more pestilence!"

Dog Bless Gallows!!

Somehow I left the show with a Gallows hoodie and a shirt.. On the way back to the car, some pimply-faced teenagers called us fags. After the show, Photo Ray and I returned to S.F. for an After Show at Toronado for beers and a delicious sausage from next door at Rosamunde as the likes of Mastodon played on the bar's jukebox. Fucking perfect.

SPF 666

The exciting sequel to Swinging On The Gallows Pole and A Rainy Night!

Warped Tour
Pier 30/32, San Francisco
June 26, 2009

Although Umlaut has been going to Warped off and on for years, the recent ones have sort of *required* my attendance due to bizness relationships (Hey Kurt!). At around 9:30AM on this Saturday morning I noticed this Twitter from Gallows:

gallowsofficial we're playing at 11am today on the Hurley stage in San Francisco. Everyone's still asleep hahaha

FUCK ME... Gallows were basically the only band I wanted to see this year!! Thankfully BART was running flawlessy and I made it into the festival site along the S.F. waterfront with 15 minutes to spare before the lads hit the stage. To make things better, S.F. was already starting to bake under this weekend's SPF 666 heatwave! Hot fun in the Summertime.

This was my 4th time seeing Gallows (after Warped 2007, New York City 2007, and Slim's 2008) and it raised the level of my fandom even more. As I've said from Day One: Gallows are the real fucking deal! They just go out and do it, no matter how big or small their audience might be... They take a situation and make it their own... and THAT'S the sign of a great band! It was 11:00AM... most of the kidz were still waiting in line trying to get inside or still at home getting ready for the all day festivities... but Gallows rose to the occasion to serve us a breakfast of mayhem.

At around 11:00AM they launched into 'Friendly Bombs' and the next 30 minutes or so was one of the best sets I've seen a band play all year! After the first 2 songs Frank and his brother Stephen climbed over the barrier and performed the next 4 songs from The Pit amongst the growing crowd of kids. It was awesome... WAY more awesome than the dive into The Pit Frank took at their Bay Area debut at Warped 2007. For their first song amongst the people, Frank changed the lyrics of 'London Is The Reason' to "S.F. is the reason!" Nicely done, lad.

Frank goes over the wall while Stephen waits his turn
(Pic by Umlaut)

As I was watching the performance standing on the barrier I noticed a good number of youngsters pushing their way to the front and being completely oblivious that 2/5 of the band was behind them... yet they dutifully watched the rest of the band perform and not once did I see it register on their faces "Wait a minute... none of the guys onstage are singing.. where is the singer!?" It didn't happen... stupid kidz.. However, the hundreds of kidz who were paying attention became one with the band for the rest of their set, including an awesome crowd participation version of 'Gold Dust' that had Frank directing a pit to circle around the soundboard:

(Vids by Umlaut)

In the 2nd video, note Frank and Stephen in the middle of The Pit... and Stephen taking off and joining The Pit while still playing guitar! EPIC! I fucking love this band so much, man... and, dude, all of that action happened before Noon... and I had only had coffee for breakfast! The tone of my day was thus set. A couple of hours later I was walking backstage and noticed a setlist trampled on the ground and noticed "London" printed on it.. and I immediately knew what band it was and picked it up... SCORE!


"S.F. is the reason!"

After Gallows, my day could have been over but instead I spent the next 6-7 hours walking... walking... walking.. walking trying to check out other bands on the festivals 7-8 stages... walking to go chat with Bizness friends... walking as I waded through the sea of humanity. Thankfully I had Photo Ray and HRC to keep me company for the day.. with guest appearances by Alan, The Man & His Lady, and a literally 10 second appearance by Nikki Blakk.

I'll just go ahead and say it: Warped is for The Kidz and not for an Old Fart like me. I find the vast majority of the bands to be crapola and derivative of other bands who came before them... but the majority of the sold out crowd of around 35,000 kids didn't care since, to quote Poison (which is something I loath to do, but it fits the mindset), "It ain't nothin' but a good time"..

