Russell Hughes@Newcastle Think Tank?, July 31 2015
If you go on the Gallery Circus website, you’ll be confronted by the power of mother earth: hurricanes and whirlwinds populate the home page. And that’s fitting because this band are a force of nature and they’re sweeping through a town near you soon.
The Tyneside twins swept away the Think Tank? crowd with a band of energetic rock and roll that is bound to move the band onto bigger and better things. They have already played at Glastonbury but are a little light on material, which means they are a little limited when it comes to the length of the set. But what they lack in duration they more than make up for in effort.
They might not have a lot of accessible material – not even a commercially available EP yet – but Gallery Circus have gathered an impressive following nevertheless. Among their most well known songs are Supercell and Hollywood Drip and both received an energetic reaction from the crowd, especially the former as it was used as the last song before the encore.
Graeme and Daniel Ross play music with an irresistible energy that sweeps the whole crowd along with them – drummer Graeme broke five drumsticks during 40 minutes of feverish playing, while his twin Daniel swept across the stage like a whirling dervish intent on covering every inch of the ground.
To the twins, everything is an instrument and anything can be played. At several points during the set, Graeme uses the ceiling to hammer out a rhythm and even live, the vocals are crystal clear and pin sharp. Daniel has an excellent vocal range which is just one of the reasons why Gallery Circus have such a great sound. And when that comes across live it really helps the band nail that sound.
Everything about this band is pointing them towards bigger things, and if this gig on a Friday night in Tyneside is anything to go by it won’t be long before Gallery Circus are entertaining sizeable crowds across the country.
Russell Hughes