Gallon Drunk – Live at Clouds Hill

Clouds Hill

For those who have waited for a recent live document of Gallon Drunk, I’ll say it’s halfway there. As a part of the Clouds Hill live 10” series, only five songs fits on this white vinyl record and the good thing is that the fans can stay hungry for more. As this is a continuum of last years The Road Gets Darker From Here, with tracks from the said album, it is also a link to the ’90s version of Gallon Drunk with two songs from the album From The Heart Of Town (1993).

As expected, this live recording is a blast of a document of the band’s powerful, energetic and rough performance. James Johnston sings like a true rock’n’roll hero, Terry Edwards pushes his saxophone, at times shredding it to sonic pieces and Ian White pounds away steady as a rock. Johnston proves he masters his guitar outside the studio as well, and the powerful organs in between fits the music like a glove.

The songs come out as a mix of soul, blues and punk-jazz as is usual with Gallon Drunk. They are powerful rock’n’roll tracks and when “The Big Breakdown” is swinging, it makes my feet move. “You Should Be Ashamed” goes in every direction from slow and dark to hard-hitting, fast-pounding and back again, and into something that touches a free, but structured part. It is a mood swinging record! And when they do “Killing Time”, they sure sound like they are having fun doing just that, and proves they are a powerful live band well worth seeing. Come see me!

-Ronny Wærnes-