On the other hand, Warped Tour is a branding juggernaut and a celebration of Vans and the company's 43 year (!) history. For the newbies, if you don't know the history of Vans it's a pretty cool one and the people there are some of the coolest and legit folks I know... and this year I was once again introduced to Steve Van Doren (aka VANS) , whose family started the company in 1966... which trips me out. Yes, Vans was started by one person with a vision. Crazy, right? The Van Doren legacy can be seen on the feet of the thousands of kidz at Warped; I always trip on how practically EVERY kid at a Warped Tour show is wearing Vans. Vans are everywhere, and that's a good thing.

Anyway, back to the bands... Aside from the Old Skool Stage, most of the bands were simply 3rd generation versions of one band or another.. but I did spend time watching a few:

D.I.: I swear, at last year's Warped Tour at Shoreline I arrived at the Old Skool Stage just as D.I. were playing 'Richard Hung Himself'... Fast forward to 2009 in S.F. and as I arrived at the Old School Stage, D.I. were playing 'Richard Hung Himself' again. Weird.

Dommin: I've missed seeing this band twice over the past year, but seeing their dramatic Gothy selves in daylight wasn't ideal... However, the band was entertaining and opened with a raw version of their signature song 'My Heart, Your Hands'... but the best part of their set was facilitating a heartwarming HRC > Kristofer Dommin special moment before the set.

Dommin (Pic by Umlaut)

Duane Peters Gunfight: Back at the Old Skool Stage, I had no idea who this band was and had to ask the kid standing in front of me ("Gee Mister... Why, it's the Duane Peters Gunfight..").. The band is fronted by pro skater Duane Peters and they were straight up old school Punk Rock with 6 members including a guitarist who was dead ringer for a more road-weary Ron Wood. Their 3 guitar attack and seasoned musicianship made them stand out amongst all the newbie band pretenders. Me likey.

Bad Religion: I've seen Bad Religion so many times... same as it ever was... I've never really been a fan.. so there you go... Took some pics from the Photo Pit.. Then a mean security person told us to leave despite our VIP passes.. Whatever, Little Napoleon!

TSOL: Again at the Old Skool Stage... The last time I saw TSOL they were playing the Old Skool Stage at last year's Warped and I had exactly the same thought all over again: THAT'S the band in Suburbia?! Darker my love.....

Adolescents: Still at the Old Skool Stage, it was funny how I still know the lyrics to 'Amoeba' after all these years. Also, one of the guitarists looked exactly like a guy I used to work with in the Lock 'N Loll Biz... and it was tripping me out.. and not in a good way.

In This Moment: They basically were playing on a small flatbed truck with the Ernie Ball logo on it. Unfortunately, Maria Brink's dimensions were more impressive than their songs. After a song and a half it was time to wander around some more...

Flipper: No Krist Novoselic on bass this time around. The last time I saw Flipper they were sloppy and great at The Fillmore. This time they were a bit tighter.. and they played 'Sacrifice'.. but I didn't enjoy them as much for some reason... and I said goodbye to the Old Skool Stage and didn't stick around for The Dickies again this year; I probably should have at least stayed to hear 'Gigantor'.. Oh well.

Shooter Jennings: Waylon's only son on the Warped Tour!? According to the setlist they were supposed to play 6 songs, but one song was crossed out so all we got was 5 tunes... His brand of Country Rock was the perfect alternative to all of the crappy new Punk and Metal bands that had polluted my day; the song 'California Via Tennessee' was the highlight for me. Seeing a band with legit musicians was exactly what I needed late in the afternoon of this hot day. Plus, Shooter looks exactly like his dad..

Shooter Jennings (Pic by Umlaut)

Black Tide: This was my 4th time seeing these Metal youngsters (when their debut album came out last year the band ranged in age from a mere 14 to 19 years old).. Long story short, although I liked their album, I have not been impressed with the band onstage at all. That being said, this time around Black Tide were better... more seasoned.. although I was very amused how the band's front kid Gabriel is all tough and inked now and asked the crowd if they liked to "suck cock" and also something about "hairy assholes" (perhaps a homage to San Francisco and it being Gay Pride Weekend...).. I wonder what his Mom would have said if she'd been there to hear her teenage son say such nasty things?! "Gabriel!! You go straight to your tour bus!! And no strippers for you tonight, young man!!" You go, Black Tide kidz! Just start working on your 2nd album already.....

