Two Gallants - London, UK - Autumn 2006
By: Chris Pratt
Watching Adam Stephens and Tyson Vogel soundcheck is an enlightening experience. Not for them the slouched shoulders, dazed expressions and half-hearted run-throughs tainted by increasing contempt for the sound guy that most bands settle for - instead Stephens' six-string and Vogel's minimal kit are given the kind of intense workout one would normally associate with a 'real' performance. It's this inherent respect and passion for the songs they're playing that is the engine behind Two Gallants' gruelling touring schedule - since releasing their exemplary sophomore effort 'What The Toll Tells' on the highly regarded Nebraska-based independent, Saddle Creek, they've had precious little time off. "Life on the road has somewhat lost the majesty it used to have when we started," laments singer and guitarist Stephens, "but playing shows is still just as much fun, just as important."
If there's one thing this pair know about, it's playing live - having been in bands together since the age of 12 (they first met in kindergarten aged 5), they came together as Two Gallants in 2002 when Vogel left "a pretty heavy band" to rejoin Stephens who was playing by himself doing "quieter stuff." When questioning them about their involvement in the San Francisco music scene around that time one senses a strong nostalgia for a time when they were part of a strong underground network and had more time to be hands on with things like gig booking. As Vogel says, "It's kinda unfortunate in some ways that we don't have as much time for things like house shows but we do it whenever we get a chance. It's important to us. It's sort of what we grew up on and it seems to be the most natural setting for us, being on the same plane as the people who are listening." Stephens adds "I feel a slight detachment from a lot of things that are going on [in San Francisco], because we've been doing our own thing for the last three years. It was kinda different before we started touring so much, we were back home playing with all these different bands in the city every night - we were kinda part of a scene at that point." Luckily 'Frisco's loss has been the rest of the music world's gain, but does their home town still have a big influence on them? "A lot more than people think," says Adam, "I think it's hard to understand for people who haven't been there - it's more of a subconscious thing."
Their time playing out regularly in the Bay Area led to Alive Records putting out their first effort, the splendid, barbed folk of 'The Throes' which in turn created a buzz which prompted courtships from a number of labels. They plumped for Saddle Creek, the home of Bright Eyes and Cursive. "They were the most down-to-earth people," recalls Vogel, "they didn't try to impress us with large dinners or 'what they could do for us.'" The first fruits of this partnership, 'What The Toll Tells,' has rightfully been a big hit amongst indie connoisseurs on both side of the Atlantic, though Stephens' view that "Live is where we belong," has been proved by the fact that most of their headway has been made on the road rather than in the studio.
Their comfort in the live setting is evident throughout tonight's raucous headline set, as tracks from both records are given new twists and turns in this exemplary London Scala show. From 'What The Toll Tells', the gentle thump of 'Steady Rollin' becomes an air-punching, drunken sing-a-long and the frustrated, desperate melodies of 'Las Cruces Jail' are cranked up to breakneck speed. From 'The Throes', the waltz-time, ragged glory of 'My Madonna' proves to be another gin-soaked, closing-time anthem, whilst 'Two Days Short Tomorrow' is viciously thrashy noise, surprising those who were expecting a more restrained performance to suit the band's admittedly ill-fitting indie-folk reputation. The only disappointment was the absence of the huge 'Waves Of Grain,' but, then again, there are only so many nine minute epics you can squeeze into an hour long set.
Due to its blanket coverage elsewhere in the indie music press, it didn't seem necessary to dwell too long on the band's recent run in with the lawmen of Texas (in brief, an officer investigating a noise complaint turned up at a gig and the resulting confrontation ended in Vogel being tased to high heaven then locked up for the night, whilst Stevens was chased through the streets of Houston by a police chopper), but according to Vogel, "Everything is still pending - they've charged us with certain things. Luckily the judge we got is pretty open to new things so he allowed [the hearing] to be postponed 'til two days after we get back from tour." The amount of support they've received from fans, including many eyewitness accounts, must have been reassuring. "Yeah, and a lot of film and photos have come in that illuminate the falsification of what the police are saying." Vogel is quick to state that "It's not that we're against police officers, we've had to work with the police at lots of makeshift shows but they've never been close to aggressive." But is it more than just a case of one taser-happy cop? "It's a process that has probably been going on for a long time and will continue to go on, an abuse of authority."
The police force's official statements, in which they place the blame for the violence squarely on the band, seem ludicrous after talking to them about their positively un-rock n' roll on-the-road antics. This is a band who list 'seeing the River Clyde' amongst their tour highlights. As Vogel puts it, "We've been trying to be in the places that we go and to delve into the atmosphere. It's alienating to go to a place and not have any form of reference of what you're being confronted with when you step on stage. It'd be a shame to sit on the bus with your headphones on." Do they think that the history and culture they've experienced on their travels have informed their music? "I don't really think about it," offers Stephens bluntly, "There's a certain amount of appeal they have to everybody - we do live outside the music." Flicking through some of his lyrics, you'd hope for his sake that Stephens really does live outside the darkness and desperation they so frequently portray, and sure enough during our talk he's a gently spoken, good-natured chap. There is, nevertheless, one point during tonight's performance when he extends a mid-song pause so that he can fix one of the most mean-eyed, withering stares I have ever witnessed on a thoroughly deserving, crowd surfing drunkard, which gives a glimpse of the deep shadow Stephens can draw upon to create his songs.
Scrawling a line from the delta blues and mountain music of the thirties and earlier through the folk revival of the sixties to the visceral shock of punk and the catharsis of hardcore, Two Gallants reveal an unbroken thread of musical rebellion running through the decades and seamlessly combine these influences for a modern-day audience. Not since Johnny Cash's prime have we been treated to such well-drawn tales of all-American woe - murder, love, alcohol, (a damning of ) racism and serving time all rear their heads in Stephens' stories, steeped in the dark, vibrant history of his nation. But to see Two Gallants as anachronistic, wild-west throwbacks (as some parts of the music press have done) is selling them unbelievably short. "I think that's kinda one-sided, not seeing the whole picture," says Stephens, "There's a couple of songs that have a bit of an outlaw style to them, but that's maybe three songs among fifty or sixty we have. I don't really care very much about what people say, neither of us get too upset about it. I mean, the influences are there but I like to think we are doing something different with them. A lot of bands these days are picking up on traditional music. Some bands think that playing a banjo on a record is all they need to do to cover all the bases for having traditional influences; we're trying to go a little further with it."
Trying and succeeding. Here's to Two Gallants for bringing American folk music kicking and screaming into the modern age in all its true, brutal glory.
Photo Credit: Josh Pollen
Artists in this article: Two Gallants