Friday 08/12/06 MC5, Gallows @ The Barfly, Liverpool

 

The gig about to take place tonight was not one anyone in the seedy but oh-so-cool underbelly of the barfly known as the Masque Theatre, was going to take lightly (It was the bloody MC5 for Pete’s sake!) so needless to say there were fans who had obviously been there from back in the 69-72 heydays making an appearance tonight, and it wasn’t so much that expectations were too high, the question on everybody’s lips tonight was ‘Could they actually pull off a decent gig?’…

Exploding onto the stage was support act Gallows. The Watford five and-a-bit piece shook the hell out of the meandering crowd, leaving the punters covered in spit sweat and all manner of things horribly wrong. Their music rattled the foundations of the barfly with its hardcore, thrashy, anarcho punk aesthetic that was fantastically original and more so vitriolic than the woul- be punk bands of today. Pounding through fantastic tracks such as ‘In The Belly Of A Shark’ with it’s immense riffage and larynx busting vocals, and the ferocious title track off their full length LP ‘Orchestra Of Wolves’ (to name but two) Gallows proved to be one of the best live supporting acts to grace a stage in Liverpool in a long time. One can only hope they’ll be playing their own show here sometime soon.

It was then time for tonight’s main event…the three surviving members of MC5 - Kramer, Thompson and Davis, walked out onto a stage ready to rock ‘n’ roll. Of course it would take anyone by surprise as to how they look nowadays, as previous lives involving drugs charges and prison sentences obviously took their toll on the infamous musicians, and they definitely didn’t impress some of the lesser educated fans down the front who sure enough moved away once the rollicking up-starter of a song ‘Ramblin Rose’ rang out through the venue. MC5 gigs back in the late 60’s and early seventies consisted of political ramblings juxtaposed with the jamming out of good time rock n’ roll emphasising on the free flowing mentality that came with drugs and music, however tonight was sure enough not one of those nights.

 

The MC5 seemed to be enjoying themselves, but it was so contrived it was almost embarrassing. Of course they had the hits to go through, but there was no feeling behind it, just a bunch of guys going through the motions whilst the kids moshed at the front of the stage. Commendations go to guest vocalist Mark Arm from Mudhoney thrashing his voice about and getting involved with the mystique once associated with the band through ‘Starship’, but it just wasn’t enough. They came across like a cover band booked for an MC5 sound-a-like show. ‘High School’ and ‘Shakin Street’ got almost no crowd reaction as the bands second album had obviously not appeared in most of the punters collection, but everybody held a brave face and grinned and bore the brunt of bad songs, just waiting for the likes of ‘Come Together’ and, of course, ‘Kick Out The Jams’.

Their last and best song of the evening (that is before the contrived encore) was to be ‘Rocket Reducer No.62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)’ that saw Kramer entice the crowd into some light hearted sing-a-long antics that was cheesy and overly unnecessary as a contrived ending that warranted sympathetic cooperation rather than awe inspiring crowd appreciation was a horrible finish to a good song.

In the end of it all the MC5 played to a mish mash of punters, some old fans and some new, but one could only say after walking away from tonight’s gig; remember them for who they were, not what they are now.