NOFX: For the hell of it, as I made my way to the exit, HRC and I wandered onstage to watch a bit of NOFX. I noticed a large group of people standing near the stage ramp, but we walked past them and up the ramp like we belonged there. Minutes later that side of the stage became jam packed with NOFX's guests and families (including an Asian S.F. Hell's Angel 1% brutha..). After 30 seconds of their first song I decided it was time to go home since I couldn't see shit from that vantage point and I was over wading through the humanity. Bye bye.

THANKS as always to Kurt SuperSix8 for sorting our passes, etc.! He's a host in the truest sense of the term.

Merch audit: There was alot of merch (The End).. On the way back to BART, some pimply-faced teenagers called me a fag. All in all it was a good afternoon to spend outdoors, but that evening I was completely loopy from all the sun, which almost caused me problems while driving through a DUI check point near Casa de Umlaut... Thank dog for sunscreen!

This Week In Music Geek

Gallows are one of Umlaut's favorite bands, not only because they are "The Real Deal" onstage, but because they *get* what being a Music Geek is all about. During their debut album cycle the band released some of the most beautiful 7" singles in recent memory (full color gatefold cardboard sleeves, laser etched vinyl, etc). I also love the band because they're English and they are not afraid to wear that on their sleeves and fly the Union Jack.

In advance of their next album, Grey Britain, the band are ratcheting things up for their Music Geek fans:

The ultimate 'Grey Britain' special edition – pre-order now!

Only 500 will ever be made and each set comes wrapped in a 20" by 30" Grey Britain poster flag and includes:

• CD (13 tracks) / DVD (with full length Grey Britain film)
• Pull-out Frank Carter designed poster
• Exclusive "5 Crowns" T-shirt design
• A set of stills and production shots from the Grey Britain film (x5 - shots vary in each pack)

For info on more Gallows music and merch go to www.gallows.co.uk/store

Also, the band has created a cool online EPK / Ebook to support the new album:

Grey Britain

Click HERE for Umlaut's past rant about the band's records. Click HERE and HERE for Umlaut's past rants about the band's live show.

The lads are on tour in the U.S. this Summer as part of Warped Tour 2009, so be there or be square.. Gallows are one of those rare bands who really do lay it all out there and leave some blood on the stage, either literally or figuratively, at every show. They're one of the truly great live bands going right now, man.

'The Vulture (Act II)'

A Rainy Night

Gallows
Slim's, San Francisco
January 24, 2008

Slough, England is associated with two of Umlaut's favorite things in recent years: The original UK version of The Office and Gallows. Six months ago in this space, after seeing Gallows on the Warped Tour, Umlaut made this bold statement:

"I predict that within 6 months, hundreds of the Mt. View kidz who were strolling around the concession area while Gallows played will claim they saw the band at Warped 2007 (LIARS!!)."

Now, 6 months after that Warped show my prediction seems half-baked... Judging from the less than half full attendance at Slim's, the hype surrounding the Gallows last Summer has given way to the pathetic reality of Music these days: Alot of kids would rather wank off playing Guitar Hero than leave the safety of their futon to seek out new and meaningful bands in a setting where they might get punched.

(Trivia: Hey kids! The Gallows song 'In The Belly Of A Shark' is featured on Guitar Hero III...)

Umlaut is an old fart, but Gallows are the type of band I would have been fanatical about when I was in my teens: They are angry, genuine, and English. Hell, I'm practically fanatical about them now and I'm old enough to know better... Although I was able to see the band twice last year (at Warped and again in NYC supporting Bad Religion), the Gallows' debut headlining tour of the U.S. was still something for me to look forward to at the start of this year.

Of course, this night could easily have been "Stay At Home Night" for Umlaut, given the fact that the weather sucked and Miatomic had come over to Casa de Umlaut for a lovely dinner followed by quality hang time with Skychick and the Umlaut Menagerie. However, Umlaut is a professional and I rolled the Prius out of its docking bay a bit past 9:30PM. Thanks to Umlaut friend Ray for texting me which opening band was onstage so I could time my arrival as close to Gallows time as possible.

It's not often Umlaut finds a Men's Room urinal at a club covered in puke and blood, but that's exactly what Slim's offered me tonight; I'm guessing that isn't something the kids playing Guitar Hero have to deal with very often. Anyway, I thought that lovely image was an indication of how hardcore (dude!) the evening was going to be. I was wrong.

As the lads swaggered onstage and threw the opening punch of 'Friendly Bombs', the crowd should have erupted into a molten frenzy... but instead the "audience" was amazingly tepid. Was it because of the cold and rainy weather? Was it because it was a Thursday school night? I was, like, "WTF?"

It's not often that the singer of a band says "We played L.A. last night and I fell off the lighting rig and hurt myself badly...".. but that's exactly what Frank Gallows said to explain his unusually tentative nature onstage; he was in obvious pain. The confessional moment was punctuated by someone in the crowd shouting "C'MON ENGLAND!!!" and I half expected the punters to start whistling 'The Great Escape'.. but it didn't happen. Frank didn't look like he was in any condition for a kickabout anyway.

Later in the set, the band stopped 'Abandon Ship' to see why a guy was getting manhandled out of the club by security.. Frank was halfway off the stage to stop the injustice when he was informed that the guy had evidently punched a girl.. "He was fighting a girl?? I ain't getting off the stage for that.." said Frank.. and the band launched back into the song. Nice. If there's a song called 'Fighting A Girl In San Francisco' on the next Gallows album you'll know what inspired it.

Later still, and despite his injuries, Frank managed to leave the stage and climb onto the bar to sing the Limey version of Black Flag's 'Nervous Breakdown' and their own classic 'Sick Of Feeling Sick' (Umlaut's fave Gallows song BTW) . Umlaut has been seeing gigs at Slim's since it opened in 1988 and I've never seen anyone work the crowd from atop the bar before. Nice. Frank's quintessentially British sense of humor was in full flight when he incited the crowd to get a circle pit going after pointing out that the sign next to the stage only said "No Stage Diving, Moshing, Or Crowd Surfing" but it didn't say anything about "Jogging" or "Running"... Hilarious.

However, despite all of that tomfoolery from the band, I have to say again how tepid the crowd was.. If it hadn't been for the band's charisma and angry passion the show would have been pathetic. It was the type of show that separates the shite bands from the great bands; you find out alot about a band by how they react to adversity like injuries and a lackadaisical crowd. Gallows are one of Umlaut's favorite bands because, instead of pandering to a lame situation, they still attack their performance as if it's all they have to live for... and at this point in their lives that just might be true. A fookin' gleat band, dontchaknow.

Another positive to the evening was that Umlaut's Old Metal ex-patriot friend Brad was back in town from the Czech Republic and able to add his .02 cents (how much is that in Czech money?) about the gig just like old times:

"I couldn't help but wonder what the deal was with the passive crowd. A few light bumps that wouldn't count as fouls in a basketball game. I've seen harsher pits when Bjork played at The Polo Fields 7 or 8 years ago, and that was to an Army of Me remix.. Sheesh. Yeah, singer was in legit pain.. He may have taken a slug of something before hand, but he was clearly not able to give the performance he wanted to. Major props to him for standing on the bar, hanging by the chandelier.. 20+ years at Slim's shows and I've never seen that."

Thanks Brad.. Godspeed, you magnificent bastard.

Number of people wearing Iron Maiden merch = 1 (Umlaut.... dork!). If you bought one of every Gallows merch item you would have paid around $150. On the way back to the car, some pimply-faced teenagers called me a fag. When I got home I ate a bowl of cereal and thought that my autographed Gallows poster will probably be just as "valuable" as my 1982 Raven autographed poster someday. That sound you're hearing is 95% of the readers of this space asking "Who?"

(From the Umlaut Archives)

Swinging On The Gallows Pole

The exciting addendum to This Week In Music Geek: Gallows!

Gallows
Warped Tour
Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mt. View, CA
July 1, 2007

For most of this year, Umlaut has been reading and hearing the hype about the hot shit new English punk band Gallows. NME raved that the band is "the antithesis of safe rock, the kind of band who actually matters" and colleagues of mine across The Pond who had seen the band live raved about 'em too. Also, the manager of one of my all-time favorite bands told me just last week that Gallows are "the real deal" after he saw them in concert.

The band's debut album (Orchestra Of Wolves) has been out in England since last September but isn't due for Stateside release for another week (a high profile drop by Epitaph no less). However, Umlaut illegally downloaded the album awhile back 'cause I couldn't wait (and I didn't want to pay $$ for the import).

I was caught up in the band's immediacy and their vibe of genuine English anger fueled by the usual suspects (heartbreak, broken families, society, etc. etc. etc.). They also have one of my favorite recent song titles with 'Will Someone Shoot That Fucking Snake' ("snake" as in a deceitful person, not the reptile..).. When this year's edition of the Warped Tour was announced my eyes were immediately drawn to "Gallows" in the lineup; "Fuck Yeah!" I said to no one in particular.

The absolute best bands don't fuck around, and Gallows don't fuck around.. They hit the stage at 5:30pm and immediately launched into their single 'Abandon Ship' and it was like my legs had a mind of their own and I found myself down front and as close to the stage as I could squeeze.. and I sang along with the lads: "The S.S. Death lost everything, no one here can fucking swim!!"

I was curious to see how the hot shit new English punk band would go over with a suburban American crowd who, for the most part, had no clue who they were... The initial reaction seemed to be "I can't understand the singer's accent, so I'm just gonna stand here".. However, a more telling indication of the crowd's "cred" came when Gallows introduced a song they said was a tribute to this, their first tour of America, and to the Yank bands who influenced them (or something like that) and they blasted into a great cover of Black Flag's 'Nervous Breakdown'... and NONE of the kidz seemed to know the song... Shocking!

The best part of the set was when Ted unintentionally knocked Frank Gallows down in The Pit! At one point, obviously bored with the somewhat indifferent crowd response, the singer dove into the crowd mid-song in the best Iggy tradition as the rest of the band kept the fire burning onstage.

Frank Gallows Dives - Mt. View (Pic by Umlaut)

After this dramatic gesture, Frank Gallows ended up on his feet and tried to get a pit going, but as he started he ran right into Ted (who was trying to get out of his way) and he went flying across the ground. Hilarious, right? Displaying proper Old School pit etiquette, Ted moved quickly and helped young Mr. Gallows to his feet and sent him back in the direction of the stage. Once he got back onstage, Frank Gallows (sporting fresh road rash on his back) called the crowd "a buncha pussies" and dedicated the next song to whoever knocked him down and picked him up. Hilarious, right? Nicely done, Ted.

The lads closed their Bay Area debut with their "proper" love song 'In The Belly Of A Shark' and I was happy to hear a kid standing behind me singing along; at least there are some kids who still buy import records (or at least download the cool import stuff illegally). Maybe there's hope for the youth of America after all.

I predict that within 6 months, hundreds of the Mt. View kidz who were strolling around the concession area while Gallows played will claim they saw the band at Warped 2007 (LIARS!!). Gallows are the type of band you gotta see now, 'cause they won't be able to sustain the angry energy forever. Hey, I'm just speaking the truth, dude... but Gallows ARE the real fucking deal. Anger is an energy for sure, like, totally. It's not often that you see a band with *that* look of hunger and almost desperate motivation in their eyes; day jobs are not an option for this lot. The real fucking deal...

I spaced on doing a merch audit, but a copy of the Gallows CD was only 10 bucks and included a handful of promo decals. On the way back to the car, some pimply-faced teenagers called me a fag. I did my Music Geek duty and had the lads sign a Orchestra Of Wolves promo poster after their set, which will look nice in my new office when I move into it... since a day job is my only option.

"So here I lie, in the belly of a shark... so fucking cold.. so fucking dark.."

This Week In Music Geek

Umlaut loves 7" singles. Loves. Them.

Recently, the hot shit new English punk band Gallows unleashed their new single 'Abandon Ship' in 3 different versions: CD single, black vinyl 7" single (B-Side = a cover of Black Flag's 'Nervous Breakdown'), AND a one-sided 7" single with one side etched.

Ohmigod, the one-sided 7" single with the etching is one of the most beautiful Music Geek things I've ever seen:



Is it possible for a man to love a 7" inch piece of vinyl from England? Yes. Yes it is.